Restaurant Style Chilli Chicken Gravy
Chilli chicken gravy is a popular Indo-Chinese restaurant-style dish with crispy fried chicken tossed in a spicy, savory, and tangy sauce. It is ready in 30 minutes and uses simple ingredients like soy sauce, bell peppers or capsicum, and aromatic spices. Serve with egg fried rice, egg hakka noodles, or steamed rice. For a dry version, try my chilli chicken recipe. Learn how to make this dish easily at home with step-by-step photos and a quick video tutorial.
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 277kcal
Ingredients
For marinating the chicken
- 300 g boneless skinless chicken breasts/thighs cut into1-inch cubes
- 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder optional
- salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon light soya sauce (low sodium preferred)
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- ½ egg white (from 1 egg)
For the batter
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch/corn flour
- 3 tablespoon maida (all-purpose flour)
For making the chili chicken gravy
- 2 teaspoon oil
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
- 2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
- 3 tablespoon spring onion whites
- 2 tablespoon spring onion greens
- ¼ cup red bell pepper, cut into cubes (red capsicum)
- ¼ cup green bell pepper, cut into cubes (green capsicum)
- ¼ cup onions, cut into cubes
- 2 green chilies, (add as per taste)
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
For the sauce
- 2 tablespoon light soya sauce (low sodium)
- 2 teaspoon red chili sauce
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 tablespoon tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- salt to taste
To make corn flour slurry (used in making gravy)
- 1 tablespoon corn flour
- 1 cup water
Instructions
Preparations
- Marinate the chicken - In a mixing bowl, combine chicken, salt, pepper, Kasmiri red chili powder, ginger-garlic paste, vinegar, egg white and soy sauce. Marinate for 30 minutes.
- For the sauce - To a small mixing bowl, combine light soy sauce, red chili sauce, black pepper, tomato ketchup and vinegar. You can taste it and adjust the seasoning as per your taste. Set this aside.
- Finely chop the ginger and garlic. Cut the onions and capsicum in cubes and set it aside.
- Keep all the sauces and spices ready.
Frying the chicken
- Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan over medium heat.
- Add flour to the marinated chicken. Combine it well. If needed, you can add one more tablespoon of all-purpose flour or cornstarch. Not more than that, we do not need a thick coating on the chicken.
- Add the chicken pieces to the hot oil. Do not stir immediately. Let it fry for a minute.
- Gently stir and fry until it is golden and crisp. Remove it to a plate line with paper towel.
Making the chilli chicken gravy recipe
- Heat 2 teaspoon of oil in a deep bottom pan over medium heat.
- Add ginger, garlic, spring onion whites and green chillies.Stir-fry it for 30 seconds.
- Next, add green bell pepper, red bell pepper and onioncubes. Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the prepared sauce-mix and stir to combine.
- Next, add the fried chicken and combine. Dry chilli chicken is ready.
- Give a quick stir to the cornflour slurry and add it to the pan. Stir continuously until the gravy thickens.
- Add 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional) and combine. Taste the gravy and adjust the seasoning. Remove from heat. Garnish with spring onion greens. Serve hot and enjoy.
Video
Notes
- Marinate the chicken for about 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. It will make the chicken pieces more juicer and flavorful.
- While frying the chicken, make sure the oil is not too hot. If you drop the batter in the oil, it should come up immediately but should not get brown quickly.
- Do not over-fry the chicken. It will make the chicken pieces hard.
- If the oil is not hot enough then the chicken will absorb oil while deep frying it.
- Be careful while adding cornflour slurry to the pan. Stir it continuously to avoid lumps.
- Addition of Kashmiri red chili powder while marinating the chicken is optional. It gives a bright red color to the dish.
- If you do not have vinegar then replace it with lemon juice.
- All the sauces especially soya sauce have salt in them. Take care while adding salt to the recipe.
- If you are making it for kids, do not add green chili to the recipe.
- Do not make this dish ahead of time. It should be prepared and served immediately or else it will not remain crisp.
- The addition of dark soy sauce is optional. When you add cornflour slurry, the gravy becomes light in color. To enhance the color, dark soy sauce is added.
Nutrition
Calories: 277kcal