Chilli chicken Dry is a popular Indo-Chinese dish of diced crispy chicken in a spicy Chinese flavoured sauce. Succulent chicken coated in a batter and fried until crisp and then tossed in a garlicky chilli luscious sauce- one bite and you would definitely be reaching out for more.
Of course, Indian Chinese is an amalgamation of Chinese ingredients with Indian taste buds and quite different to quite the authentic Chinese food, but it is utterly comforting, and warming food. It is the food we grew up eating in India and truth be told that’s what we thought, was the Chinese food until we started travelling abroad and realised that the Chinese, we love is our Indianized version. Indo- Chinese food is fantastically delicious and it is the fruit of two regions of the world working together by combining the techniques and flavours to produce a very loved cuisine.
If there is one thing, at the top of my husband’s list for India trip then it has to be Chilli Chicken. He needs a fix of chilli chicken once every 2 weeks and since he can’t be travelling to India every couple of weeks, I started cooking it with the quest to perfect the flavour so he can satisfy his craving sitting at home. Chilli Chicken can be found on all Indian menus from the street side vendor to the top Michelin restaurants. All serving crispy chicken in a spicy, sour, salty garlicky sauce. This quick and simple chicken starter is perfect for Friday evenings or weekends. It definitely tastes better than most takeaways and is so satisfying to make.
If you have never had this dish before then definitely try it out. If you enjoy Indo-Chinese dishes like Chilli Paneer, Chinese Style Crispy vegetables then you will probably enjoy this dish as well. It uses the Chinese takeout technique of ‘deep-frying and tossing it in a thick sauce to coat it’ that most of us are very familiar with but uses a dark spicy chilli sauce instead of the usual sweeter sauces. This recipe is a dry chilli chicken version, however, if you prefer the gravy version of chilli chicken then just triple up the sauce recipe to make gravy.
If you like Indo-Chinese flavours then you might also like Chilli Baby Corn, Chilli Water Chestnut, Crispy Chilli Corn, Asian Chilli Garlic Prawns, and Chinese Bhel to name a few.
