Szechuan Chicken is a crispy, spicy Chinese takeout dish that's tossed with onions and peppers to create a quick weeknight dinner. Short ingredient list, fast prep, this is a weeknight dinner winner.
400gramschickenboneless skinless, cut into 1 inch pieces
2tablespoonCornflour
2tablespoonRice Flouror All Purpose Flour
1teaspoonGinger Garlic Pasteminced ginger and garlic in equal parts
1.5teaspoonlight Soy Sauce
1teaspoonChilli Powderor paprika
2tablespoonOil for frying
Stir Fry
2tablespoonOil
1tablespoonchopped Ginger
1tablespoonchopped Garlic
2-3whole dried Red Chillies
1medium Onioncut into petals
¼cupGreen Capsicum squaresgreen bell pepper
¼cupRed Capsicum squaresred bell pepper
2-3tablespoonSzechuan Sauce
1teaspoonSugar
1teaspoonlight Soy Sauce
2tablespoonCornflouror cornstarch
¾cupWater
½teaspoonSaltoptional - taste and adjust
½teaspoonPepperoptional
1tablespoonChopped Spring Onions for garnishing
Instructions
In a mixing bowl, add chicken, soy sauce, ginger garlic paste, corn flour, rice flour and chilli powder and mix well. Cover and set aside to marinate for at least 20 minutes or up to an hour.
Heat oil for frying in a kadhai or frying pan. Ensure there is enough oil to fully submerge and deep fry the chicken. Add the chicken and deep fry for about 5-4 minutes until crispy and brown. Make sure to flip the chicken a few times through the frying process. It is important to drop the chicken pieces one by one into the oil so they do not stick to each other.
To start stir frying, heat oil in a wok or kadai. Once the oil is hot, add chopped ginger, garlic and dried red chillies and saute for a minute or two till fragrant.
Add onions and bell peppers and saute on high heat for 2 minutes.
Add the fried chicken and toss to combine. Add schezwan sauce, sugar and light soy sauce and saute for a minute.
Mix together cornflour and water to make a slurry. Add this to a wok and keep tossing to combine well till the sauce simmers and chicken looks glossy.
Season with salt and pepper, if necessary.. Garnish with chopped spring onions and serve hot!
Video
Notes
Make sure to marinate the chicken for at least 20 minutes or up to 2 hours. Helps to flavour the chicken from inside-out.
It is best to cook Indo-Chinese food in a wok on high heat for that distinct restaurant-style smokey flavour. If you don’t have a wok, you can use a frying pan or kadai.
Prep and cut everything before you start cooking. Once things start going into the wok, this recipe needs to be cooked fast on high heat. So, you won’t have any time to cut and prep.
To retain the crunch of the chicken and veggies, make sure to serve it immediately after cooking.
Restaurants use red food colouring to achieve that bright red colour, but you can easily skip this at home. Add a little Kashmiri red chilli powder to achieve similar results.