Spicy Szechuan Chicken

Szechuan Chicken served on a white plate with a fork

5 from 2 votes

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.

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Total Time30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American Chinese, Indian Chinese

Servings: people

Author: Richa

Ingredients

Marinade

400 grams chicken boneless skinless, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 tbsp Cornflour
2 tbsp Rice Flour or All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste minced ginger and garlic in equal parts
1.5 tsp light Soy Sauce
1 tsp Chilli Powder or paprika
2 tbsp Oil for frying

Stir Fry

2 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp chopped Ginger
1 tbsp chopped Garlic
2-3 whole dried Red Chillies
1 medium Onion cut into petals
¼ cup Green Capsicum squares green bell pepper
¼ cup Red Capsicum squares red bell pepper
2-3 tbsp Szechuan Sauce
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp light Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Cornflour or cornstarch
¾ cup Water
½ tsp Salt optional - taste and adjust
½ tsp Pepper optional
1 tbsp Chopped 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.

Nutrition