Dried Red Chilli Chicken

This dried red chilli chicken is not fiery! Cooked with onions, soy sauce, and dry chillies low in spicy heat, this is a simple Indo-Chinese preparation.

I love cooking traditional Indian delicacies! We use a variety of spices and seasonings in most of our dishes. The main ingredients vary depending on which part of the country you are in. Indian cuisine has contributed many specialties that are popular globally! Indian cuisine has also inspired many crossover dishes across the globe, like the Chicken Tikka Masala which, it turns out was conceived in the UK.

Similarly, chefs across India have found inspiration from other global cuisines. They adapted some of these recipes rendering their own versions which became desi versions of global favourites. Indian dishes inspired by Chinese preparations have created a flourishing food scene in India. In fact, you wouldn’t find any of these Indo-Chinese delicacies in China. We have our versions of chilli chicken, noodles, Schezwan fried rice, soups, etc. which are popular at Indian restaurants and takeaways.

This dry red chilli chicken is one such attempt. Made with a handful of ingredients, this is a simple, delicious, juicy chicken preparation.

This Asian style chilli chicken is cooked with two main ingredients – soy sauce and dry red chillies. I have used Kashmiri dry red chillies as they have a nice flavour and a very low spicy heat. You could use any other dry chilli which is not too hot.

In this preparation, chicken is marinated in soy sauce and cooked with onions and dry chillies. If you have time you could marinate for 30 minutes or so. But that’s not critical for this dish.

The most important aspect of this chilli chicken is in how the onions are cooked. Thinly sliced onions are slow-cooked by frying in oil on a medium flame till they start to caramelise. A teaspoon of brown sugar is added to the mix to enhance the flavours.

Do you like this chicken recipe? Then you’ll be interested in the following easy recipes as well!

• Easy pan-fried chicken
• Popcorn chicken
• Garlic chicken
• Easy honey-fried chicken

Print Recipe

Dried Red Chilli Chicken

This Asian style dried red chilli chicken is cooked with two main ingredients - soy sauce and dry red chillies which are very low in spicy heat!

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time35 mins

Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Main Dish, Side Dish

Cuisine: Asian

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

• 1/2 kg chicken small pieces
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 3 medium onions thinly sliced
• 1 inch ginger finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 6 dry kashmiri red chillies or any other low heat dry chilli
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• salt
• oil

Instructions

• Clean and cut the chicken into small pieces.
• Add a tablespoon soy sauce and mix well to coat the chicken pieces in the sauce.
• Heat some oil in a pan/wok.
• Add the marinated chicken pieces and fry for 2-3 minutes.
  
• Stir frequently to get all the pieces to sear uniformly.
• Lower the flame, remove the fried chicken and keep it aside.
• Add 1 1/2 tablespoon oil to the pan, and once the oil is hot, add the sliced onions, ginger and garlic.
  
• Cook on a medium flame while stirring frequently.
• When they start turning brown, add the dry red chillies* and mix well.
  
• Cook for 2 minutes. Let the chillies also get fried.
• Now add the chicken pieces back to the pan/wok. Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce, mix well, and cook with the lid closed on a medium flame.
  
• Open the lid after 10 minutes. The chicken must be cooked by now in its juices and the steam.
• Check for salt, add as required, and let it simmer without a lid. Add 1 teaspoon brown sugar.
  
• Cook till all the water evaporates, and the chicken is just moist enough.
• Switch off and serve hot.

Notes

* I removed most of the seeds from the chillies. You could keep them depending on how hot you want your chicken to be.