We may have never liked and thanked China so much for any other fast food, as much for giving us Chilli Chicken, which is today one of the most demanded dishes for its contentedly delicious spiciness. However, Kolkata-Style Chilli Chicken is a notch up from regular ones for it combines the authentic recipe steeped in Kolkata style, thanks to the Chinatown of the city. The boneless chicken pieces soaked in soya sauce and egg mixture and coated with breadcrumbs like flour mix make the chicken pieces extremely crunchy and juicy with the sauce and eggs. Red chilli wine and Chinese cooking wine are the rare but essential ingredients added for making the original Chilli Chicken. What is even more interesting, is the short cooking time of this fast food.
Chilli Chicken And Its Journey To India
To begin with, Chilli chicken is a popular Indo-Chinese dish of chicken of Hakka Chinese heritage. And yes, you heard it right Chilli Chicken is considered an Indo-Chinese dish. It's today so seamlessly incorporated from our food binge choices to the menu of restaurants, that it seems like an ever-existent part of our cuisine. A look at Chilli Chicken’s journey of assimilation and popularity makes everything clear.
Well, the dish was born in the Chinatown of Calcutta in the 18th century as a by-product of the huge influx of Chinese workers-cum-immigrants thronging the city. The thriving tea and silk trade carried out by the British drew and sometimes forced many Chinese to hoard in the city, where they transmitted their cuisine too. From Chinatown, this dish spread to Tangra in Kolkata, also known as the second Chinatown. The dish over time incorporated spices, sauces and veggies catering to Indian sensibilities and hence came to be called Indo-Chinese. It mainly has boneless chicken pieces, but at times bone-in chicken pieces are used too.
Preparation: 1 hour
Cooking: 25 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
• 250 gm boneless chicken thigh (3-cm cubes)
For Marinade:
• 15 gm egg white of half an egg
• 15 gm dark soy sauce
• 10 gm Chinese cooking wine
• 2 gm ginger paste
• 2 gm garlic paste
• 3 gm salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 pinch of king soda
• 12 gm cornflour
For coating chicken:
• ¼ cup or 30 gm cornflour
• ¼ cup or 30 gm all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• 3 gm salt
For the sauce:
• 20 gm vegetable oil
• 2 pcs dried red chillies
• 75 gm onions (3-cm squares)
• 50 gm capsicum (3-cm squares)
• 5 gm ginger (finely chopped)
• 5 gm garlic (finely chopped)
• 10 gm green chillies (2-2 mm thick, cut on the bias)
• 8 gm dark soy sauce
• 8 gm light soy sauce
• 10 gm Chinese cooking wine
• 10 gm vinegar
• 20 gm tomato ketchup
• 15 gm red chilli sauce
• 75 gm chicken stock or water
• 1 pinch MSG
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 2 gm salt
• 20 gm sugar
• Approx. 200 ml oil for frying
• Spring onions (for garnish)
Method:
• Firstly, cut the chicken into about 3 cm cubes and set it aside.
• Make a marinade for the chicken by mixing all the ingredients. Use half of this mixture for marinating chicken cubes. Let it marinate for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, chop and cut all the vegetables.
• Prepare the sauce mixture by mixing tork soy, light soy, Chinese cooking wine, vinegar, ketchup, red chilli sauce, salt, pepper, MSG and chicken stock in the above-mentioned proportions and keep it aside.
• Prepare the cornflour slurry by mixing ½ tsp cornflour and 1 tsp water and set aside.
• Heat wok, add vegetable oil and let it smoke. Then add dried red chillies, followed by onions and capsicum. Fry on high heat for a minute and add sugar. Cook with the sugar for a minute, until slightly caramelised to get a sticky sauce typical of Chilli Chicken.
• Then add ginger and green chillies, and fry for 30 seconds, then add garlic and fry for another 30 seconds. Now introduce the mixture of sauces prepared earlier. Stir it, and when it comes to a boil, add the cornflour slurry and turn off the heat.
• Now for coating, the chicken pieces, prepare a mixture of cornflour, flour, salt and baking powder. Then add the remaining half of the sauce mixture saved earlier into it and mix well to resemble bread crumbs
• Coat the chicken pieces well into the flour mixture and deep fry until golden and crisp.
• Heat the pan containing sauces and veggies, add the fried chicken pieces to it and toss to coat.
• Garnish with spring onions and serve with Fried rice.
Set your heart to this amazingly hot, spicy and quickly-made Kolkata-Style Chilli Chicken bowl. It's your regular Chilli Chicken with a tinge of newness and originality at the same time. Chinese cooking wine and Red chilli oil are optional but can be added for getting a quintessential Chilli Chicken.