Chili Chicken

 

 

Indo-Chinese is super popular in India; although I am not quite sure if it holds the same regard in China. In any case, this week-night chicken dish will knock your socks off. It’s savory, it’s bold, it’s hot, and the perfect thing to make when you are craving something that requires little effort.

Chili Chicken is actually an Indo-Chinese concept – you take the holy trinity of  traditional Indian marinade – ginger-garlic paste, turmeric, and chili powder – combine that with soy sauce and wok-cooking and boom! You’ve got yourself a match made in heaven!

I start off by chopping up boneless chicken thighs into bite-size cubes and marinating them in soy sauce, chilli powder, paprika, turmeric, and ginger-garlic paste. Since this is a chili chicken, be generous with the chili powder. If you are a bit of a wimp, you can of course decrease the ratio of chilli powder to paprika which will still give you intense color and flavor without the heat.

 

 

What makes my chili chicken different than some other recipes is that I also add in a finely diced bell pepper and serrano chilie. It adds a little bit of extra sweetness, plus sneaks in some veggies.

 

Next is ketchup. I know some people might find it weird and gross, but its sweetness balances out the rest of the flavors and it is in fact authentically used in several Indian street foods.

 

 

My secret ingredient is MSG. I always say, “A little MSG hurt nobody.” I know it’s got a bad rep but after doing some research, I am truly convinced that the negativity it has received has been truly overblown.

If you’ve ever watched “Ugly Delicious” on Netflix (if you haven’t, I highly recommend you do, it’s a great food docu-series) then you’ve probably seen the episode on Chinese food where David Chang completely rips apart the notion of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”  – a name given to attribute GI intolerance to supposed MSG used in Chinese cooking when the reality of the matter is that MSG is found in several products (such as chips, cheese, salad dressing) but people seem to only attribute it to Chinese food  – hence making you critically think about how racism has impacted the way we view ethnic food in American food culture.

After coating the chicken in the marinade, the rest of it is pretty straight-forward; you toss everything together and allow it to cook down until the coating on the chicken caramelizes, forming a lovely charred crust on the exterior of the chicken pieces.

 

 

 

And there you have it! An amazing Indo-Chinese chicken dish. You can eat this up with naan, toss it in noodles, or even roll it up in a paratha like I did here for a killer lunch!