How do you decide whether or not to try a new recipe? Ohh yes, there are different ways to make your decision. You can decide based on your experience, say you tried something new at a restaurant or at a friend's place, you liked it, so you want to try it. You heard one of your friends raving about a new recipe she tried and she strongly recommends you to try it. You visit blogs like this, see the pics, read the comments and make the decision. Sometimes you read about something, but you've no idea what it is, you havent heard anybody recommending it, but you've a good feeling about it, so you give it a try. Phew, I'm exhausted explaining the decision making process!
Like I've said before, it's the decision making that takes more time than actual cooking. If you look at it, that holds true for everything else in life, right? At least that's true in my case. If I'm undecided about something, I'd be restless and irritated and I end up doing nothing, wasting my time and your time, if you happen to be there in my vicinity ;)
I was in an undecided state for quite some time. The decision to come out with a cook book was easy, but just thinking about the whole procedure had me crash landing at the peak of restlessness. At times, I even thought whether my cook book idea was jinxed! I can explain… It happened that whenever I reached a state of clarity about the whole thing and started my work, something or the other happened on the personal front, which required a 90 degree turn of my attention to something else! I almost gave up the idea, but You didnt let me drop it. You kept asking me how the book is progressing, where am I going to launch it, India or US etc; Whenever I got a mail from you about the book, I felt like digging a hole and hiding in it.
But, I wanted to do something to keep my word to you. That's how this Chicken ebooklet happened! I've noticed that you've a soft spot for the chicken recipes posted here. Well, I've been seeing you for more than 7 years now, so I should have some idea about your likes and dislikes, right? I've tried my best to collect some good chicken recipes and share it with you. I do hope that these recipes become a part of your family “foodlore” :)
After all this talk about chicken, it wouldnt be fair if I dont post a chicken recipe, so here you go. If you like Indo Chinese style recipes, this is a good one. This is actually a two in one kinda recipe. You can also have it as a soup, I'll share the details in the notes section.
One last thing, before going to the recipe. Thanks a ton for your support and generosity, I was truly overwhelmed seeing the response for Chicken ebooklet!
Here is the recipe…
Combine all the ingredients of the batter. Dip the chicken pieces in egg batter. Heat oil for deep frying in a pan and fry the chicken pieces till they turn light golden colour…
In a wok, heat oil. Lightly fry the crushed ginger and garlic. Add green chillies and white of spring onions..
Add chicken stock/water. Add all the other ingredients of the sauce except cornflour. Cook for 2-3 minutes…
Add cornflour paste to the sauce and give one boil…
Add fried chicken pieces and cook for 2-3 mins, till sauce turns slightly thick. Serve hot garnished with spring onion greens…
Recipe adapted from Nita Mehta's Non Vegetarian Recipes
Ingredients
- 350 gms Chicken, cut into medium size cubes (measured after cleaning (I used boneless chicken))
For egg batter
- 2 Egg whites
- 2 tbsp Cornflour
- 2 tbsp Plain flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper powder
- 1 tsp Vinegar
- 1.5 tsp Soya sauce
- 1.5 tsp Red chilli sauce
For the sauce
- 2 tbsp Crushed ginger and garlic (each)
- 1-2 Green chilli (chopped)
- 2.5 cups Chicken stock/water
- 1.5 cups Water
- 2 – 2.5 tbsp Soya sauce
- 2 tbsp Tomato ketchup
- 1.5 tbsp Red chilli sauce
- 1 tsp Vinegar
- 1 tsp Pepper powder
- 1/2 tsp Sugar
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1.5 tbsp Cornflour
- 2-3 stalks Spring onion (chopped (white and greens separate))
- Oil ( I used sunflower oil)
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients of the batter. Dip the chicken pieces in egg batter. Heat oil for deep frying in a pan (refer notes). Once the oil is hot, reduce heat. Add chicken pieces to the oil and increase the heat to low-medium. Fry the chicken pieces till they turn light golden colour. Make sure you dont fry it too long, otherwise the chicken will harden. Keep it aside.
- In a wok, heat oil. Lightly fry the crushed ginger and garlic. Add green chillies and white of spring onions. Stir for a few seconds. Add chicken stock/water. Add all the other ingredients of the sauce except cornflour. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add 3 tbsp water to cornflour and make a thick paste. Add cornflour paste to the sauce and give one boil. Add fried chicken pieces and cook for 2-3 mins, till sauce turns slightly thick. Serve hot garnished with spring onion greens.
That was a great idea to store chicken stock….
Thanks Preetha :)
My mm winning recipe has always been the pepper chicken…everyone feasts on it….
:) Good to know!
Great Sunday lunch idea…loved it totally
Thank you so much Rashmi :)
Hi Maria….is there a way to avoid the deep-frying part as I have to be on a low-fat diet after a surgery… :(
Hi Swasal,
You can shallow fry these chicken pieces. I’ve mentioned it in the recipe also.
Hope you are feeling better, take care.
Cheers
Maria
Hi Maria,
It’s just such a coincidence that I logged into your website to find out if you have posted any chicken manchurian recipe and to my surprise it was just posted today by you. Last week I cooked chicken fried rice and noodles and tried out the chicken manchurian recipe for the first time. It was ok but I was not too sure how to make chicken stock. So I used the knor chicken stock powder and I think because of this the dish turned out it little sour. It will be helpful if you can tell how to prepare chicken stock.
Thank you
Thanks Kavita :)
Kavita, I dont have any recipe as such for chicken stock. What I do is, whenever I cook chicken for fried rice or for sandwich, I usually put some garlic, 1 bay leaf, pepper powder, salt, onion and celery along with the lots of water and boil it. Once it starts boiling I will remove the foamy pats from it. Once the chicken is done, I separate the chicken pieces along with the spices and the stock. Once the stock cools down completely, I pour it in ice tray and freeze it. I store the chicken stock cubes in zip lock bags in the freezer and add these stock cubes when required.
Hope this helps..
Cheers
Maria