Chili Chicken

My first tryst with Chinese food was when I first ate Hakka noodles that my mom cooked a long time ago. And after that it became a regular part of my diet. Fried Rice, Sweet Corn Soup, Manchow Soup, Chicken Chili, Schezwan Fried Rice, Noodles, Chopsuey, etc. became household names for me. Either I was eating at some roadside Tapri or at Santosh (Hotel at Vakola - good for take-outs) it always felt that I was devouring something from a different culture (sadly to be mistaken).

However, my journey with (Indi) Chinese food was never over. A few days back I happened to read an article in the Gulf Times which had a recipe for Chili Chicken. It looked easy to cook so I thought "What the heck ... let’s try it".

So on Thursday (day of shopping for me) I purchased all the items required to cook Chili Chicken. I was very new to the concept of using Corn Flour with Soya Sauce and Vinegar. I was getting weird ideas (being a Science student does not help too as Acetic Acid (Vinegar) with Bases like Flour and Soya Sauce ... scary) like "What if ! it explodes" or "What if ! I secretly make a potion for destruction (biological Warfare @ its crudest)"
Anyhoo, I kept control of that little voice in my head that kept pestering me about death and destruction and waited for Friday.

Friday came and boy was it a lazy day. Temperatures were soaring above the 45 degrees mark and I was thinking to save the Chili Chicken for another rainy day (wishful thinking). Anyways, I mustered the courage of cooking after watching J-Lo in the Back-Up Plan and started with my preparations.

I had to marinate the chicken first with the "Potion for Destruction (PFD)" and refrigerate it for 2 - 3 hours. After mixing all ingredients’ for the PFD the color, smell and taste was something that many people would kill for. I was falling in love with the PFD but anyhoo, I controlled my urges and mixed the chicken pieces with the PFD and refrigerated it.

Good thing about (Indi) Chinese cooking is that food is not cooked at a continuous stretch; there are always breaks in between that keep you fresh and limber throughout your cooking sojourn. And also you don’t need to keep anything ready during your break, you just need to time the sequence of events. As a good time conserver, I started cooking at 6 pm. Started with crying my sorrows with my onion friends , then Julienned a bit with Mr. Garlic and Ms. Ginger, de-veined some Green Chillis and Stripped the Capsicum (No pun intended) ...

Cooking was easy after following the instructions in the recipe. The best compliment anyone can get is from immediate feedback and it came in the form of my Side door neighbor who was intoxicated (in a good way) with the aroma of the PFD mixing in the main cooking pan and he came inquiring "Chinese bana raha hai kya ..." I tried to control my conversation as I was so much tempted to wise crack on that statement. Anyhoo in another 35 - 40 minutes I finished cooking and Voila I think I have just completed my tryst with Chinese destiny...



Recipe:
1/2 kg. Chicken Breasts (Clean & Cut in Cubes 1"x1")
2 Small Onions (Finely Chopped)
4 Green Chilies (Deveined)
Small portion of Ginger (Julienned - Thumb Rule here: Ginger to be as big as your thumb)
1 bulb of Garlic (Julienned)
1 Medium to Large Capsicum (Cut in Strips)
5-6 tbsp refined oil/Cholesterol free
Salt to Taste
Water as desired

For the P.F.D.
1 tbsp Red Chili Powder
3 tbsp White Vinegar
2 tbsp Soya Sauce (Light)
2 tbsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
2 tbsp Corn Flour
1-1/2 tbsp Tomato Paste
1/2 tbsp Turmeric

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and stir till it’s a thick paste.
Add the cube chicken breasts and mix with hand to get the Chicken all dirty and marinated.
Refrigerate the mix after closing the bowl with cellophane for approximately 3 hours.

After 3 hours:

Take a deep dish frying pan, Add the Oil.
Once oil is hot add the finely chopped onions.
When the onions start to becomes transparent add the Green Chilies.
Fry the chilies till you feel it’s been a little cooked.
Add the Julienned ginger and garlic and sauté for 2 - 3 minutes making sure that the mixture does the stick to the bottom of the pan.
Once the mixture is ready, add the chicken marinated in the PFD.
Fry lightly till some juices are released and lower the gas from high flame to medium flame.
Add little water (hot water would be nice) to get consistency and some gravy which will cook the chicken. Keep adding little water from time to time to the mix as you don’t want to burn the chicken as well as burnt bottom of the frying pan.

Cook for 20 minutes till the chicken become tender (Fork Poke Test here - Poke a fork in the chicken, if it goes in easily then chicken is cooked). Shut down the gas. Take another frying pan and with a little oil fry the capsicum strips, don’t over fry it. Just as the capsicum starts to shrivel (2-3 minutes) shut down the gas and add this to the Main frying Pan.
Serve.