Chicken Manchurian

Step 1

With a food processor, blitz the ginger, garlic, and half a small onion until it is a fine paste. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this for browning the onions and red peppers later.

Step 2

Cut up the chicken into small bite-sized 1 inch pieces and marinate it in a bowl with the ginger-garlic-onion paste, soy sauce, chilli powder, black pepper, and water. (Do not add the corn starch yet. We will add that right before we deep fry the chicken.) Marinate in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight.

Step 3

Finely dice the red peppers and set them aside with the reserved ginger-garlic-onion mix.

Step 4

If you are garnishing with cilantro, finely chop some and set it aside for the end.

Step 5

Chop up the chillis in the slices (keep the seeds) and add them to a small bowl.

Step 6

Mix the tomato paste, oyster sauce, sugar, dark soy, regular soy, rice vinegar, and chilli powder together and mix well until it is combined.

Step 7

Add water into the sauce and mixl everything until it's combined well.

Step 8

In a small bowl, mix 2 teaspoons of corn starch with 4 teaspoons of cold water, then add it to the sauce and stir to combine. Set the sauce aside for later.

Step 9

Add in the corn starch to the chicken and mix until everything is well combined

Step 10

In a wok, frying pan or deep fryer heat the oil to 350F (177C).

Step 11

When the oil is hot, add the chicken into the oil one at a time. Fry it in small batches being careful not to overcrowd the oil, which can drop the oil temperature

Step 12

Fry the chicken for about 5-6 minutes and set them aside on a plate with a paper towel or newspaper to absorb some of the oil.

Step 13

Once all the chicken has finished deep-frying, add them all back into the deep fryer at the same time and fry it for 30 seconds. This will re-heat the chicken and the double frying will make the chicken crispier.

Step 14

Remove the chicken from the deep fryer and set it aside for later.

Step 15

In a wok or frying pan, set the stove to medium to medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil

Step 16

When the oil is hot, add in the 2 tablespoons of ginger-garlic-onion mix that was reserved from preparation and cook it until it is toasty and brown. Approximately 2 minutes. Careful not to burn it.

Step 17

Add in the finely diced red peppers and cook them for 2 minutes.

Step 18

Give the sauce a quick stir (the corn starch likes to settle at the bottom) and add it to the wok

Step 19

Keep stirring the sauce until it thickens.

Step 20

Once the sauce has thickened, turn off the heat on the stove and add the deep-fried chicken into the pan and mix it together with the sauce until the chicken is well coated.

Step 21

If you are using cilantro as a garnish, toss it in now.

Step 22

Enjoy with a bowl of rice!