Bong Chilli Chicken

There is nothing even remotely Chinese about the Chilli Chicken that is served in most Chinese restaurants in Calcutta, that we Bongs so love and cannot do without. Yet, it has become an essential part of our cuisine, and we have found a million different ways to cook it. Most restaurants make a pakora out of boneless chicken, and then prepare a sauce with onions, capsicum, garlic and the most essential ingredient, soy sauce. I have my own way, which I think is slightly healthier, since it avoids deep frying completely. It is simple and straightforward and produces reliable results, if the recipe is followed closely.

Although this isn’t an authentic Chinese dish, I do use authentic ingredients, and for the right taste, it is essential that you find these, especially the dark and light soy sauces. Light soy sauce is light only in colour, it has an extremely strong flavor, and is very very salty, so salty infact, that it is used instead of salt. Dark soy sauce is much less salty, and is used mostly for colour. Try and find soy sauces made in an around south east Asia, if not China. Another ingredient is the green chilli sauce, which is crucial. In Calcutta, the best brand is the one made by Pou Chong Brothers.

INGREDIENTS

Boneless chicken – 300-400 gms, cut into medium sized pieces

Light Soy Sauce – 4 tablespoons

Dark Soy Sauce – 2 tablespoons

Vinegar – 1 tablespoon

Green Chilli Sauce – 2 tablespoons

Ginger paste – 1 teaspoon

Garlic paste – 1 teaspoon

Black pepper powder – 2 tablespoons

Onions, diced – 1 cup

Green Capsicum, diced – 1 cup

Green chillies, chopped into large peices – ½ cup

Cornflour – 1 teaspoon, dissolved in ¼ cup of water

White oil for cooking - 4 - 6 tablespoons

Hot water for gravy

NO SALT!!! That's right, NO SALT!!!

METHOD

• Marinate the chicken with the light soy sauce, green chilli sauce, vinegar, ginger and garlic pastes, and 1 tablespoon of black pepper powder for atleast an hour. I usually marinate the chicken overnight.
• After atleast an hour, heat oil in kadhai to smoking, and add the chicken with the marinade, and stir on high flame for a minute. Add the dark soy sauce, reduce flame to low, cover and allow the chicken to cook down, stirring occasionally to ensure nothing stick to the bottom of the kadhai.
• The chicken will release a lot of water, once this water has died down, and the oil seperates at the sides, raise heat and add the capsicum. Stir around for a minute, and then add green chillies and onions. Stir well for half a minute and then add ¾ cup hot water and mix well to make gravy.
• Once the gravy starts to boil, add the corn flour mixture and stir well. The gravy will thicken immediately and a glaze will appear.
• Once this happens, add the remaining black pepper, stir and immediately turn off flame.

Serve with steamed rice.

Serves – 3

Preparation time 1 hour

Cooking time – 45 minutes

Chicken with mushrooms and vegetables

You know how most Chinese restaurants in the city serve something called “chicken with mushrooms and vegetables” with a kind of white gravy? Well, we can make a healthy version of it at home. The recipe might look complicated, but trust me, it’s laid out systematically, and is fairly simple.

One thing you must remember is that this is a stir-fry style dish, and hence, we will not be cooking the chicken or the veggies in the Indian way, i.e., for a long time over a low flame, instead we will be doing exactly the opposite, quick cooking over a high flame. If this is to work, you have to be careful when you’re chopping and make sure you get uniform pieces.

Chinese cooking happens in Chinese wok. If you don't have one of those, use a large, non-stick frying pan. But an Indian kadhai is an absolute NO-NO for stir frying.

INGREDIENTS

2 boneless chicken breasts

Carrot, 1 small

French beans, 200 grams

Button mushrooms, fresh, 200 grams

Capsicum, 1, medium sized

Onions, 2 medium sized

Spring onions, 3 stalks

Ginger, finely chopped, 1 tablespoon

Green chillies, finely chopped, 1 tablespoon

Garlic, finely chopped, 1 tablespoon

Light Soya Sauce

Black pepper, freshly ground

Salt

Chinese rice wine/cooking sherry

Corn flour

Half a cup of hot water

Sesame seed oil for marination

Any white oil for cooking (DO NOT COOK WITH SESAME SEED OIL!!!)

PREPARE THE CHICKEN

1. Slice the breasts into quarter inch thick strips, cutting across the grain, make sure no strip is more than 3 inches or so long.
2. Add to the sliced chicken 3 tablespoons of light soya sauce, 2 teaspoons of freshly ground pepper, a tablespoon of rice wine or sherry, a tablespoon of vinegar, a tablespoon of sesame seed oil and three teaspoons of corn flour, mix well, and keep aside.

PREPARE THE MUSHROOMS

1. Quarter the mushrooms lengthwise, making sure to slice off the end of the stems, which are usually dry, black and hard.
2. In a kadhai, add about two tablespoons of oil, turn heat to full and with a spatula, coat the entire kadhai with the oil.
3. Once the oil is smoking hot, add the mushrooms, a teaspoon of salt, stir, reduce heat, and cover.
4. The mushrooms will release a lot of water, and as the water boils off, they’ll turn a darker colour. Once all the water has dried, the mushrooms are done.
5. As the water evaporates, remember to stir every once in a while or the ones at the bottom will get burnt.

PREPARE THE VEGGIES

1. Peel the onions, cut off the tip and tail, then quarter them, and separate the pieces, and keep aside.
2. Quarter the capsicum, making sure you clean out the seeds, and keep aside.
3. Discard the top 3 inches and the root of the spring onions, cut the rest into one inch pieces, and keep aside.
4. Slice the carrot into quarter inch thick slices, the beans into once inch pieces, making sure you have one cup of each, and bring to boil a medium sized bowl of water. Mix one tablespoon of salt in the water and once it is boiling, add the carrots and beans, turn off the heat, cover, and after 2 minutes, discard the water and keep the veggies aside.

METHOD

Heat oil till smoking, add the capsicum, then onions, give it a few stirs, add the carrots and beans, and finally the spring onions. Add a teaspoon of salt, stir well, take off flame and keep aside. We are not trying to “cook” or “fry” the veggies, they have to remain crisp, so this whole process should take no longer than 2-3 minutes.

Bring half a cup of water to boil, mix in a teaspoon of corn four, and keep aside.

Add more oil, and once it’s smoking, add the ginger garlic and chillies, and give it a quick stir. Before it has a chance to get burnt, add the chicken and stir, making sure the chicken is well coated in the ginger-garlic-chilly mix. Let the chicken settle for half a minute, then stir vigorously, all the time on high heat.

Once the chicken loses it’s translucence and becomes white, which should be in about 4 minutes or so, add the veggies, mix well, and add the hot water mixed with corn flour, a teaspoon of salt and stir well. Bring to boil, stir well, thicken gravy to desired consistency, take off flame, and serve with plain or fried rice.

Prep time – 1 hour

Cooking time – 10 minutes

Serves – 4

NOTES

1. As always, the potency of chillies varies widely, so use your discretion.
2. Be creative with the veggies! Add golden corn, cabbage, broccoli or anything else that you think goes well with this dish.