Chinese Chicken Recipe

Dragon chicken recipe in a wok, an overhead shot

Dragon chicken is a spicy Indo-Chinese recipe of shallow-fried chicken with a fiery Asian marinade! It's a better-than-takeout easy spicy chicken recipe your whole family will be asking for more and more of.

Course Main Course, Main Dish

Cuisine Chinese, Indo-Chinese

Keyword asian chicken recipes, chinese chicken recipe, chinese chicken recipes, dragon chicken

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 20

Total Time 1

Servings people

Calories 504kcal

Author Isabel Laessig

Equipment

Wok (or large skillet)

Ingredients

For Marinating the Chicken:

2 Chicken breasts sliced into bite sized cubes
1 Egg
1 Tbsp. Garlic ginger paste*
2 Tbsp. Soy sauce
1 tsp. Chilli powder
2 Tbsp. Cornstarch

For Cooking the Chicken:

Walnut oil for shallow frying* about ½ cup

For the Dragon sauce:

½ tablespoon Walnut oil*
1 small red onion
2 teaspoon Garlic ginger paste
1 Red chilli pepper
1 Green chilli pepper
3 tablespoon Tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon Honey
1 tablespoon Sweet chilli sauce
1 tablespoon Soy sauce
Handful of Cashew nuts about ¼ cup
3 Green onions

Instructions

In a medium bowl mix together the egg, garlic ginger paste, chilli powder, cornstarch, and soy sauce to form the chicken marinade
Add the raw sliced chicken to the marinade. Stir well so that the marinade fully coats the chicken. Place the marinated chicken in the fridge and chill for at least half an hour to allow the flavors to infuse.
Add ½ cup walnut oil to a hot wok (preferably, but you can use a large skillet) on low heat - you want it to be deep enough to shallow fry the chicken. Allow the oil to heat up and then carefully add the marinated chicken to the oil, which will begin to sizzle and cook immediately. TIP: add the chicken bit by bit to avoid violently spitting oil.
Cooking the chicken until golden brown and crispy then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
While the chicken is resting, remove any leftover oil from the pan and place back on the heat ready to make the dragon sauce. Begin the sauce by stir-frying the red onion, garlic ginger paste, and red and green chilli. When the onions become soft add the Tomato Ketchup, honey, sweet chilli sauce, and soy sauce, then stir together well.
Allow the dragon sauce to come to a simmer before stirring in the crispy chicken. Cook for another minute until thick and sticky, then top with cashew nuts and sliced green onions.

Notes

While we recommend using walnut oil for shallow frying and for making the dragon sauce, you can fry this recipe in regular or light olive oil or another frying oil of your choice. We don't recommend using extra virgin olive oil as this is a high-heat frying recipe, and it has a low smoking point. We recommend the same for the dragon sauce.
Ginger garlic paste is typically sold in a jar and can be found at most grocery stores. You can also make your own by mixing garlic and ginger in a food processor. An alternative is to use equal parts garlic paste and ginger paste, which can be bought separately.

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