Chinese Garlic Chicken Recipe

Chinese Style Garlic Chicken Recipe, is a popular Indo-Chinese preparation of fried chicken tossed in flavours of garlic, onions, sauces which is made into a semi-gravy. This unique chicken dish is packed with tons of garlic flavour and goes best with noodles or fried rice.

Chinese Style Garlic Chicken 

I have an addiction towards Indo Chinese foods. Specially non veg dishes. They are so delicious. I try to cook an Indo Chinese feast at home at least once in a month. Today I made veg noodles, garlic chicken and chilli chicken.

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• About Garlic Chicken (Chinese)
• Ingredients
• Step by Step pictures
• Expert Tips
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If you are a garlic lover like me, you will love it for sure. I packed as much garlic as I can in this dish. The chicken has a lovely aroma of garlic but not at all over powering. I am sure you need to have some mints after this meal to freshen up your breath.

About Garlic Chicken (Chinese)

Garlic chicken is a popular Indo-Chinese dish. There are so many versions of making garlic chicken, this is my version. Garlic and chicken goes well together. Even I have made few garlic flavoured chicken dishes here like this Oven baked garlic chicken and Garlic tomato chicken roast.

This recipe is my take on Indo Chinese Garlic Chicken. Traditionally only chopped garlic is added in the sauce. But I wanted to pack as much garlic as I could in this. So I added a garlic paste to the sauce which made it just WOW.

The dish is relatively easy to make. It has three steps involved. Marinating the chicken with the flour. deep frying chicken, making sauce and adding chicken in. Thats it. You can enjoy this with fried rice or noodles.

Similar Recipes

• Plain Chinese Gravy Recipe
• Chilli Bread Recipe
• Chinese Pan Fried Fish Recipe
• Chinese Style Eggs Recipe
• Chinese Ginger Garlic Chicken Recipe

4 Tips for crispy chicken (in Chinese dishes)

First Tip, I used a combination of plain flour and cornstarch to coat the chicken. I use 1:2 ratio, 1 part plain flour to 2 parts cornstarch. This ratio makes the chicken crispy when fried.

Second Tip, Along with all the flour, you can add some baking powder. This baking powder helps make the chicken super crispy when fried.

My most important tip is double frying. Once chicken is coated with flour, Fry the chicken on medium heat for couple of minutes till it gets cooked. Strain and set aside to cool. At the time of serving, increase the heat to the highest and flash fry the chicken. This technique gives super crispy chicken.

The last tip, is combine fried chicken with sauce only at the time of serving. So the chicken doesn't turn soggy. For a more Authentic version, check my Chinese Ginger Garlic Chicken.

The sauce which I made is basic, flavourful garlic flavoured sauce. I used a little bit of ginger, chopped onions and garlic for texture.

The garlic puree which I used made the sauce creamy and gave tons of garlic flavour. If you prefer milder sauce, skip the garlic puree. Always taste and adjust the sauce to your liking.

Ingredients

• Chicken - I used boneless chicken thigh which I cut into small pieces. You can use chicken breast as well.
• Flour to use - a combination of plain flour and cornstarch is added to chicken to make it super crispy.
• Garlic - the star ingredient. Added in chopped form as well as paste.
• Flavourings - onions, ginger, garlic, spring onions are the flavourings used.
• Sauces - I used basic sauces like tomato ketchup, soy sauce, green chilli sauce, vinegar.
• Seasonings - salt, sugar, MSG, black pepper add to the taste.

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Step by Step pictures

Marinating Chicken

1)Take boneless chicken pieces in a bowl. Make sure the chicken is cut into small pieces. You can use chicken breast or chicken thighs.

2)For coating the chicken, add in plain flour and cornstarch.

3)Season the chicken with salt, black pepper powder.

4)Add in crushed ginger and garlic paste. Pour in little soy sauce and some vinegar too.

5)Now mix the chicken well, add little water at a time if the mixture looks too dry. The chicken should be coated with the flour into a thick mixture. So don't add too much water.

6)This is the consistency it should look like. Set this aside and heat oil for deep frying.

Frying Chicken

7)Once oil gets hot, drop few chicken pieces into the hot oil and deep fry till golden brown. Don't over crowd the pan. Fry chicken in batches.

8)Depending on the size of the chicken, it may time 2 to 4 minutes. Chicken breast tends to cook faster than chicken thighs. Once chicken looks golden and crispy, strain them to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.

Continue frying the remaining batches.

Make Garlic Paste

9)This garlic chicken has a special sauce made with lots of garlic. You have to puree the garlic to a smooth paste. Take as much garlic as you like in a blender.

10)Add some water and grind it into a smooth puree.

Make Garlic Chicken Sauce

11)Heat oil and butter in a pan. First add in dry red chillies. The chillies will fry in the oil flavouring the oil.

12)Add in chopped garlic, ginger and let them sizzle in the oil for a minute. It should gets slightly crispy.

13)Add in chopped onions, you can use chopped spring onions as well. Saute this for 2 minutes until it gets slightly crispy.

14)Now add in the garlic puree which we made earlier.

15)Saute the garlic paste in oil until the raw smell leaves from it. It should take a good 3 to 4 minutes.

16)Now add in all the sauces. First tomato ketchup and green chilli sauce.

17)Add in some soy sauce. I am using dark soy sauce, which gives this dish a dark colour.

18)Add in vinegar.

19)Season with salt, sugar and some MSG. Here MSG is optional, but to get authentic Chinese taste you need a pinch of MSG.

20)Mix this really well and cook for 2 minutes.

Cooking Garlic Chicken Gravy

21)Now pour in water. I wanted this garlic chicken to have some sauce. if you prefer it dry, you can skip adding the water.

22)Mix well and let the sauce boil.

23)Add in the fried chicken.

Pro Tip: if you prefer super crispy texture in your chicken, you can double fry the chicken in hot oil till it gets crispy. and add chicken just before serving. So it doesn't get soggy.

24)Mix 1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoon of cold water. Pour this into the chicken and cook for 1 minute.

25)Mix it well the sauce will thicken immediately.

26)Add in some crushed black pepper powder.

27)Add in chopped spring onions.

28)Mix well. Garlic chicken gravy is ready.

29)Serve with fried rice, or noodles.

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Expert Tips

• When coating the chicken in flour, you can add ½ teaspoon baking powder and one egg white to make it extra crispy.
• Double frying chicken makes it super crunchy.
• You can add chopped bell peppers along with onions for flavour.
• Instead of cornstarch, potato starch can be used.

Serving & Storage

It is best to serve garlic chicken hot as soon as it made. But leftovers can be kept in fridge and reheated the next day. The chicken might get soggy but still the taste will be good.

Garlic chicken is best served with fried rice, noodles or with soups. We enjoy it with steamed veg momos and chilli garlic momos. Here are few options for you to serve with.

Fried Rice - choice of fried rice options are veg fried rice, chicken fried rice, egg fried rice, mushroom fried rice and hot garlic fried rice.

Noodles - my favorite combination with garlic chicken is veg noodles and hakka noodles and paneer noodles.

Soups - garlic chicken can be served as a perfect appetizer with chicken clear soup, hot & sour chicken soup, chicken soup & veg soup.

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