Chilli Chicken

My little nephew ( not so little anymore..) loves to order this dish at his favourite Chinese restaurant called Country Kitchen in Petaling Jaya ( or better known as PJ State) whenever we go there. I have to keep better notes of these places when I go home the next time ( last year's visit was a whirlwind, I had way too much going on). Country Kitchen is a well known restaurant in PJ and it is packed every night! The food there is absolutely fantastic!

This is my rendition of the perennial favourite. It looks fabulous, tastes wonderful and you can make it in less that 20 minutes! I served it with fluffy, steamed rice. A great side dish that will go well with this chicken dish is baby bok choy with shiitake mushrooms.


Chilli Chicken
Don't be deterred by the amount of dried chilies in this recipe. The chillies add a wonderful flavour and just a hint of heat. The ginger adds another dimension to this dish and really compliments the dried chillies. And ....you are not supposed to eat the chillies, but kids sometimes do it as a dare!

3 chicken breasts - medium sized
14 dried chilies - cut into thirds
1 heaping Tb minced ginger
1 shallot - minced
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn starch
2 Tb vegetable/ peanut oil
1/2 Tb light soy sauce
1/4 cup water

Wash and cut chicken breast into bite size. Season chicken with soy sauce, corn starch , salt, sugar and sesame oil. Break off or cut dried chili into thirds or halves and set aside ( the variety that I use are the ones typically used in Malaysia, it is skinny and long and I have a whole lot of them in my pantry!).

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed saute pan or a wok on medium high heat. Quickly fry the dried chili until it turn reddish brown ( 2 minutes) and remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add seasoned and diced chicken to the wok or pan and stir fry it for 3 minutes. Add ginger and water and cook for another 7 minutes or until the chicken pieces are cooked. Stir occasionally. Adjust seasonings and add fried chilies to the chicken. Stir well and serve with steamed rice.


Country Kitchen
49-51, Jln 52/18 Petaling Jaya
46200, Selangor
Malaysia