This street-style chili paneer is so easy to recreate at home. When I moved to the US this was one of the recipes, I would make quite often as it is easy and quick to make. I would always order Paneer Chilli Dry for appetizers, whenever we went to a restaurant!
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What is Chilli Paneer Dry?
Chilli Paneer Dry is an Indo-Chinese appetizer which is popularly enjoyed in India. This recipe is spicy, tangy, and sweet with crispy bite-sized paneer, onions and green bell peppers. The paneer is coated in a batter made with corn flour and all-purpose flour, along with salt and red chili powder which is then deep fried until crispy. This is further tossed with aromatics, spices, onions, bell peppers and classic sauce.
Whenever I am in India, I always order Paneer Chilli dry for an appetizer. It is so scrumptious, and love the umami flavors it offers. I think Indo-Chinese cuisine hands down needs is one of the best culinary geniuses discovered on the streets of India.
Indo-Chinese cuisine is a popular street food of India and is adapted in restaurants too.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- It is super easy to make.
- It is a very quick recipe, which requires few standard ingredients you probably have in your refrigerator
- You need the Paneer Chili Umami to make your weekdays better.
- Once you start making this at home, you will never look back.
- Makes a great solo meal with some plain rice- fried rice on the side.
Use Good Quality Paneer
Using good quality ingredients always makes a difference. Good quality homemade paneer renders a delicious soft paneer which works best for this recipe. Paneer chilli dry is crispy from the outside, and deliciously soft and moist on the inside.
If you are in the US, and you are using store-bought paneer, I like a few brands like Desi Paneer, Sach Paneer, and Gopi Paneer. These paneer brands have fresh paneer, with the right softness to it. Make my Hakka Noodles recipe with this. It pairs so well!
Coating for Paneer
Coat the paneer with a dry mix of cornstarch, all-purpose flour, red chili powder, and salt. Then add a splash of water. Deep fry the coated paneer cubes until crispy.
Ingredients to Make Chili Paneer
It is very easy to make the chili paneer recipe at home. Now this a Dry Paneer Chilli recipe, so we don't add a lot of water in the sauce. But, if you want to make it gravy, add more water.
- Paneer - You can use any storebought or homemade paneer as you wish. Cut the paneer into cubes and prep it, so you can use it whenever you want to make the recipe. I store cut paneer, in water and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Sesame Oil - Any Asian food, or Indo-Chinese recipe prepared in Sesame oil makes it a lot more tastier because of the earthiness and smokiness it adds to the recipe.
- Aromatics - The aromatics in the recipe form the base sauce of the recipe. I like to use lots of minced garlic, ginger, slit green chilies, and white part of the spring onions.
- Veggies - The classic street-style paneer chili recipe uses red onions and green bell peppers as they add a delicious crunch and smokiness to the recipe.
- Spices - I only use black pepper powder and salt in this recipe.
- Special Sauce - Make a delicious blend of soy sauce, red chili sauce, tomato ketchup, vinegar, and salt. If you have gochujang, a teaspoon of it adds a nice spicy kick to the recipe.
- Cornstarch Slurry - Blend, cornstarch, and water to make a slurry.
Expert Tips To Make This Recipe
- I like to use a wok, to make this recipe, as you need to cook on high heat, and keep the veggies crisp.
- Shallow fry paneer on high flame. Shallow frying paneer for longer on
- I prefer shallow frying the paneer, as it still keeps the paneer moist from the inside while making it crispy from the outside. Baking in the oven, sometimes might make the paneer dry on the inside, which doesn't coat the sauce well.
- The cornstarch slurry helps the sauce to thicken so, it coats well on the paneer.
- Use gochujang and red chili paste to add a kick to the sauce, if not you can use red chili sauce.
- Add schezwan sauce, to make it schezwan paneer chili, it tastes delcious.
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Chilli Paneer Dry
These nutrional values are automatically generated. Use them for estimation only.
Equipment
- 1 Wok
Ingredients
- 200 Grams Paneer Cubed
Coating for Paneer
- 1.5 Tablespoons Cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Kashmiri Red Chili Powder
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 1 to 2 Tablespoon Water As required
Paneer Chili
- Half Cup Sesame Oil For Frying and cooking
- 2 Tablespoons Minced Garlic
- 1 Tablespoon Minced Ginger
- 2 Thai Green Chilies Slit
- ⅓ Cup Spring Onions Only the White part finely chopped.
- 2 Small Onions Cubed
- 1 Small Green Bell Pepper Cubed
- ½ Cup Water
For The Paneer Chili Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
- 1 Teaspoon Red Chili Sauce
- 1 Teaspoon Gochujang Optional.
- 1 Tablespoon Tomato Ketchup
- 1 Tablespoon Vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Optional
- 1 Teaspoons Cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon Water
Instructions
Make the Sauce
- Add soy sauce, red chili sauce, gochujang, vinegar, tomato ketchup, salt, and black pepper powder. Mix it well. Keep it aside.
Coating for Paneer
- Add the cubed paneer pieces to a large mixing bowl. Then add cornstarch, all-purpose flour, kashmiri red chili powder and salt. Mix it with your hands.
- Add a splash of water, to coat the batter.
Frying The Paneer
- In a frying pan, on high flame, add half a cup of Oil.
- Then add the coated paneer, and fry until crisp from all the sides. Keep flipping them using a pair of tongs.
- Take them aside, on a paper towel lined plate. This way paper towel will absorb extra oil from the fried paneer.
Make Paneer Chili
- Add 2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil, from the frying oil. Since it is still hot, it is okay to use the oil in a wok.
- add minced ginger, garlic, slit green chilies, and finely chopped sping onions.
- Cook them on high flame until the ginger garlic starts to brown.
- Now add the cut onions and green bell peppers, and add the prepared sauce.
- Now add half a cup water
- Make the cornstarch slurry, by mixing 1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water. Mix it well. Keep it aside.
- Now add the fried paneer to the wok. Mix it well
- Now add the prepared cornstarch slurry and cook for a minute on high flame.
- Garnish with spring onion greens.
- Enjoy piping hot with rice, fried rice or hakka noodles.
Notes
- Make Paneer Chili Gravy - To make this recipe saucier, simply add more water to the recipe.
- Make it Vegan - Substitute paneer with extra firm tofu, to make it vegan.
- Substitute cornstarch with arrowroot powder to make it healthier.
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