Less than 50 days to Christmas – a few special dishes to start planning your menu.

Chicken in chilly orange sauce -it’s tasty, has a lovely citrusy flavour, can get the bite of flavour from the chilly flakes and above all just yumm.

I wait for Sunday afternoon lunch, it’s the only meal we get to sit down as a family – relaxed and time is forgotten. Make new memories around the dining table. Each one has bits and pieces of news to share from the week gone by, from my side it’s a Sunday where I get it try out special dishes – some new and some not so new. The positives and negatives about some new flavour or dish hits you from all directions – it’s usually positive and I love the fact that my grown up kids and Renjit are open to trying out new flavours – to be frank it’s mostly a hit, the misses are few.

This particular Asian dish like any other dish – has great eye appeal and scores well on taste. I have added seasonings and sauces to make this dish more adaptable to suit our palate for instance the addition of 2-3 tbsp of chilly flakes and  the sprinkle of roasted sesame seeds and at the same time the omission of a cup of tomato sauce to name a few changes I’ve made to the original recipe. It’s worked out well- for sure!

My version of chicken in a chilly orange sauce -try it out and let me know!

Ingredients :

• Chicken boneless -1/2 kg
• Ginger- Garlic paste -1 tbsp
• Soya sauce – 1 tsp
• Worcestershire sauce -1 tbsp
• Pepper-1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Egg -1 beaten lightly
• Seasoned Flour – 3-4 tbsp plus 1 tbsp of parsley and 1 tbsp of chilli flakes 
• Oil to fry

For the Chilly Orange Sauce:

• Onion – cut into thick slices -2
• Capsicum – cut into thick slices1/2
• Ginger chopped -2 tbsp
• Garlic chopped – 2 tbsp
• Chilly flakes -3 tbsp
• Celery – 1 tbsp 
• Worcestershire sauce -1 tbsp
• Rice vinegar-1 tbsp
• Orange juice -2 -3 cups 
• Orange food colour – optional
• Brown sugar -2 tbsp
• Salt and pepper
• Cornflour -1and a 1/2 tbsp dissolved in 1/2 cup of water
• Oil
• White sesame seeds – 2 tbsp ( roasted on a tava)

Method:

• Marinate cubes of chicken in ginger- garlic paste, sauces, salt and pepper overnight or for 2 hours.
• Beat an egg lightly and add to the marinated chicken, also add the seasoned flour.
• Heat oil and fry the cubes of chicken till golden brown, drain on a tissue.

For the sauce:

• In hot oil, fry chopped ginger, garlic and celery for a few seconds.
• Add chilli flakes, onion and capsicum wedges, fry on a high flame.
• Add Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, orange juice, and orange colour( optional).
• Bring to a boil, add seasoning and fried chicken and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
• Add cornflour dissolved in water to thicken.
• Remove to a serving plate, sprinkle roasted sesame seeds on top and serve hot.

Chefs tips:

• Pat dry the chicken pieces before adding the marinade.
• The colour of the final dish depends on how brown you have fried the chicken.
• The oil should b hot when you fry off the chicken otherwise it could get soggy.
• Keep tasting the sauce as this is what binds the dish together.
• If you want it more spicy you could add more chilli flakes or a tbsp or two of red chilly sauce.
• You could substitute brown sugar for honey.
• Serve it with steamed/ brown  rice or even a bowl of herbed rice.
• Serves 4-6.

Till me next post,

Cheers 

Rose