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Handiہانڈیاردو
Desi Chinese

Chicken Chilli Dry Recipe

چکن چلی ڈرائی بنانے کا طریقہ

Hot and punchy chicken chilli dry: crisp fried chicken tossed on high heat with green chillies, capsicum and onion in a sticky soy and chilli glaze.
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Illustration of Chicken Chilli Dry

Prep

25 min

Cook

20 min

Marinate / soak

15 min

Serves

4

Difficulty

Medium

Spice

Hot

Chicken chilli dry is the hot, sticky stir-fry on every Pakistani-Chinese menu, ordered alongside the milder manchurian. Battered chicken is fried crisp, then tossed in a smoking wok with a lot of green chillies, capsicum and onion and a small amount of soy-based sauce that clings rather than pools. The heat should come from fresh green chillies, so do not hold back on them.

Ingredients

4 servings

For 4 servings

Measures

Chicken

Stir-fry

Method

  1. Mix the chicken with the egg, cornflour, maida, soy sauce, ginger-garlic paste, salt and white pepper. Leave to rest.

    ⏱ 15 min

  2. Heat the frying oil to medium-hot and fry the chicken in batches until golden and cooked through. For extra crunch, fry again for 1 minute in hotter oil. Drain.

    ⏱ 7 min

  3. Mix the soy sauce, chilli sauce, ketchup, vinegar, sugar and salt in a cup so the sauce goes in all at once.

  4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok on the highest heat. Stir-fry the garlic, ginger and green chillies for 1 minute until the chillies blister.

    ⏱ 1 min

  5. Add the onion and capsicum and toss for 1 minute; they should stay crisp.

    ⏱ 1 min

  6. Pour in the sauce mixture and chilli flakes, let it bubble for a few seconds, then stir in the cornflour slurry until it turns thick and glossy.

    ⏱ 1 min

  7. Add the fried chicken and toss on high heat until every piece is glazed and there is no sauce left in the wok. Scatter the spring onion and serve at once.

    ⏱ 1 min

Tips for the best result

  • For chicken chilli with gravy, add 1 cup water with the sauce and 1 tbsp cornflour instead of 1 tsp.
  • Use long, mild-to-medium green chillies so you can eat them whole; small hot ones can make it fiery.

Common mistakes

  • Adding too much sauce. Dry chilli should be glazed, not swimming; a few spoonfuls is enough.
  • Cooking the capsicum and onion until soft. They should still snap.

How to serve

Serve hot with egg fried rice or chowmein, or on its own as a starter.

Storing and reheating

Best eaten fresh while crisp. Keeps 2 days in the fridge; reheat in a hot pan, not the microwave.

Nutrition and cost

Worked out from the ingredients, not measured in a lab. Treat both as a rough guide.

Per serving Estimate

Calories
510kcal
Protein
32g
Fat
33g
Carbs
19g
Fibre
1.9g
Sodium
1440mg

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain values for the raw ingredients (100% of the recipe by weight had data). Deep-frying oil is counted at 20%; bones and water lost in cooking are not subtracted, so bone-in and fried dishes can read high. Not medical advice. Method

Cost per servingEstimate

≈ Rs 150

Whole dish ≈ Rs 605 · 69% of ingredients by weight priced

From the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics weekly SPI, week ended 29 Oct 2026. Spices, herbs and some vegetables are not in the SPI and are left out unless you add your price, so the real cost is a little higher. How this works

Chicken Chilli Dry: questions people ask

What is the difference between chicken chilli dry and manchurian?

Chilli dry is hot, soy-based and glazed with almost no sauce, with lots of green chillies. Manchurian is milder, sweet-sour and ketchup-based, served in a thick gravy.

How do I keep the chicken crisp in chilli dry?

Double-fry it, keep the sauce to a thin glaze, toss it in at the very end on high heat and serve straight away.

Serve it with, and similar recipes

All desi Chinese recipes

Read this recipe in Urdu: چکن چلی ڈرائی بنانے کا طریقہ

https://handi.danixsoft.com/recipes/chicken-chilli-dry · Handi, DanixSoft