This past Monday night, my roommates and I decided to make Manchurian chicken. This was a dish that my parents always made for me growing up and I was really excited to share this recipe with my roommates. It has the perfect balance between sweet, savory, and sour and it is a really quick recipe to make on a busy weekday. You can probably make this dish with any ingredients you have left in the pantry or fridge and it takes around thirty minutes to whip up. You don’t necessarily need to follow this exact recipe because I personally think it calls a lot more vinegar than what I’m used to, but as you should with all dishes, season it to taste. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
- 10 oz Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Cut Into Bite-size Pieces
- ¼ tsp Salt, To Taste Marinade)
- 2 counts Egg White (Marinade)
- 2 tbsp Cornstarch (Marinade)
- 2 tbsp Cooking oil
- 1 tbsp Fresh Garlic, Minced
- 2 oz Purple Onion, Cut Into Bite-size
- 1½ oz Green Bell Pepper, Cut Into Bite-size
- 1½ oz Red Bell Pepper, Cut Into Bite-size
- 1 oz Carrots, Thinly Sliced In Circles
- 1 tbsp Soy Sauce (Seasoning)
- ½ tbsp Oyster Sauce (Seasoning)
- ½ tbsp White Vinegar (Seasoning)
- 2 Tsp Rock Sugar
- ¼ cup Water
- ¼ tsp Black Pepper, To Taste
- 1 Tbsp Cornstarch Water (2 Tbsp Cornstarch Mixed With 1 Tbsp Water)
Procedure
- Cut the chicken and debone the chicken if needed (I used both chicken breast and thighs)
- Combine chicken, salt, egg whites, and cornstarch in a mixing bowl. Make sure each piece of chicken is coated evenly.
- Cut the bell peppers, carrots, garlic, and onion.
- In a large wok (we just used a regular saute pan because we didn’t have wok) in medium-high heat, heat up the cooking oil to 300°F to 350°F. Carefully place the chicken in the oil until all the pieces are floating on top and are golden brown. Make sure the chicken doesn’t stick to one another. Remove the chicken from the oil once it’s done and drain.
- Return the wok onto the stove and add the garlic, onion, and one tablespoon of cooking oil until fragrant.
- Add in the bell peppers, soy sauce, oyster sauce, white vinegar, brown sugar, and a tablespoon of water. Stir and cook for a few minutes.
- Make a slurry with cornstarch and water and add two teaspoons to the pan to thicken the sauce. Add chicken and mix until the chicken is well glazed.
- Service and spring some green onions on top for garnish.
Like I said before, my roommates and I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. Instead of cubing the onions like the recipe calls for, we minced it instead. We find that by mincing it, the onion flavor fused into the sauce and made the dish a lot more flavorful. Also, the recipe calls for green and red peppers but we only had red bell peppers in our fridge. I personally don’t have an issue with leaving out the green bell peppers as I like the red ones more because they have a sweeter taste but the green bell peppers definitely add more color to the dish. Lastly, we added a bit of water to the sauce as the slurry made the sauce way too thick. We sort of just added enough until it reached our desired consistency. Overall, this dish was really easy to make and it was very delicious. I even sent a picture to my mom and she said it looked really good (haha). I would definitely recommend you guys to make it any time of the week as it barely took my roommates and I thirty minutes to make.
