I have to say, on days when Work From Home is even more hectic than working from office, I expect a bowl of chicken and rice to cook themselves and lovingly present in blue bowls and sit on the table, hot and fresh waiting for me, while I frantically answer mails and coordinate with teams to get the job done.

Alas, that’s not the case and I have to work hard and smart on most days of these grim times. Although I do find weekends to be a lot lesser load on the mind, clearing up space for this somewhat of a steps recipe. but let me tell you it is all worth the time (and a bit of extra washing 😉

So, Let’s get down to it.

This Recipe serves 4.

Ingredients to coat & fry the chicken

• 4 tbsp Vegetable/olive cooking oil
• 2 eggs – lightly beaten
• 5 tbsp cornflour
• 8 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour, Maida
• ½ tsp each of salt, pepper, onion powder and dry garlic powder
• 2 tsp of Red chilli powder
• 4 chicken breast fillets – cut roughly

Ingredients for the chicken sticky sauce:

• 1 tbsp sesame oil. I love the nuttiness it brings to the sauce
• 1 tbsp vinegar- take your pick. i prefer balsamic
• 2 tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp store bought tomato ketchup
• 2 tbsp regular/brown sugar (gives better colour)
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp chilli sauce (chinese sweet chilli works best)
• finally, 5 tbsp soya sauce

Method:

• Take a thin bottomed pan/ wok and make sure its large!! now add the oil and wait for it to get really hot.

• In the meantime, prepare the chicken for frying. take 3 soup plates and place the beaten egg in one, cornflour in the other & maida (AP flour) in the third plate.
• To the flour you must add pepper, salt, onion, garlic powder and mix.
• Now follow this routine for all the chicken breasts.
  • cover the chicken in cornflour
  • Then dunk it in eggwash thoroughly
  • finally drop it in the flour and cover well.
• Add the chicken to the wok slowly and cook until the batter looks golden brown on both ends. you should need about 1-2 min on each side.
• clear off excess oil by placing them on a plate lined with tissues/kitchen napkins.
• Now take another hot wok and all the stuff required for the sticky sauce in it and let the flame do its magic. Wait for the sauce to reduce into a lovely, gooey brown stickyness.
• Throw the fried chicken back in there. Coat the pieces really well with the sauce and finally transfer to a clean bowl
• Sprinkle sesame seeds on the hot chicken liberally along with cut spring onions.

Serve this hot hot with boiled rice or fried rice.

Tip:

1. You can easily do this recipe with chicken wings but spare yourself the trouble of frying it all up with all those number of coats. Just switch on the oven at 160 degrees C, Fan take a grill plate and place the chicken wings on it with a little brush of seasoning and sesame oil and place on the middle rack. 20 minutes in, they should be ready to dunk in the lovely sauce you made that takes not even 2-3 minutes. You can get your grill plate here https://nestasia.in/collections/bakeware
2. I usually make an omelette with the remainder egg wash, take some sesame oil in the hot wok, fry up the boiled rice with a little garlic and add the egg to it.