Chicken Manchurian

With a food processor, blitz the ginger, garlic, and half a small onion until it is a fine paste. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this for browning the onions and red peppers later.

Cut up the chicken into small bite-sized 1 inch pieces and marinate it in a bowl with the ginger-garlic-onion paste, soy sauce, chilli powder, black pepper, and water. (Do not add the corn starch yet. We will add that right before we deep fry the chicken.) Marinate in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight.

Finely dice the red peppers and set them aside with the reserved ginger-garlic-onion mix.

If you are garnishing with cilantro, finely chop some and set it aside for the end.

Finely chop the bird eye chilis (keep the seeds) and add them to a small bowl.

Mix 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, 2 ½ tablespoons sugar, 1 ½ tablespoons dark soy sauce , 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar, and 1 ½ teapoons chilli powder together and mix well until it is combined.

Add 1/2 cup water into the sauce and mix everything until it's combined well.

In a small bowl, mix 2 teaspoons cornstarch with 4 teaspoons cold water, then add it to the sauce and stir to combine. Set the sauce aside for later.

Add in 10 tablespoons cornstarch to the chicken and mix until everything is well combined

In a wok, frying pan or deep fryer heat the oil to 350F (177C).

When the oil is hot, add the chicken into the oil one at a time. Fry it in small batches being careful not to overcrowd the oil, which can drop the oil temperature, which will make the chicken soggy.

Fry the chicken for about 5-6 minutes and set them aside on a plate with a paper towel or newspaper to absorb some of the oil.

Once all the chicken has finished deep-frying, add them all back into the deep fryer at the same time and fry it for 30 seconds. This will re-heat the chicken and the double frying will make the chicken crispier.

Remove the chicken from the deep fryer and set it aside for later.

In a wok or frying pan, set the stove to medium to medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil

When the oil is hot, add in the 2 tablespoons of ginger-garlic-onion mix that was reserved from preparation and cook it until it is toasty and brown. Approximately 2 minutes. Careful not to burn it.

Add in the finely diced red peppers and cook them for 2 minutes.

Give the sauce a quick stir (the corn starch likes to settle at the bottom) and add it to the wok

Keep stirring the sauce until it thickens.

Once the sauce has thickened, turn off the heat on the stove and add the deep-fried chicken into the pan and mix it together with the sauce until the chicken is well coated.

If you are using cilantro as a garnish, toss it in now.

Enjoy with a bowl of rice!