What is Chilli Paneer Dry?
Chilli Paneer Dry is an Indo-Chinese appetizer which is popularly enjoyed in India. This recipe is spicy, tangy, and sweet with crispy bite-sized paneer, onions and green bell peppers. The paneer is coated in a batter made with corn flour and all-purpose flour, along with salt and red chili powder which is then deep fried until crispy. This is further tossed with aromatics, spices, onions, bell peppers and classic sauce. Whenever I am in India, I always order Paneer Chilli dry for an appetizer. It is so scrumptious, and love the umami flavors it offers. I think Indo-Chinese cuisine hands down needs is one of the best culinary geniuses discovered on the streets of India. Indo-Chinese cuisine is a popular street food of India and is adapted in restaurants too.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
It is super easy to make. It is a very quick recipe, which requires few standard ingredients you probably have in your refrigerator You need the Paneer Chili Umami to make your weekdays better. Once you start making this at home, you will never look back. Makes a great solo meal with some plain rice- fried rice on the side.
Use Good Quality Paneer
Using good quality ingredients always makes a difference. Good quality homemade paneer renders a delicious soft paneer which works best for this recipe. Paneer chilli dry is crispy from the outside, and deliciously soft and moist on the inside. If you are in the US, and you are using store-bought paneer, I like a few brands like Desi Paneer, Sach Paneer, and Gopi Paneer. These paneer brands have fresh paneer, with the right softness to it. Make my Hakka Noodles recipe with this. It pairs so well!
Coating for Paneer
Coat the paneer with a dry mix of cornstarch, all-purpose flour, red chili powder, and salt. Then add a splash of water. Deep fry the coated paneer cubes until crispy.
Ingredients to Make Chili Paneer
It is very easy to make the chili paneer recipe at home. Now this a Dry Paneer Chilli recipe, so we don’t add a lot of water in the sauce. But, if you want to make it gravy, add more water.
Paneer - You can use any storebought or homemade paneer as you wish. Cut the paneer into cubes and prep it, so you can use it whenever you want to make the recipe. I store cut paneer, in water and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Sesame Oil - Any Asian food, or Indo-Chinese recipe prepared in Sesame oil makes it a lot more tastier because of the earthiness and smokiness it adds to the recipe. Aromatics - The aromatics in the recipe form the base sauce of the recipe. I like to use lots of minced garlic, ginger, slit green chilies, and white part of the spring onions. Veggies - The classic street-style paneer chili recipe uses red onions and green bell peppers as they add a delicious crunch and smokiness to the recipe. Spices - I only use black pepper powder and salt in this recipe. Special Sauce - Make a delicious blend of soy sauce, red chili sauce, tomato ketchup, vinegar, and salt. If you have gochujang, a teaspoon of it adds a nice spicy kick to the recipe. Cornstarch Slurry - Blend, cornstarch, and water to make a slurry.
Expert Tips To Make This Recipe
I like to use a wok, to make this recipe, as you need to cook on high heat, and keep the veggies crisp. Shallow fry paneer on high flame. Shallow frying paneer for longer on I prefer shallow frying the paneer, as it still keeps the paneer moist from the inside while making it crispy from the outside. Baking in the oven, sometimes might make the paneer dry on the inside, which doesn’t coat the sauce well. The cornstarch slurry helps the sauce to thicken so, it coats well on the paneer. Use gochujang and red chili paste to add a kick to the sauce, if not you can use red chili sauce. Add schezwan sauce, to make it schezwan paneer chili, it tastes delcious.
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