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Chili Paneer

Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time35 mins
Course: Appetizer, entree, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: chili paneer, chili tofu, indo chinese
Servings: 2 people
Author: Sweta Patel

Ingredients

Paneer

  • 1 14oz package of paneer cut into 1inch cubes
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp ginger minced
  • 1 tbsp garlic minced
  • ¼ tsp salt & pepper to taste
  • ¼ cup cornstarch
  • ¼ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ cup water
  • oil for shallow frying

Chili sauce

  • 1 bell pepper red, green, orange or yellow, cut into big pieces
  • 1 onion cut into big pieces
  • ¼ cup scallions finely chopped for garnish
  • 2 tbsp chings red chili sauce
  • 2 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp honey
  • ½ tsp lemon juice
  • 2 green chilies finely chopped
  • 1 inch cube ginger roughly chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
  • 6 Kashmiri red chilies fresh or dried, roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp corn starch
  • 2 tbsp water

Instructions

Paneer

  • In a bowl mix flour, corn starch, ginger garlic, 1 tbsp oil and water. Mix everything together you have a smooth consistency batter.
  • Heat a deep pot with some oil for frying. Cut the paneer into 1 inch cubes or smaller, depending on your preference. Coat each paneer cube into the batter and fry until golden brown. DO NOT over crowd the pot, it will result into some soggy paneer. This will take 2-3 batches depending on the size of your pot. Once the paneer is shallow fried, let them cool and drip off on a paper towel.

Chili sauce

  • In a large pan heat up 1 tbsp oil and add the finely chopped green chilies. Cook this for 1 min and add kashmiri chilies, minced garlic and ginger.
  • Add the chopped onions and bell peppers, stir fry these on high heat for 4 mins.
  • next add the honey, salt pepper, soy sauce, lemon juice, ketchup and chili sauce. Give everything a good stir and add in the cornstarch and water slurry. Once you add that you will see the sauce get glossier and a lot deeper in its color.
  • Once the sauce is thickened, add your paneer and give everything a good mix. Garnish with the finely chopped scallions and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Notes

  • To make this a vegan dish, replace the paneer with tofu. Make sure your tofu is complete dried and there is no moisture.
  • Shallow fry the paneer first because the sauce comes together very quickly and you want to have all the ingredients ready on hand.
  • You can use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose and cornstarch.
  • You can replace cornstarch with arrowroot powder also.