Chicken Manchurian

As promised, here I am with another Manchurian - this time for the chicken eating folks. Yeah, cluck cluck to you too :) 

I have to admit, I have tried this dish with a short cut. I LOVE short cuts, and use them quite often.  As long as the 'semi-home made' method cuts work and time for you, while maintaining the flavor, texture and essence of what you're cooking, absolutely go for it! Just be smart while picking a short cut. 

So for this entree, I looked for a frozen (but cooked) variety of any oriental style chicken (orange chicken, for example). They have the chicken already marinated, cooked/fried with the oriental flavors. The sauce of course is packed separately. Just bake up the chicken pieces as per the directions on the box. And you can skip the entire process of marinating and frying the chicken. 

For those who'd like to prepare this from scratch, here it is:

Chicken Manchurian

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes

MARINADE FOR CHICKEN

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

SAUCE

3 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon ginger root, chopped

1 teaspoon garlic, chopped

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup ketchup or chilli ketchup

1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce

1 green chilies, finely chopped

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon msg (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons cornflour

2 tablespoons water

Directions

1. Marinate the chicken cubes with the ingredients for the marinade.
   
2. Heat the oil in a wok.
   
3. Add ginger & garlic and sweat it for a minute.
   
4. Add chicken & stir fry it for 5-8 minutes.
   
5. Take it off the flame & then put in the stock, ketchup, sugar, tobasco, green chilli, MSG, salt, black pepper.
   
6. In a small cup mix together the corn flour & water.
   
7. Put the wok back on the heat & cook for 5 minutes.
   
8. Add the corn flour paste n cook for 2 more minutes.
   
9. You can add a little red food color to brighten it up.
   
10. Serve it up with chopped scallions and coriander leaves, over rice or noodles.  

To serve as a snack (dry), skip the cornflour and water at the end. And reduce the amount of the stock based on how dry you'd like the dish to be. 

Just make sure your chicken is cooked thoroughly! ENJOY!!