This sweet and spicy chicken is a quick and easy recipe that’s perfect for midweek with some rice or noodles, but just as wonderful when served as part of a bigger meal.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Sweet and Spicy Chicken Recipe
There’s not much to talk about in today’s recipe. It’s quick, it’s easy and is also open to interpretation. That means you can play around with the recipe, as you wish.
This is what we’ll be doing:
- marinate some bite-sized chicken thighs with turmeric and salt while you get everything else ready.
- prep work – pound or chop the aromatics (onion, garlic, ginger, chillies). And slice up the capsicum (bell pepper).
- brown the chicken thighs (3 minutes).
- add the pounded ingredients and fry for 2 minutes.
- toss everything together and add water, sauces and capsicum.
- cook the sweet and spicy chicken for 10 minutes more.
That’s it. Easy, right?
Ingredients
Let’s take a quick look.
- Chicken – I’m using chicken thighs that I’ve chopped into bite-sized pieces. You can use chicken breast, if you like, boneless for quick cooking.
- Capsicum/Bell Peppers – bell peppers are so good for dishes like this. But you can also use mushrooms, sliced carrot rounds, cauliflower, pretty much whatever you fancy, or have.
You know what might also be good? Pineapple chunks, along the lines of the Chinese sweet and sour dishes. - Aromatics – we’ve got a small amount of onion, garlic and ginger and some chillies. You can increase or decrease the number of chillies to suit your taste, for a milder or hotter dish. Use any chillies you can get your hands on. The type of chillies you use will determine how hot your final dish is.
- Sauces – we’ve shop bought sweet chilli sauce (any mild or medium spicy kind), dark soy sauce and some honey. You could use tomato ketchup instead of the chilli sauce and sweet soy sauce instead of the dark. Don’t fancy the honey? Just leave it out, but it does add sweetness to our sweet and spicy chicken and rounds the flavour up perfectly.
How to Serve this Sweet and Spicy Chicken
I make it when I’m in a rush and don’t have time for much. I then enjoy it with some white rice and a side salad of cucumbers and tomatoes, and perhaps some lettuce. Quick and easy all around.
But you can also serve this as part of a meal, that comprises of rice, a curry and vegetable dish. It can even be enjoyed with noodles like Mee Siam Goreng.
Here are some examples of dishes that will go splendidly with our sweet and spicy chicken.
Easy Cabbage Stir-Fry
Cabbage stir-fry is a quick and easy side dish that's perfect with rice but especially great with chapatis!
Check out this recipe!
Sayur Lemak Recipe (Vegetables Cooked in Coconut Milk)
Sayur lemak is a quick and easy Malay and Indonesian dish of vegetables cooked in coconut milk and flavoured and coloured with turmeric.
Check out this recipe!
If you enjoy the recipe, drop me a comment and let me know. Feeling like a star? Don’t forget that 5-star rating! Thank you!
If you make this recipe, post it on Instagram and tag me @azlinbloor and hashtag it #linsfood.
Lin xx
Easy Sweet and Spicy Chicken
This sweet and spicy chicken is a quick and easy recipe that's perfect for midweek with some rice or noodles, but just as wonderful when served as part of a bigger meal.
Ingredients
To Marinate the Chicken
- 500 g boneless chicken thighs or breasts
- ½ tsp ground turmeric (serbuk kunyit)
- 1 generous pinch salt about ⅛ tsp
Aromatics (to be pounded/finely chopped)
- 1 small onion no more than 100g (3.5 oz) pre peeled weight
- 1 small clove garlic in the video, I'm using homemade garlic ginger paste
- 2.5 cm ginger in the video, I'm using homemade garlic ginger paste
- 2-3 chillies I like to use a mix of green and red for a combination of flavour
Everything Else
- 1 capsicum (bell pepper) any colour
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil or any neutral flavoured oil
- 125 ml water
- 2 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce non spicy variety
- 1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp honey
Instructions
Marinate the Chicken
- If your chicken isn't already in small pieces, cut it up into bite-sized pieces.500 g boneless chicken thighs or breasts
- Sprinkle the turmeric and salt over the chicken and rub in well.Leave aside to marinate while you get everything else ready.½ tsp ground turmeric , 1 generous pinch salt
Aromatics and Pepper
- Peel and halve the onion.Peel the garlic and ginger. Chop the ginger into 2 pieces for easier grinding.Roughly chop up the chillies1 small onion, 1 small clove garlic, 2.5 cm ginger, 2-3 chillies
- Place everything into a food chopper or mortar and chop/pound until fairly fine.
- Chop the bell pepper up into a similar size to that of the chicken.1 capsicum (bell pepper)
Let's get Cooking
- Heat the oil up on medium-high heat in a wok or deep frying pan, and brown the chicken pieces for 3 minutes, flipping them a couple of times.3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- Push the chicken to one side, turn the heat down to medium and tip the pounded ingredients in. Fry this paste for 2 minutes, stirring a couple of times.You could take the chicken out first if you like, but why not use just 1 cooking pan for a change?
- When the paste has had 2 minutes, flip the chicken onto it and mix.
- Add the peppers, water, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce and honey and mix well. Bring to a simmer. Then reduce the heat to low and cook the chicken for 10 minutes, stirring here and there. The chicken pieces will be done at the end of this time.Check seasoning and add more salt if necessary. You could also add more chilli sauce and honehy to your taste.Want more sauce? Add more water. But you will have to increase the seasoning too.Serve immediately.125 ml water, 2 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce, 1 Tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 Tbsp honey
Nutrition
Calories: 309kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 28gFat: 14gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 80mgSodium: 744mgPotassium: 635mgFiber: 1gSugar: 15gVitamin A: 362IUVitamin C: 59mgCalcium: 112mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @azlinbloor or tag #linsfood!
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