Chilli Paneer is a street-style Indo-Chinese dish that's totally addictive! Crispy fried paneer cubes (Indian cottage cheese), green chillies, onions, bell peppers and aromatics are tossed in a tangy sauce with umami flavours. An easy and satisfying recipe that will quickly become everyone's favourite!
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What is Chilli Paneer?
Chilli Paneer is one of those hybrid dishes that is not traditionally Indian... but not completely foreign either. Strictly speaking, it belongs to what has evolved into a sub-genre of Indian cooking: Indo-Chinese.
This fusion cuisine borrows the ingredients and techniques of two cultures, and the result is recipes like schezwan chicken fried rice, chicken Hakka noodles, and chicken shashlik.
These are all recipes that have bold flavours and zingy sauces, and are quite clearly Indianized versions of real Chinese food. Indian street food at its best!
Our chilli paneer recipe fits the bill perfectly. The main ingredient is paneer or Indian cottage cheese (certainly not found in Chinese cuisine), but other ingredients like soy sauce, cornflour, and spring onions are not used in traditional Indian recipes.. making it the poster child for fusion food.
The best thing about chilli paneer is that it is so quick to make. When you have a craving for something tangy and spicy at short notice, shallow fry some paneer, add veggies and sauce, stir-fry everything, and it’s ready. No slaving over the stove for hours and working up a sweat!
Love Indo-Chinese? Gobi manchurian, vegetable spring rolls, and vegetable lo mein are all great recipes to try.
Equipment
You will need a large wok or heavy karahi for making chilli paneer. The reason is that a wok is ideal for stir-frying at high temperatures. One obvious benefit is that there's lots of room for the food to be moved without spilling.
Another is that the shape (high, sloping sides) and material of the wok (usually metal) allows the food to be seared perfectly, so that it remains vibrant, fresh and evenly cooked. Nobody wants over-cooked, soggy, mushy vegetables in a stir-fry!
Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese)
Choosing good quality paneer is paramount or you will find the final dish quite underwhelming, no matter how good the sauce tastes. The question is what kind of paneer to go with?
Fresh paneer: If you can get your hands on some fresh paneer, that is hands down, the best option. Fresh paneer is soft and creamy and tastes the best. You can find it in Indian restaurants or groceries sometimes.
Frozen paneer: If fresh paneer is not available, frozen paneer also works, provided you soften it first. You will need to soak it in hot water, pat it dry, and cut it into cubes before frying it. This makes it ready for frying.. it will still not be as soft as fresh paneer, but it is still an option, though the least preferred one.
Homemade paneer: Time-wise, this is the most involved option although making paneer yourself is not very difficult. If you want to go down this route, here is a simple, 2-ingredient recipe for instant pot paneer. It turns out soft and as tasty as the fresh store-bought cheese.
Ingredients
For frying the paneer
Cooking oil: Besides paneer, you will need a neutral oil for frying. Normally, paneer is deep-fried for this recipe, but I'm a little wary of deep frying food if I can avoid it. So I shallow-fried it in my second attempt, and to my delight (and yours I'm sure), the difference was negligible!
Paprika: I use paprika for colour and taste, but you can also sub with some Kashmiri chilli powder if you have it. This variety of red chilli is milder than regular chilli and has a pleasing red colour.
Cornflour: Cornflour crisps up the paneer so that it has nice, crunchy outsides. So good when you bite into a cube!
For the vegetables
Finely chopped ginger, garlic, onions, green chilli, peppers, and both the onions (red and spring) are stir-fried on high heat in a little oil. All these ingredients are supporting actors that add to the excellence of the star performer, the paneer!
For the sauce
You can add the sauces one by one to the vegetables, or you can whisk them in a bowl to make one sauce that you can pour into the wok all at once. Your choice.
How to make chilli paneer
Preparation
1. Cut the fresh paneer into cubes. If using frozen, first thaw it by putting in in hot water for about 10-12 minutes, remove excess moisture by patting it down with paper towels, and cut it into cubes.
2. Finely chop the ginger and garlic.
3. Cut the onions, green chilli and bell peppers. Cut the spring onions and separate the whites and the greens. Keep the greens aside to use as a garnish.
4. Make the cornflour slurry and keep the sauces measured and handy.
Cooking
1. Make the dry rub: Put all the dry ingredients from the first picture in a bowl and mix them well with a spoon. Add the paneer and make sure it is well coated with the dry rub.
2. Shallow fry the paneer in hot oil: The trick here is to add the paneer to the oil and fry it quickly until it crisps up. You don't want to lower the temperature or let the paneer cook for too long because both these things will make for chewy, rubbery paneer. Transfer the fried paneer to a ready bowl or plate quickly and proceed with the next step.
Note: if the paneer absorbs all the oil and there is none left after you remove it, add a tablespoon more before adding the vegetables. If there is oil in the karahi, don't add any more.
3. Stir fry the vegetables: In the same oil, add the ginger, garlic, onions, spring onion whites, green chilli, and bell peppers and fry on high heat until the vegetables get seared but don't lose their colour or crunch.
4. Add the wet ingredients: Tip in the soy sauce, red chilli sauce, and ketchup. Follow with the cornflour slurry. Stir everything vigorously until the paneer and veggies absorb the sauce and turn glossy. Top with spring onions greens if you want. Serve hot.
Tip: Don't add too much cornflour or the whole thing will become a sticky mess. If you want more gravy, you can even leave out the cornflour and add a little water (¼ cup) with the sauces.
Top Tips
THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP: Prep all the ingredients for this recipe in advance and work fast as you are adding ingredients to the wok. Stir-frying food requires high temperatures and quick movements, so it's a good idea to be ready with chopped vegetables and the sauces ready to go.
Use good quality paneer. Fresh paneer is best if you can get your hands on it.
Cook everything on a high enough temperature in a wok. The paneer, onions and bell peppers should be cooked but crunchy.
This is a semi-dry chilli paneer, but if you want more gravy, add some water along with the sauces and take it off the heat before the gravy dries up. You can also omit the cornflour if you want more sauce.
Check the salt before adding more. Soy sauce is quite salty, so add a little less salt than you normally would.
Chilli paneer is best had hot and fresh, straight from the stovetop to the table, if possible. If you keep it for too long, the veggies will go limp and the paneer will harden. Make short work of it!
Serving Suggestions
Since this is a semi-dry chili paneer recipe, it can be served with fried rice for a quick meal. It also goes well with plain Basmati rice or cumin rice if you already have some in your fridge.
To accompany the chilli paneer, you can also make some more Indo-Chinese dishes mentioned earlier in the post. Chicken Hakka noodles go very well with it.
More paneer recipes: If you like the taste and texture of paneer, do try more paneer appetizers like hariyali paneer tikka or paneer fingers. Or try a paneer main dish or two: the hugely popular palak paneer and this creamy shahi paneer made with a cashew sauce!
FAQs
You can. Substitute paneer with firm tofu and follow the preparation and cooking steps as outlined.
Paneer is a good source of protein and calcium, especially for a vegetarian diet, and bell peppers and onions are rich in antioxidants. Moreover, the paneer is shallow-fried and the vegetables are stir-fried, thus retaining most of their nutritive value. All these factors make chilli paneer an overall healthy dish.
Tried this recipe? Please consider giving it a star rating and a comment below. If you're on Instagram, feel free to tag me so I can see your gem. I'd love to hear from you! Thank you:)
📖 Recipe
Chilli Paneer
Equipment
- Karahi or wok
Ingredients
For the paneer
- 14 oz paneer cubed
- 2 tbsp cornflour or cornstarch
- 1 tsp paprika substitute with ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder if paprika is not an option
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp sea salt chopped finely
- ¼ cup cooking oil neutral
For the vegetables
- 1 tablespoon ginger finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon garlic finely chopped
- 1 red onion medium-sized, cut into Chinese-style squares
- 1 green bell pepper cut into Chinese-style squares
- 1 red bell pepper cut into Chinese-style squares
- 1 green chilli cut diagonally
- 2 spring onions white bulbs, sliced (reserve the greens for garnishing in the last step)
For the sauce
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon tomato ketchup
- 2 tablespoon red chilli sauce Use less for less hot
- 1 teaspoon corn flour dissolved in a little water
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
Fry the paneer
- Cut the paneer into cubes if using fresh. For frozen paneer, see note #3 below.
- Mix the dry ingredients (cornflour through black pepper) in a bowl and add the paneer, making sure to coat every piece.
- Heat the oil in a karahi or wok and slide in the paneer pieces. Fry on high heat until all the pieces are browned. Transfer them quickly to a plate and proceed with the next step.
Fry the vegetables
- In the same oil that you fried the paneer, add the chopped ginger garlic, onions, green and red peppers, green chilli and spring onions. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. The vegetables should be seared but still retain their colour and crispness. Don't allow them to turn limp or soggy with overcooking on low temps.
Add the sauces
- Tip in the soy sauce, tomato ketchup, red chilli sauce, black pepper, and salt and stir the veggies until they absorb the sauces (1-2 minutes only).
- Add the cornflour slurry (cornflour dissolved in water) and stir-fry for a minute more. The vegetables will turn glossy again.
- Garnish with the spring onion greens and serve hot.
Notes
- Prep everything in advance so that you don't have to stop in the middle of the cooking. Since everything gets stir-fried quickly on high heat, keeping the chopped vegetables, cornflour slurry, and sauces close at hand is essential.
- Use good quality fresh paneer if you can.
- If using a frozen block of paneer, thaw it first. Put the whole block in hot water for 10-15 minutes. Drain and cut into cubes. Pat them down with paper towels to get rid of excess moisture.
- If you don't want a dry chilli paneer, add a little water (¼-1/2 cup) with the sauces and omit the cornflour.
- Don't add too much salt as most brands of soy sauce have salt in them.
- Chilli paneer tastes best when it is hot and fresh, but if you have leftovers, you can store it covered in the fridge for a day or two and reheat in the microwave for best results.
Sakina Husain says
Tried your chilli paneer recipe today and as usual, it turned out to be awesome. Served with steamed rice and it tasted better than any restaurant food. Please post a few Chinese recipes on your website.
Saima says
Thanks, Sakina! And sure, I will try to post a few more Indo-Chinese recipes soon.