Chilli paneer (चिल्ली पनीर) tops the list when it comes to cook an Indo-Chinese dish. Chilli Paneer is a scrumptious recipe where Paneer or Indian cottage cheese is coated with a batter (corn flour being prime ingredient) and shallow fried until crisp. These paneer pieces are then tossed in a spicy sauce mixture, along with bell peppers. I am excited to share my restaurant style Chilli Paneer recipe to try at home today.
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What is chilli paneer
Chilli paneer is a popular Indo Chinese starter prepared by tossing fried Indian cottage cheese / paneer in chilli sauce along with capsicum (or bell peppers). By the word, chilli means it is spicy, but its not spicy like hot (which is attribute of red chilli), rather its tangy hot, which comes from combination of chilli sauce, vinegar, tomato ketchup, and soy sauce (also spelled as soya sauce in British english).
Chill paneer is one such dish which can be used as starter as well as mains. For starters chilli paneer is normally kept dry and for main course, chilli paneer is made with little gravy. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules and one can eat as they wish 🙂
Most of the times I am left with paneer at home and I don’t feel like having proper three course meal at home, I end up making this chilli paneer which goes as a charm. You can replace Paneer with Tofu for a vegan version of chilli paneer.
How to Make restaurant Style Chilli Paneer at home
There are few keys things to keep in mind for a good chilli paneer.
- Use sesame oil: Using sesame oil for tossing paneer to get the best taste to chilli paneer.
- Cook on high heat: Cook the veggies with paneer on a high heat to maintain the crunchiness of your veggies. Reduce heat only when adding sauces.
- Prepare everything before starting cooking: Since cooking is done on high heat, please make sure that all cutting, chopping has been done before hand and you have all ingredients to hand. You do not want to reduce heat to go away and hunt for ingredients.
Method for making Restaurant Style Chilli Paneer
- Take a mixing bowl and Put 2 tablespoon of cornflour, plain flour, salt, pepper powder, and water and mix it to form a light batter without lumps.
- Add the paneer cubes to this and mix well to coat. Now heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and shallow fry the paneer pieces until they are light golden in colour. Drain them onto a kitchen towel to soak excess oil.
- Now in the same pan, add one tablespoon oil and when it’s warm add ginger and garlic paste. Saute until the raw smell goes off.
- Now add cubed capsicum and onion, and cook for 3-4 mins until the they turn a bit soft and crunchy on same time. Add soy sauce, chilli sauce, vinegar, tomato ketchup, salt and black pepper. Mix it and sauté.
- Take 1/4 cup of water and add 1 tablespoon of cornflour to it and make a thin paste. Gently pour this into the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes with sautéing in between.
- Add the paneer pieces and sauté for 1 minute and then turn off the flame.
- Garnish with slit chillies and serve hot.
You may also like to try out these other variants of Indo-Chinese recipes:
Serving suggestion for chilli paneer
If you making dry chilli paneer, then it goes on its own, however semi dry gravy version of chilli paneer goes well with noodles or fried rice.
Common mistakes while making chilli paneer
- My paneer is very chewy: This is when you have fried paneer for too long or if paneer was fried on low flame.
- My vegetables are not crunchy: Likely cause is that veggies were sautéed for too long and on low heat, leading to soft vegetables.
Below is the step by step recipe of making Restaurant style Chilli Paneer at home.
Recipe Card
Chilli Paneer
Ingredients
- 500 Grams Paneer Cut into small cubes
- 3 Tablespoon Cornflour
- 1.5 Tablespoon All Purpose Flour/ Maida
- 3 Bell Pepper Cut into cubes
- 1 Tablespoon Garlic Chopped
- 1/3 Teaspoon Black pepper powder
- Salt As Per Taste
- 3 Tablespoon Oil
- 1.5 Tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1 Tablespoon Soyasouce
- 1/3 Tablespoon Red Chilli Souce
- 1/2 Tablespoon White Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Tomato Ketchup
- 2 Green chillies Slit
- 1 Onion Cut into Cubes
Instructions
- Take a mixing bowl and Put 2 tablespoon of cornflour, plain flour, salt, pepper powder, and water and mix it to form a light batter without lumps.
- Add the paneer cubes to this and mix well to coat. Now heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and shallow fry the paneer pieces until they are light golden in colour. Drain them onto a kitchen towel to soak excess oil.
- Now in the same pan, add one tablespoon oil and when it’s warm add ginger and garlic paste. Saute until the raw smell goes off.
- Now add cubed capsicum and onion, and cook for 3-4 mins until the they turn a bit soft and crunchy on same time. Add soy sauce, chilli sauce, vinegar, tomato ketchup, salt and black pepper. Mix it and sauté.
- Take 1/4 cup of water and add 1 tablespoon of cornflour to it and make a thin paste. Gently pour this into the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes with sautéing in between.
- Add the paneer pieces and sauté for 1 minute and then turn off the flame.
- Garnish with slit chillies and serve hot.
Notes
- The gravy thickens once cooled so don’t cook much after adding paneer.
- You can adjust the sweetness and tanginess as per your taste by adjusting the amount of vinegar, chill sauce and ketchup.