Hot Thai Chicken - Fried Chicken in Sweet Chili Lime Sauce

I have finally developed the dish deserving of the name "Hot Thai Chicken"! This fried chicken recipe has been simmering in my mind for a long time, and when I finally tested it out, it absolutely blew me away. The perfect mix of sweet, tart, spicy, sticky, crispy and tender...this sweet chili lime sauce would be good even on fried tofu or fish. This one is a must-try!

The Cool Story Behind "Hot Thai Chicken"

Many times, when I try to say "Hot Thai Kitchen" on camera, it comes out as Hot Thai Chicken, which always makes me laugh. And this isn't just me, I've had many other people make the same mistake when they're talking to me about my site. So I thought, wouldn't it be cool if Hot Thai Chicken was actually a dish?

I thought long and hard about what that dish would be, because whatever it is, it has to DESERVE this "hot thai" designation. And let me tell you, this one totally does.

The inspiration came from when I worked at a Thai restaurant many years ago. Their most popular item was pieces of boneless chicken breast, fried and tossed in a red sweet-and-sour sauce. It was their attempt to copy the popular Chinese Orange Chicken or General Tsao Chicken. It's not a traditional Thai dish at all, but the American customers loved it.

I liked the dish fine but always found it too sweet (as most Americanized Thai food tends to be) and lacking in complexity. But I knew the idea was solid, and that it had the potential to be awesome.

So I got to work making a sauce that would have a well-balanced sweetness, adding aromatics to amp up the complexity, and brightening it with fresh lime juice for that all-important zing. It worked, and the chicken was crowned Hot Thai Chicken, and it has since gotten over a 1.4 million views on YouTube.

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

All my recipes come with video tutorials, I highly recommend you watch it to ensure success, especially if it's your first time!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

Fried Chicken

• Chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, cut each thigh into 6-7 pieces. You can also substitute chicken breast if you really want to, but thighs are more resilient to overcooking so you can fry them until crispy without worrying about the chicken becoming dry like chicken breast can.
• Egg
• Salt
• All-purpose flour
• Cornstarch, if needed you can use flour only, but cornstarch reduces the gluten and makes the coating crunchier and lighter.
• Oil for frying

Hot Thai Chicken Sauce (Sweet Chili Lime Sauce) 

• Thai chili paste, called nam prik pao in Thai. You can find it at many Asian grocery stores. I used Pantai Brand but Maepranom brand is also great. You can also make your own using my homemade nam prik pao recipe here.
• Dried chilies. This is where you determine how hot your Hot Thai Chicken is. If you want it mild, use mild dried chilies such as guajillo peppers. If you want it spicy, you can use spicy dried chilies such as Arbol. You can use a mix of the two for something in between. Alternatively, you can also use a combination of paprika (mild) and cayenne pepper (hot) to achieve the right heat level for you.
• White vinegar, or any kind of mild flavoured vinegar you have such as rice vinegar or even white wine vinegar.
• Sugar
• Oyster sauce, see my post about choosing good quality oyster sauce here.
• Garlic, finely grated or minced. In a pinch garlic powder will also do.
• Fish sauce, see my post about choosing good fish sauce here.
• Water
• Lime juice
• Makrut lime leaves (aka kaffir lime leaves) center rib removed, finely julienned then minced into small pieces (see video for technique). If you don't have it, you can also use more of the lime zest.
• Lime zest, finely grated

1. Place chicken in a bowl, add the egg, 2 tablespoon of the cornstarch, and salt. Stir until well mixed and let sit while you prepare the sauce.
2. Cut the dried chilies into chunks. If you want to lessen the heat, remove the seeds. Grind the chilies into a powder in a coffee/spice grinder.
3. In a small pot, add the Thai chili paste, ground chilies, vinegar, sugar, oyster sauce, garlic, fish sauce, and water. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes until thickened, stirring frequently (it should look too thick right now as we will thin it out later).
4. Turn off the heat and immediately add the minced makrut lime leaves, grated lime zest and stir to mix; the heat of the sauce will help infuse the lime. Once mixed, stir in lime juice. Keep covered while you fry the chicken.

1. Whisk together all-purpose flour and ¼ cup of cornstarch in a large mixing bowl. Add the chicken all at once, then toss the chicken in the flour until all pieces are well coated, making sure that no pieces are stuck together. If you want a thicker crust, drizzle a little water over the chicken and toss one more time, and the water will help the chicken pick up a little more flour.
2. Heat about 2 inches of frying oil to 375°F (190°C) in a pot or a wok. Grab a piece of chicken and gently shake off loose flour, then place it gently into the hot oil. Fry in batches, making sure not to crowd the pot. After 2 ½ - 3 minutes, the chicken should be golden brown and crispy—remove and drain on paper towel. Repeat until all chicken is fried.
3. Pour the sauce into a large mixing bowl, add the chicken and with a large spoon, quickly toss the chicken until all the pieces are coated in the sauce. If you start to feel like there isn't enough sauce to coat all pieces thoroughly, scrape the sauce off the sides of the bowl and your spoon, and this will stretch the sauce a bit further.
4. Serve immediately, on its own or with jasmine rice or sticky rice. Enjoy it, I know you will!

Tip for Extra Crunch: Double Fry!

If you have the time and are so inclined, you can double fry the chicken and they will be crunchier. Here's what you do:

After frying them the first time, remove the chicken from the oil and allow to cool completely. Then heat the oil again to 375°F (190°C), and fry the chicken one more time for 1.5-2 minutes, just until the chicken develops a richer brown colour. Drain and toss with the sauce as per the recipe.

Advance Prep Tips

Hot Thai Chicken is a crowd pleaser and it's the perfect thing to serve at a party, so here are all the things you can do ahead of time:

• Make the sauce in advance but do not add the lime juice, this will keep in the fridge for up to a week! Reheat the sauce close to serving time, then add the lime juice off heat.
• On the day of serving, fry the chicken ahead of time and keep the oil on the stove. Then close to serving time fry them again at 375°F (190°C) for 1.5-2 minutes and toss in the sauce. This way you'll get the benefit of the extra crunch because you're double frying! You can fry chicken and leave them at room temp up to 4 hours in advance, of if it'll be more time, you can fridge the chicken until ready to serve.

Can You Air-Fry Hot Thai Chicken?

Yes! The chicken isn't going to be as crunchy as deep fried (obviously), but it can work and will still taste great. There IS a major downside which I will discuss below, but first, here's how you do it:

1. Use a little less flour to coat the chicken, you want the chicken coating to look moist, and not powdery when it goes into the air fryer. So start by tossing the chicken with half the flour/cornstarch mixture, then add more little by little until the chicken is well coated but there is very little excess dry flour in the bowl.
2. Place the chicken into the air fryer basket, making sure there is room between all the pieces (you may need to do this in two batches). Spray or brush the top of the chicken with oil, then air fry at 400°F for about 12 minutes or until the chicken is golden brown. At the halfway point, turn the chicken and brushing/spraying with a little more oil.
3. Toss the chicken in the sauce as per usual.

The downside of using the air fryer: Air-frying is great if your air fryer can hold all the chicken in one batch (my Instant Vortex cannot). If you have to do 2 batches, this ends up taking a very long time to cook because your total cooking time will be close to 30 minutes, where as you can finish deep frying all the chicken in 5-6 minutes.

Not to mention, the first batch of chicken will have to wait at least 12 mins before getting tossed, so it will have cooled down a lot. If you've got an eater who's picky about food being hot, you might need to pop the first batch into the air fryer to reheat for a few minutes!

What else can you use instead of chicken?

I have made this dish with great success using fried tofu! Use firm tofu, fry until golden and chewy, and toss in the sauce.

You can also use it on calamari or fried fish or even shrimp. Just make sure the pieces are big enough because the sauce is quite strong, and you don't want teeny tiny shrimp or skinny calamari rings that will be overwhelmed by the sauce.

Recipe Card

Hot Thai Chicken! Fried Chicken in Sweet Chili Lime Sauce

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 12 reviews

• Author: Pailin Chongchitnant
• Yield: Serves 2-3

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Ingredients

Fried Chicken

• 4 chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, cut each thigh into 6-7 pieces
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp + ¼ cup cornstarch
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• Oil for frying

Sweet Chili Lime Sauce 

• 2 Tbsp Thai chili paste (nam prik pao, store bought or make your own)
• 4 large Thai dried chilies (see note)
• 1 ½ Tbsp vinegar
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, finely grated or minced
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 ½ Tbsp lime juice
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, center rib removed, finely julienned then minced into small pieces (see video for technique)
• Zest of ½ a lime (if you don't have kaffir lime leaves, use zest of 1 whole lime)

Note: You can substitute any other kind of dried red chilies, keeping in mind that the smaller they are, the hotter they tend to be. If you don't want to make it spicy, you can also use 2 teaspoon paprika powder instead. 

Ingredients and Kitchen Tools I Use

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Instructions

Place chicken in a bowl, add the egg, 2 tablespoon of the cornstarch, and salt. Stir until well mixed and let sit while you prepare the sauce.

Cut the dried chilies into chunks. If you want to lessen the heat, remove the seeds by sticking something thin (tip of your scissors or a chopstick) into the cavity of the chilies to loosen the seeds. Grind the chilies into a powder in a coffee/spice grinder or a mortar and pestle.

In a small pot, add all sauce ingredients EXCEPT lime juice, kaffir lime leaves, and lime zest. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes until thickened, stirring frequently (it should look too thick right now as we will thin it out later).

Turn off the heat and add the kaffir lime leaves, lime zest and stir to mix; the heat of the sauce will help infuse the lime. Once mixed, stir in lime juice. Keep covered while you fry the chicken.

Heat about 2 inches of frying oil to 375°F (190°C).

While the oil is heating, whisk together all-purpose flour and ¼ cup of cornstarch in a large mixing bowl. Add the chicken all at once, then toss the chicken in the flour until all pieces are well coated, making sure that no pieces are stuck together. If you want a thicker crust, drizzle a little water over the chicken and toss one more time, and the water will help the chicken pick up a little more flour.

To fry: using tongs, grab a piece of chicken and gently shake off loose flour, then place it gently into the hot oil. Fry in batches, making sure not to crowd the pot. After 2 ½ - 3 minutes, the chicken should be golden brown and crispy—remove and drain on paper towel. Repeat until all chicken is fried.

Pour the sauce into a large mixing bowl, add the chicken and with a large spoon, quickly toss the chicken until all the pieces are coated in the sauce. If you start to feel like there isn't enough sauce to coat all pieces thoroughly, scrape the sauce off the sides of the bowl and your spoon, and this will stretch the sauce a bit further.

Serve immediately, on its own or with jasmine rice! Enjoy it, I know you will!

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