Easy Chili Garlic Chicken
A quick weeknight friendly dish with few ingredients that delivers a ton of amazing flavour in under 30 minutes. Juicy chicken stir fried in a ton of garlic, dried chilies, and Thai umami seasonings. You'll make it again and again like I do!
Ingredients
- 1.3 lb Boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into ½ inch strips, halve the strip if long
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3-4 teaspoons chili flakes or chili powder, mild to medium (see note 1)
- 2 Tablespoons neutral oil
- 8 cloves garlic, chopped
- chopped green onions, cilantro or Thai basil leaves, for garnish
Sauce
- 1 Tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 Tablespoons Golden Mountain Sauce or soy sauce, (see note 2)
- 1 ½ teaspoon sugar
- 2 Tablespoons water
Notes
1. I'm using mild/medium chili flakes so that I can use a lot of it and get a lot of chili flavour and colour in the dish. If your heat tolerance is low, "red pepper flakes" sold at Western grocery stores would work well. You can also use whole dried chilies such as puya or guajillo and blitz them in a coffee grinder.
2. Golden Mountain Sauce is a type of Thai soy sauce. You can also use Maggi Seasoning which tastes very similar, or any type of soy sauce you have. I've also made it with fish sauce and it was also very good, though with a distinctly different flavour. So use whatever you've got.
Instructions
- Mix the chicken thighs with the fish sauce and sugar; let sit while you prep other ingredients.1.3 lb Boneless skinless chicken thighs, 2 teaspoons fish sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar
- If using large chili flakes or whole chilies, blitz them in a coffee grinder to turn them into finer flakes.3-4 teaspoons chili flakes or chili powder
- Make the sauce by combining the oyster sauce, Golden Mountain sauce, water, and sugar, and stir to dissolve the sugar.1 Tablespoons oyster sauce, 1 Tablespoons Golden Mountain Sauce or soy sauce, 1 ½ teaspoon sugar, 2 Tablespoons water
- Heat the wok over high heat until very hot, then add just enough oil to coat the bottom. Add the chicken and spread it out into one layer and let it sear for about 2 minutes until the underside is brown. Give the chicken a flip so most pieces are turned over (don't worry about every piece), and let them cook on the other side for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is fully cooked.2 Tablespoons neutral oil
- Remove the chicken from the pan, leaving all of the oil and juices behind.
- In the same wok, with the heat still off, add the garlic. Turn the heat on medium and saute the garlic until they start to turn golden. Add the chili flakes and stir for about 30 seconds until the chilies smell toasty and are darkened slightly, adding more oil if it looks dry.8 cloves garlic
- Once the chilies are toasted, immediately add the sauce (do this quickly as the chilies burn fast) and stir to mix. Let the sauce simmer for 15-30 seconds until it is reduced slightly.
- Add the chicken back in, along with all the collected juices, and toss the chicken in the sauce until all the pieces are coated. If there's a lot of sauce pooling, keep cooking to dry it out a bit. There will be some oil pooling, but most of the sauce should be reduced enough to coat the chicken pieces.
- Plate, and top with chopped green onions, cilantro or some Thai basil leaves, if desired. Enjoy with jasmine rice!chopped green onions, cilantro or Thai basil leaves
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