Malaysian Mango Chicken

As I scanned the menu boards at the food court of Kuala Lumpur airport a couple of months back, I realised I wanted to try out way too much variety of food in too little time. Well, actually not very little. I had 7 hours to kill before my connecting flight to Calcutta but the obnoxious amount of weight I was carrying in my backpack and handbag together effectively prevented me from moving around and deciding judiciously on what to have. Also the fact that I had around 50 MYR with me didn’t help much (I couldn’t buy the dirt cheap Ritters and Toblerones because I didn’t have enough currency). So after a lot of pondering I settled with a Strawberry Cooler and a hearty bowl of Pork Meatballs in Soup. But one thing in the menu attracted me quite a bit, and that was a Malaysian Mango Chicken. Confident that I could make something like this once back home, I ordered what I did. And once I was back and the weight off my back and shoulders were lifted, I started looking for recipes of authentic Malaysian Mango Chicken. I found one which I liked and waited eagerly for mangoes to hit the market.

This dish is such a riot of flavours. Sweet, salty, hot, sticky, crunchy — this is an Asian food lover’s dream, I’ve tweaked the recipe here and there (and I don’t know whether it makes the dish less authentic) — added garlic and chillies, removed steak sauce, substituted oyster sauce with hoisin sauce and used a lot more mangoes. I loved the outcome. This is probably going to be my most favourite recipe of the Mango Marathon.

Recipe partly adapted from Rasa Malaysia
Serves: 4-5
Ingredients:

Boneless chicken, cut into strips or bite-sized pieces: 500 gm
Olive oil: 2.5 tbsp
Garlic cloves: 4-5
Onion, diced: 1
Green bell pepper, cut into strips: 1 medium
Yellow bell pepper, cut into strips: 1 medium
Mango, peeled and cut into strips: 1.5 big
Red chillies, chopped finely: 4
Spring onions, chopped finely: 5-6 tbsp
Tomato ketchup: 3 tbsp
Red chilli sauce: 2 tbsp (I used 1 tbsp more to finish off my jar)
Hoisin sauce: 2 tbsp (the recipe called for oyster sauce, I didn’t have it)
Worcestershire sauce: 1 tbsp
Honey: 1 tbsp
Rice wine vinegar: 1 tbsp
Salt, to taste
Sugar: 1 tsp

For marinade:

Sugar: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Black pepper powder: 1/2 tsp
Cornflour: 1 tsp
Garlic, minced: 1 tsp

Method:

1. Marinade the chicken with the ingredients listed under marination and refrigerate for 3-4 hours. I kept it overnight.

2. In a bowl mix together tomato ketchup, red chilli sauce, hoisin sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Honey, vinegar and a little bit of salt. Check seasoning and set aside.

3. In a non stick pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and add the onions. Stir for 2-3 minutes until the onions have wilted a bit. Now add the garlic and bell peppers and half of the chopped red chillies. Fry on medium high heat for 8-10 minutes till everything is caramelised and slightly charred. You can add a 1 tsp of sugar in between the frying process. Set aside.

4. In the same pan, heat up the remaining oil and add the marinated chicken. Stir fry on high heat for 5 minutes, add the mango strips, stir well and then cover and cook for another 7-8 minutes to let the mangoes release their juices.

5. Now remove the cover, add the sauce mixture and mix stir well, stirring continuously on high heat. Cook for 3-4 minutes and then add the caramelised onion-bell pepper that you had set aside. Mix well. Check for seasoning and add salt/sugar if required. You can also add some mango chunks at this stage so as to help them retain shape. Cook on high heat for another 5 minutes. Add 4 tbsp of the green onions in between and turn off the heat once the chicken is cooked.

6. Garnish with remaining green onions and chopped red chillies and serve as a starter or with steamed rice.

It’s Raining Mangoes: Day 8
I am sending this post to Kolkata Food Bloggers’ Mango Festival

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