Chilli Paneer is an amazing Indian paneer starter dish. Just like every other Indian, I love Indo-Chinese food. Deep fried goodness in a creamy sauce or coated in thick, spicy gravy – what’s not to like! I even like the calories that come with it, I am very impartial that way! This Chilli Paneer recipe is one that was born of urgency and necessity. I prefer a dry version of chilli paneer than the kind with gravy so chose to go with that. If you want to make chilli paneer with gravy, I have given options to do that below.
I make Gobi Manchurian quite often but paneer usually gets made into Palak Paneer or Paneer Butter Masala and hardly ever an Indo-Chinese recipe, that too an appetizer. But it happened on the last day in our previous apartment. I was clearing out the fridge and realised I have a few cubes of paneer left which had to be made into something real soon or they’d die. No self-respecting Indian can kill paneer, trust me!
So the paneer pieces turned into a lovely plate of dry chilli paneer recipe that gave some well-needed energy to TH and me to resume last-minute packing in full vigour.
Chilli Paneer Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups cubed paneer I used longer slices
- 1 bell pepper / capsicum
- 2 large onions
- 4 green chillies slit
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste use freshly ground paste if possible
- 1 tbsp soya sauce
- 1 tsp green chilli sauce
- 1 tsp tomato paste / ketchup
- 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp oil
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp cornflour + 3 tbsp water make a smooth paste
- Salt to taste
For the Marinade:
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp corn flour / corn starch
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- A pinch of salt
- Water
Instructions
- Make a semi-thick paste with the ingredients for marinade.
- Dunk the paneer pieces in and let them soak in the marinade.
- Add 3-4 tbsp oil in a pan and shallow fry the paneer pieces, turning them over when the sides are brown.
- Drain and set aside.
- In the same pan, add chopped onions, green chillies, and capsicum.
- Cook until the onions turn transparent, about 2-3 mins.
- Next, turn the flame to high and add soya sauce, green chilli sauce, ginger garlic paste, sugar and tomato paste.
- Stir-fry on high for about 30 seconds until well blended and turn the flame to medium-low.
- Add the fried paneer cubes and the cornflour-water paste. Taste and adjust salt (since the sauces will have salt).
- Stir and cook for another 3-4 mins until the sauce comes around and thickens due to the cornflour.
- Serve Chilli Paneer steaming hot as an appetiser
How to make dry Chilli Paneer Recipe:
For dry Chilli Paneer recipe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, please use the Google Translate button on the top right of this website.
How much time it needs to marinade?
About 5-10 mins is more than enough.
I love that you have step by step instructions with pictures!
it's sometimes a pain to do that but if you find it useful, then it's all worth it (a bit cheesy, i know!). hope you tried the chilli paneer and liked it.
Hi Nags, I tried this dish tonight and it was very good except that I would use firm Tofu next time. My presentation was not even close as good but I'll keep practising! Thanks for sharing your recipes!
i am sure you will nail the paneer recipes soon! 🙂
Heyy Nags, Thanks for another yummmm dish, made it today for my future MIL and she loved it! Thought I'd bbqed it :)) Thaaank you 😀
wow! future MIL! that's a huge compliment for me 😀
Thank you Satish. Glad you liked the Chilly Paneer Recipe 🙂
great indian taste…..
for the last couple of weeks i have been trying recipes from this site
wow..i m glad i bumped into dis blog!!!
it was just awesome !!!
i loved it 🙂
thank u !!
Hi, Thanks for your recipe. But what do you do with marinade that is left over? Can we use it for any other dish or probably mix it to make it a gravy curry? 🙂
i didn't have any leftover after making the chilli paneer but i guess you can add it to the gravy and cook it up. it may clump up a bit though.. did you have a lot of leftover?