Sticky Chilli Chicken and Chips

Why You’ll Love It

• You get crispy chicken and crispy chunky chips in the same bowl.
• The chicken thighs stay much juicier than breast meat.
• The sticky chilli sauce takes only a few minutes to make.
• Chunky onions and peppers keep a little bite instead of disappearing into the sauce.
• You can easily adjust the chilli level.
• It has that messy, saucy takeaway feel without needing a huge ingredient list.
• The sauce-soaked chips at the bottom are ridiculously good.
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Ingredients

For the Crispy Chicken

• 600g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 3 tablespoons cornflour
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• Vegetable oil, for frying

For the Chips

• 700g potatoes
• Vegetable oil, for deep frying
• Sea salt

You can absolutely use frozen chunky chips if you want to make this quicker.

Cook them until they’re properly crisp, though. Pale, floppy chips aren’t going to hold up once the sauce arrives.

For the Vegetables

• 1 large white onion, cut into chunky wedges
• 1 small red onion, cut into chunky wedges
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 fresh red chilli, thinly sliced
• 1 fresh green chilli, thinly sliced
• 3 spring onions, sliced

For the Sticky Chilli Sauce

• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon cornflour

To Finish

• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• Extra sliced red chilli
• Sliced spring onions

How To Make Sticky Chilli Chicken and Chips

Get The Chips Going First

The chips take the longest, so deal with those before touching the chicken.

• Peel the potatoes or leave the skins on if you prefer.
• Cut them into thick, chunky chips.
• Rinse under cold water until the water becomes clearer.
• Pat them completely dry.
• Heat your frying oil to around 150°C.
• Fry the chips for 5 to 6 minutes until tender but still quite pale.
• Lift them out and drain.
• Increase the oil temperature to around 190°C.
• Fry them again for another 3 to 5 minutes until deeply golden and crisp.
• Drain on kitchen paper and season immediately with sea salt.

That double fry is worth doing. The first fry cooks the potato through, while the hotter second fry gives you that crunchy outside.

If you’re using oven or air-fryer chips, get those cooking before starting the rest of the recipe.

Coat The Chicken

Cut the chicken thighs into fairly chunky bite-sized pieces. Don’t make them tiny.

Chicken thighs are particularly good for this because they can handle frying without becoming dry in approximately seventeen seconds.

Put the chicken into a bowl, then add:

• Cornflour
• Plain flour
• Garlic powder
• Paprika
• Salt
• Black pepper

Toss everything thoroughly.

You want a thin, rough coating rather than a thick batter.

Those uneven floury patches become crisp little edges once they hit the oil, and later they grab onto the sticky sauce.

Much better than a perfectly smooth coating.

Fry The Chicken Until Crisp

Heat a shallow layer of vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.

Once hot:

• Add the chicken in a single layer.
• Don’t crowd the pan. Work in two batches if necessary.
• Fry for around 4 minutes on the first side without constantly moving it.
• Turn the pieces and continue cooking until golden, crisp and cooked through.
• Transfer the chicken onto a plate lined with kitchen paper.

You’re looking for deep golden edges, not lightly cooked chicken with a vague dusting of flour still visible.

Give it some colour.

Chicken should reach 75°C in the thickest part if you’re checking with a thermometer.

Mix The Sticky Chilli Sauce

While the chicken cooks, mix the sauce in a small bowl.

Add the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, honey, rice vinegar, ketchup, garlic, ginger and sesame oil.

In a separate tiny bowl, stir the cornflour into the water until completely smooth, then mix that into the sauce.

Taste it.

It should be salty, sweet and tangy with a definite chilli flavour. Don’t worry if it seems slightly strong on its own because once it’s covering chicken, vegetables and a pile of potatoes, everything balances out.

If you want more heat, add a pinch of chilli flakes or some of your fresh sliced chilli directly to the sauce.

Fry The Onions And Peppers

Pour away most of the chicken oil, leaving roughly a tablespoon behind.

Get the pan nice and hot again.

• Add the chunky white and red onions.
• Fry for 2 minutes.
• Add the sliced red and green peppers.
• Toss everything over high heat for another 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add most of the fresh red and green chilli.
• Cook for another 30 seconds.

Don’t cook the vegetables until completely soft.

You want those onions glossy and slightly charred around their edges while still holding their chunky shape.

Same with the peppers. A little crunch makes a massive difference when everything else is covered in sticky sauce.

Add The Chicken Back In

Return the crispy chicken to the pan.

Give everything a quick toss so the chicken, peppers, chillies and chunky onion pieces are evenly distributed.

Now pour in the sauce.

It will look fairly loose for the first few seconds.

Then it changes fast.

Keep tossing everything over medium-high heat for around 1 to 2 minutes. The cornflour thickens the sauce while the honey and sweet chilli sauce turn glossy and sticky.

You’ll know it’s ready when there’s no watery sauce sitting at the bottom of the pan. Instead, it should cling tightly to the chicken and vegetables.

Don’t keep cooking once you reach that point.

The longer that crispy chicken sits bubbling in sauce, the softer the coating becomes.

Bring In The Chips

There are two ways to do this.

If you want the chips to stay as crispy as possible, put them straight into your serving bowl and spoon the sticky chicken mixture over them.

If you’re firmly on team saucy chips, add about half of the chips directly to the frying pan.

Give them one or two quick tosses through the remaining sauce.

That’s it.

Don’t stir them around for five minutes or they’ll start breaking apart.

Transfer everything into a large shallow bowl and tuck the remaining crispy chips around the edges.

Now you’ve got both kinds: sticky sauce-coated chips in the middle and properly crunchy ones around the outside.

Exactly what we want.

Finish It Off

Scatter over:

• Sesame seeds
• Sliced spring onions
• Fresh red chilli
• A few slices of green chilli if you want more heat

Serve immediately.

Not in ten minutes.

Not after you’ve cleaned the kitchen.

Now.

This dish changes as it sits because the steam and sauce gradually soften the fried coating. It will still taste great later, but that first hot, crispy, sticky stage is the whole point.

How Spicy Is It?

As written, I’d call it medium rather than brutally hot.

The sweet chilli sauce and honey soften the heat considerably, while the fresh chillies give little bursts of spice throughout.

Of course, fresh chillies are wildly inconsistent. One can taste almost like a bell pepper and the next has you standing at the fridge drinking milk.

For a milder version, remove the seeds from the chillies and use only half.

For something hotter, add chilli flakes or another sliced fresh chilli.

The Secret To Crispy Chicken That Stays Crispy

First, use chicken thighs.

They have enough fat to stay juicy while the outside gets properly browned.

Second, don’t overcrowd the pan.

This is probably the biggest mistake with fried chicken pieces. Put too much chicken into the pan at once and the temperature drops. Moisture gets trapped. Instead of frying, the chicken starts steaming.

Not what we’re doing here.

Cook in batches if necessary.

And finally, don’t drown the chicken in sauce.

You need enough sauce to coat everything generously, but you shouldn’t have a soup of soy sauce underneath your chips.

The sauce should be thick and glossy before everything leaves the pan.

Why Use Cornflour?

Cornflour does two different jobs in this recipe.

The dry cornflour around the chicken helps create that light, crispy exterior.

Then the small amount mixed into the sauce thickens it almost instantly once it reaches the hot pan.

Without it, the sauce can stay thin and run straight through the chicken onto the bottom of the bowl.

We’re after something that grabs hold.

Every piece of chicken should come out shiny and lacquered with sauce.

What Kind Of Chips Work Best?

Chunky chips.

Definitely.

Skinny fries can work, but they soften much faster underneath the sauce.

A thick chip gives you more fluffy potato inside and enough crispy exterior to survive being tossed around with chicken, onions and sauce.

Homemade double-fried chips are brilliant, but frozen chips are completely acceptable here. In fact, for a quick Friday-night version, that’s probably what I’d use.

Just cook them slightly crispier than you normally would.

Can You Air Fry The Chicken?

Yes.

Coat the chicken exactly the same way, then spray or brush it lightly with oil.

Air fry at around 200°C for 14 to 18 minutes, turning halfway through, until crisp, browned and cooked through to 75°C.

Depending on the size of your air fryer, you may still need to work in batches.

Then make the vegetables and sauce in a frying pan and toss the cooked chicken through right at the end.

You won’t get quite the same deep-fried crunch, but it’s still very good.

What To Serve With It

Honestly, it doesn’t need much.

You’ve already got chicken, potatoes, peppers and onions all piled into one rather generous bowl.

If you’re feeding several people and want to turn it into a bigger spread, try serving it with:

• Egg fried rice
• Steamed jasmine rice
• Stir-fried noodles
• Cucumber salad
• Steamed pak choi
• Vegetable spring rolls

Although chicken plus chips plus fried rice is heading firmly into takeaway-feast territory.

Which isn’t necessarily a problem.

What About Leftovers?

Store leftover chicken and vegetables separately from any untouched chips if you can.

They’ll keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Reheat the chicken in a hot frying pan until piping hot throughout. Add a tiny splash of water if the sauce has become extremely thick in the fridge.

The chips are best reheated in an air fryer or hot oven.

Will everything be quite as crispy as it was originally?

No.

Will those sticky, spicy, soy-soaked leftover chips still mysteriously disappear from the container while you’re supposedly reheating dinner?

Almost certainly.