Capsicum stuffed with chicken

Chicken mince is stuffed in the capsicum and cooked in a spicy sauce. You can have it as a starter or as a side dish with rice/noodles. This recipe is one of my favourites and my husband likes it very much. We do not get this dish in restaurants, if at all we get it would be very rare. I tried to mix the ideas of Indian version of stuffed capsicum and chinese prawn toast.

Ingredients

  1. Chicken mince (you can grind chicken yourselves) - 100gms to 120gms
  2. Marinade: Soya sauce - 1/2 tsp, Maida (Plain flour) - 1 tsp, Sesame oil - 1/4 tsp, Salt - to taste, Crushed pepper (coarse powder)- 1/4 tsp
  3. Onions mediun size (finely chopped) - 1/2
  4. Dry red chillies - 3, Green chillies (chopped) - 2, Cashew nuts (roughly chopped) - 5 to 6
  5. Garlic (chopped) - 2, Ginger (chopped) - 1 tsp, Ajinomoto - a pinch
  6. Black pepper powder (coarse) - 1/4 tsp
  7. Soya sauce - 2 tsp, Tomato ketchup - 3 tbsp, water - 1/4 cup
  8. Spring onions (chopped) - 1, Oil - 1 to 2 tbsp
  9. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp, Capsicum - 1 to 1 1/2(cut into square shape)

Method

  1. Grind the chicken to a mince in a mixer/food processor for a few seconds. Then marinate it with soya sauce, maida, salt, ajinomoto, a pinch or 1/4 tsp of crushed pepper and mix well. Now keep it aside. Cut capsicum into square pieces and stuff chicken mince. Take a tsp of the marinated chicken mince and apply on the cut capsicum. It will stick to it. Stuff nicely.
  2. Sprinkle or coat with corn flour lightly on top of the stuffing. Wipe the excess corn flour on it and deep fry. Put the stuffing part first downwards - towards the oil so that the chicken gets cooked well first. Then turn to the other side and cook it. Fry it on medium flame and be careful when capsicum is frying as it gets brown quickly. After frying in batches, keep them aside.
  3. Sauce: Take a wider pan or kadai, add oil and when it gets warm add drychillies (broken) and onion. Stir well until it is light brown and soft. Then add ginger, garlic, cashew nuts, green chillies and stir well. After approx 30 seconds stir well and add all sauces, ajinomoto, chilli powder, crushed pepper and again stir well. Now immediately add water and cook for sometime until a sauce consistency obtained. It will not take much time.
  4. When the sauce consistency is obtained and is enough to coat the pieces, mix all the capsicum pieces well but gently. While mixing, you can simmer the flame so that the sauce does not get dry soon.
  5. At last, put coriander leaves on top and mix. Switch the flame off when the pieces are well coated with the sauce.
  6. Serve the dish as a starter or with fried rice/noodles.

Notes

  1. Take care when adding salt as soya sauce and ajinomoto are used and they are salty.
  2. If the sauce is getting dry, you can add a little water and cook.
  3. Taste and see whether you require more salt or chilli and if so just add to your taste.
  4. If you want you can thicken the sauce with 3 tbsp or more of corn starch (1 tsp corn flour mixed with 1/3 cup of water).