Chilli mushroom is a delicious vegetarian dish that combines bright Indian and Chinese flavors. There are two simple versions that can be made: The first is a recipe for lightly fried mushrooms perfect for dipping, and the second is a healthy saucy variation that’s great with rice. Either one is wonderfully easy to make and delicious to enjoy as an appetizer, side, or snack! Here you’ll find step-by-step instructions with photos to make your choice of chilli mushroom recipe.
Table of Contents
About These Recipes
As mentioned there are two main ways to prepare Chinese-inspired Indian chilli mushrooms.
- Prepare a dry style chilli mushroom as a deep fried snack.
- Make a saucy chilli mushroom dish to serve with your favorite grains as a starter or side.
Both versions are quite simple to make and are wonderful to enjoy with roti or naan. I suggest you give both recipes a try and see which one you prefer!
About Chilli Mushroom Dry
Mushrooms are made every week at my home. I simply adore the tender texture and savory, earthy flavor of mushrooms, and have posted many Mushroom Recipes on the blog – like Mushroom 65 and Mushroom Manchurian.
Dry chilli mushroom is one of my favorite snack recipes. Fresh pieces of mushrooms are lightly battered and shallow fried to golden brown. They are sautéed with vibrant aromatics and spicy green chiles, then served piping hot and crispy – to be enjoyed with your favorite dipping sauce.
In fact these are so good, you can fill them in a tortilla or roti to make Burrito or a wrap with an assortment of flavorful toppings or make sandwiches, sliders or burgers. They are so delicious.
How to make Mushroom Chilli
You can make this recipe with button mushrooms or baby portabella mushrooms. I have used both. Both these mushroom varieties work well here.
Make Batter Fried Mushrooms
1. First, prep all your ingredients and have them ready to go. You need to move quickly when stir frying, so it’s best to that everything be prepared.
Rinse or wipe dry the 200 to 250 grams button mushrooms.
2. Trim the stalks and quarter the mushrooms if larger in size. You can halve if medium-sized and keep the smaller ones whole and intact. Set the mushrooms aside.
3. In a medium shallow bowl add 5 to 6 tablespoons whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour) and 3 tablespoons cornstarch.
4. Season with ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed black pepper and salt to taste.
5. Add ¼ to ⅓ cup of water.
6. Whisk to combine so that you have a flowing medium-consistency batter.
7. Heat oil for shallow frying in a kadai, deep pan, or wok. Use a fork to dip each mushroom slice in the batter and coat evenly with the batter.
8. Add the battered mushrooms to the medium hot oil. Ensure that the heat is medium to medium-high while shallow frying.
9. Fry until one side becomes crisp and light golden. Then turn over and fry the second side. Continue to flip back and forth a few times until the mushrooms are evenly golden and crisp.
10. Fry the mushrooms in batches, and transfer the fried mushrooms to a paper towel to drain any excess oil.
Stir Fry Aromatics
11. In another heavy wok or pan or skillet, heat ½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil. Add spring onion whites or green onions ((1 to 2), and ¼ cup chopped capsicum/bell pepper cubes.
TIP: Feel free to swap toasted sesame oil with any neutral tasting oil.
NOTE: The spring onion whites can be halved if smaller in size or quartered if medium-sized and the layers removed. Reserve the greens for garnish.
12. Stir fry on medium or high heat for a minute to soften.
13. Add 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger, 2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic and 2 to 3 green chilies that have been slit or sliced.
14. Stir fry on a high heat until you see the onions getting browned at the edges. If the heat becomes too much then reduce it and continue to stir-fry.
15. Reduce the heat and add 1 tablespoon soy sauce.
16. Add salt according to taste, ½ to 1 teaspoon sugar and crushed black pepper as required.
17. Mix and stir fry for half a minute or so.
Make Chilli Mushroom
18. Now add the fried batter-coated mushrooms, and stir on a low to medium heat.
19. Sprinkle about ½ to ¾ teaspoon corn starch and 1 to 2 teaspoons of water on the mushrooms. This creates a light, slightly thick gravy that coats the fried mushrooms with flavor.
20. Sauté for a minute or two and continue to stir until a nice glaze forms on the mushrooms.
21. Turn off the heat and serve the chili mushroom hot garnished with 1 to 2 tablespoons of chopped spring onion greens.
About Instant Pot Version
This is a really quick method to make Chinese style spicy and delicious chilli mushroom in the instant pot. The cooking time is about 10 minutes right from start to finish.
Include 5 to 10 minutes of chopping the ingredients and a tasty Chinese style meal is ready within 15 to 20 minutes.
Instead of thinking of ordering a takeaway or going to the nearby Chinese restaurant, prepare this chilli mushroom gravy at home. You won’t regret.
After getting the instant pot, I make many recipes in it such as this one. Hence I have updated this chilli mushroom recipe with the instant pot method.
This recipe is very simple and easy. You don’t need to prepare any batter and fry the mushrooms. The mushrooms are sauteed first, sauces are added and then cooked. This is a healthier version of chilli mushroom as they are not fried.
Most of the times I make food which is quick and easy to prepare. Some Indian recipes are time-consuming but at times all I want is to make something quick for our rumbling tummies.
At times it is best to make some quick Chinese style recipes. Yes quick ones, not the ones which have extensive chopping and preparation like a Veg Manchurian or Gobi Manchurian.
This chilly mushroom gravy is spicy as together with the green chillies, I have also added red chilli sauce. You can decrease the number of green chillies and red chilli sauce if you want less heat and spice.
Serve instant pot chilli mushroom with fried rice, Veg Noodles, fettuccine pasta or even dinner rolls or bread. Dinner rolls or bread just soak up the spicy, sour, sweet, umami sauce and taste yum. You can also serve with naan or roti and steamed rice.
How to make Instant Pot Chilli Mushroom
Prepare Sauce Mixture
1. Firstly in a small bowl, take 1 tablespoon bragg’s liquid aminos or 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons red chilli sauce, 2 teaspoons green chilli sauce and 1 teaspoon rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar or white vinegar.
2. Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed black pepper, ¼ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon sugar.
3. Mix very well and keep aside.
Cook In Instant Pot
4. Switch on the instant pot. Press the sauté button on less mode for 7 to 8 minutes.
5. Let it display hot and then add 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil.
6. Add ½ tablespoon finely chopped garlic, ½ tablespoon finely chopped ginger and 2 to 3 green chillies, slit or diagonally sliced.
7. Sauté on low for 1 to 2 minutes.
8. Add ¼ cup chopped scallions (only the white part) or spring onion whites and 1 teaspoon finely chopped celery – optional.
9. Press sauté again and set to normal. Sauté scallions for minute.
10. Add chopped mushrooms (200 to 250 grams) and ⅓ cup sliced green bell pepper (capsicum).
11. Sauté for 2 minutes stirring often. If the onions, ginger and garlic, etc start sticking at the bottom, then change the sauté setting to less.
12. Add the sauce mixture which we had prepared earlier.
13. Mix very well.
14. Add ½ cup water or vegetable stock. Stir well.
15. Cancel the sauté mode. Secure the instant pot with its lid and position the steam release handle to sealing. Press the pressure cook button on high pressure and set the timer for 5 minutes.
Make Corn Starch Slurry
16. Meanwhile take 2 teaspoons tapioca starch or corn starch or potato starch and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl.
17. Mix very well and keep aside.
Make Instant Pot Mushroom Chilli
18. After 5 minutes, do a quick pressure release and then open the lid.
19. Stir the prepared slurry and add it to the mushrooms.
20. Mix again very well.
21. Press sauté button again on normal mode for 1 to 2 minutes.
22. Let the sauce simmer for 1 to 2 minutes or more till the sauce or gravy thickens and the rawness of the starch is not felt. If the sauce becomes too thick add some hot water.
23. Once the sauce gets thickened, press the cancel button. Sprinkle some scallion greens or spring onion greens. Stir and mix.
Check the seasonings and add bragg’s liquid amino or soy sauce, sugar, salt or crushed black pepper more if required.
24. Serve chilli mushroom gravy hot with bread rolls, fried rice, noodles or fettuccine pasta. Garnish with some finely chopped scallion greens while serving.
FAQs
Feel free to use less or add more of the green chiles to taste. The recipe as-is calls for 2 to 3 chiles, so you can only use 1 or up the number to 4, depending on how spicy you like.
The mushrooms taste best when freshly fried and crisp, so I do not recommend you make this in advance.
Garnish with chopped green onions, and serve with Schezwan Fried Rice or Veg Fried Rice and bread, roti or naan.
Please be sure to rate this recipe in the recipe card below if you have made it. For more vegetarian inspirations, Sign Up for my emails or follow me on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.
Chilli Mushroom Recipe
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- 200 to 250 grams button mushrooms or baby portabella mushrooms
- 1 to 2 spring onions (small to medium-sized scallions), halved or quartered and the white layers removed (reserve greens for garnish) or 1 small to medium onion, chopped
- 2 to 3 green chilies – slit
- ¼ cup chopped capsicum chopped into squares or cubes (optional) – can use red or green, yellow or red bell peppers
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic cloves or 7 to 8 small to medium garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger or 1 inch ginger
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (naturally brewed) or as required
- ½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil or any neutral oil – for the sauce
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 to 2 teaspoons water
- ½ to 1 teaspoon sugar or as required
- salt as required
- crushed black pepper as required
- oil – for shallow frying mushrooms, any neutral oil, as required
For Batter
- 5 to 6 tablespoons whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed black pepper or add as required
- salt as required
- ¼ to ⅓ cup water or add as required
Instructions
Preparation
- Rinse and wipe dry the mushrooms. Trim the stalks.
- Quarter them if larger in size and halve them if medium-sized. Keep the smaller ones intact and whole.
- Make a flowing medium consistency batter with the ingredients listed above “for the batter”.
Frying mushroom
- Heat oil for shallow frying in a kadai or wok.
- Dip each mushroom slice in the batter and coat uniformly with the batter.
- Add them to the medium hot oil and fry till they are slight golden and crisp.
- Fry the batter coated mushrooms in batches and drain on paper towels to remove excess oil.
Making chilli mushroom
- In another wok (kadai) or pan, heat toasted sesame oil.
- Add the spring onion whites and capsicum. Stir fry on medium or high heat for a minute.
- Add the finely chopped ginger, garlic and green chilies.
- Stir fry on a high heat until you see the onions getting browned at the edges. If the heat becomes too much then reduce it.
- Reduce the heat. Add the soy sauce, salt, sugar, black pepper and stir fry for half a minute.
- Add the fried batter coated mushrooms and stir on a low to medium heat.
- Sprinkle about 1 to 2 teaspoons of water and ½ to ¾ teaspoons cornstarch on the mushrooms.
- Mix very well and sauté for a minute or two. Continue to stir. This gives a nice glaze to the mushrooms.
- Switch off the heat and serve the chili mushroom hot with veg fried rice, bread or even roti or naan.
- Garnish with spring onion greens while serving.
Video
Notes
Chilli Mushroom Gravy on Stovetop
INGREDIENTS- 200 to 250 grams white button mushrooms, chopped or sliced
- 1 small to medium bell pepper sliced or chopped
- ¼ cup onion or spring onions whites (scallion whites), chopped
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped celery, optional
- ½ tablespoon finely chopped ginger
- ½ tablespoon finely chopped garlic
- 2 to 3 green chilies, finely chopped or slit
- 1 tablespoon corn flour dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce – add less or more as you prefer
- ½ tablespoon rice vinegar or rice wine or white vinegar
- ½ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper or black pepper powder or white pepper powder
- 2 tablespoons oil
- ½ teaspoon sugar as required
- salt as required
- ½ tablespoon green chilli sauce
- ½ tablespoon red chilli sauce
- ½ tablespoon rice vinegar or rice wine or white vinegar
- 1 or 1.25 cups water or vegetable stock
- Some chopped spring onion greens (scallion greens) for garnishing
- Rinse 200 to 250 grams mushroom in water and then chop them. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok or kadai. Add ¼ cup chopped onions or chopped spring onion whites.
- Stir fry them on medium heat till they become translucent.
- Now add ½ tablespoon finely chopped ginger, ½ tablespoon finely chopped garlic and 2 to 3 slit green chilies. Stir fry for a minute.
- Then add 1 small to medium sized, sliced or chopped bell pepper (capsicum) and 1 tablespoon finely chopped celery. Addition of celery is optional. Stir fry for a couple of minutes.
- Then add 200 grams of chopped mushrooms.
- Stir fry on medium heat till the mushrooms leave the water and start to get browned. They will shrink in size too. This will take about 7-8 minutes.
- When the mushrooms are getting cooked, mix 1 tablespoon cornflour in 2 tablespoon water. Stir and mix well. Keep aside.
- The whole mixture should become dry and the mushrooms can be lightly browned.
- Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce and mix well. You can add the soy sauce less or more as per your preference. Also add ½ tablespoon green chilli sauce and ½ tablespoon red chilli sauce. Mix very well.
- Then add ½ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper (or pepper powder), ½ teaspoon sugar and salt as required. Add less salt as the sauces already have salt in them. Mix well.
- Add 1 or 1.25 cups of water or vegetable stock to the mushrooms. Mix well. Bring to a boil.
- Then add the corn starch paste.
- As soon as you add corn starch paste, mix very well.
- Simmer for a few minutes and let the chilli mushroom gravy thicken.
- Switch off the flame and add ½ tbsp rice vinegar (or rice wine or white vinegar). If using sweet rice wine or mirin, then reduce the sugar or skip it. Check the seasonings of mushroom chilli gravy and add soy sauce, sugar, salt or black pepper powder more as required. Mix very well.
- Serve stove top chilli mushroom gravy hot with fried rice, noodles, or steamed rice. This spicy dish also goes well with bread or buns.
Nutrition Info (Approximate values)
Instant Pot Chilli Mushroom Gravy
Ingredients
main ingredients
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil or any neutral flavored oil
- ½ tablespoon finely chopped garlic
- ½ tablespoon finely chopped ginger
- 2 to 3 green chilies, sliced diagonally or slit
- ¼ cup
chopped scallions
(only the white part) or spring onion whites
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped celery – optional
- 200 to 250 grams white button mushrooms quartered or chopped
⅓
cup sliced green bell pepper – capsicum½
cup water or vegetable stock, add more if required- 1 tablespoon finely chopped scallions greens or spring onion greens
for sauce
- 1 tablespoon
bragg's liquid aminos
or 2 teaspoons soy sauce – add less or more as you prefer - 2 teaspoons red chilli sauce
- 2 teaspoons green chilli sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper or ground black pepper or white pepper
- ½ teaspoon sugar or add as required
- ¼ teaspoon salt or add as required
for starch slurry
- 2 teaspoons
tapioca starch
or corn starch or potato starch
- 1 tablespoon water
for garnish
- few finely chopped scallion greens or spring onion greens
Instructions
- In a small bowl take all the sauce, salt, sugar, pepper and mix very well. Keep aside.
- Press the sauté button on less for 7 to 8 minutes on the instant pot.
- Let it display hot and then add 2 tablespoons oil.
- Now add the ginger, garlic and green chilies and sauté on less mode for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the chopped scallions (spring onions) and celery.
- Press sauté again and set to normal mode. Sauté onions for minute.
- Add chopped mushrooms (200 to 250 grams) and ⅓ cup sliced bell pepper (capsicum).
- Sauté for 2 minutes stirring often. If the onions, ginger and garlic, etc start sticking at the bottom, then change the sauté heat setting to less.
- Add the prepared sauce mixture and mix very well.
- Add water or vegetable stock. Mix again.
- Cancel the sauté mode. Secure the instant pot with its lid and position the steam release handle to sealing. Press the pressure cook button on high pressure and set the time for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make a slurry or paste by mixing 2 teaspoons tapioca starch or corn starch or potato starch with 1 tablespoon water. Keep aside.
- After 5 minutes, do a quick pressure release and then open the lid.
- Stir the prepared slurry and add it to the mushrooms. Mix again very well.
- Press the sauté button again on normal mode for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Let the sauce simmer for 1 to 2 minutes or more till the sauce or gravy thickens and the rawness of the starch is not felt. If gravy becomes too thick add some hot water.
- Once the sauce gets thickened, press cancel button. Sprinkle some scallion greens or spring onion greens. Stir and mix.
- Check the taste and add bragg's liquid amino or soy sauce, sugar, salt or crushed black pepper more if required.
- Serve instant pot chilli mushroom gravy hot with bread rolls, fried rice, noodles or fettuccine pasta. garnish with some finely chopped scallion greens while serving.
Notes
- Green chilies, garlic, ginger, red chili paste, black pepper powder, salt and sugar can be adjusted to suit one’s taste.
- Take care when sauteing the garlic, ginger, green chillies so that they do not get browned or burn.
- Add more water or veg stock for a slight thin soupy sauce.
- If using sweet rice wine or mirin instead of vinegar, then reduce the sugar or skip it.
- You can even add both salt and sugar towards the end, once the instant pot mushroom chilli is done.
- Add less salt as the sauces already have salt in them.
- The recipe can be doubled.
Nutrition Info (Approximate values)
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This chilli mushroom post from the archives, first published in Dec 2014 has been republished and updated on 19 November 2021.
Hi,
Instead of deep fry can i do it oven?
in oven, the batter coating will become chewy. if you plan to roast in oven, then just mix the mushrooms with black pepper powder, salt and a bit of oil. then roast in oven till done.