Chilli Paneer – 2 Ways (Restaurant Style & Street Style)

Chilli Paneer is one of the popular recipe from the Indian Chinese cuisine. There are many ways of making it. You can make it dry, semi dry or a gravy version. In this post I am sharing the dry and semi dry version.

1. Chilli Paneer Restaurant Style (Semi-Dry)
2. Chilli Paneer Street Style (Dry version as a snack)

Both these recipes make for an awesome chilli paneer which you can relish with some noodles or fried rice. They taste good with naan or roti too. I have also shared a gravy version made in Instant Pot – Instant Pot Chilli Paneer Gravy.

What is Chilli Paneer

One of the favorite dishes from Indian Chinese cuisine is Chilli Paneer which is a vegetarian version of Chilli Chicken.

In a typical Chilli Paneer recipe, the fried paneer cubes are tossed in a sweet, sour, spicy sauce. The paneer cubes can be coated with flours or batter coated and deep fried.

The dry version of chilli paneer is served as a starter or appetizer snack. The gravy version is had with steamed rice or noodles. The semi-dry version can be had as an appetizer.

This semi-dry chilli paneer recipe gives a truly restaurant style taste and flavor.

Tips for making Best Chilli Paneer

1. Paneer: Use homemade paneer for best results. If using frozen paneer, then soak them in hot water for some minutes.
2. Soy Sauce: If possible use naturally fermented soy sauce. You can even use tamari or bragg amino liquid instead of soy sauce.
3. Spring Onions: If you do not have spring onions (scallions), you can use shallots or regular onions.
4. Flours: Normally in restaurants, both corn flour and all-purpose flour are used to make the batter. You can even use whole wheat flour or rice flour instead of all purpose flour. In place of corn starch, you can use potato starch, tapioca starch or arrowroot flour.
5. Spicing:  You can add the amount of soy sauce, red chilli sauce, green chillies, black pepper, sugar and vinegar as per your requirements or taste buds.
6. Consistency: In this recipe, you can make the gravy slightly thick or having medium consistency. Just add slightly more water (about ¼ to ⅓) but do not add too much as then the flavors get diluted in the water. You can always check the seasonings and add more if required.
7. Frying: You can deep fry or shallow fry or pan fry the paneer cubes. But do not fry the paneer too much as then they become dense and loose their softness.
8. Vegan Option: Replace tofu with paneer.
9. Serving Suggestions: Serve chilli paneer with fried rice or schezwan fried rice or burnt garlic fried rice. It also goes well as a side dish with pulao or jeera rice or ghee rice. You can also have it with tandoori roti or naan or roomali roti. You can even have it as an appetizer snack with any chinese dipping sauce.

How to make Chilli Paneer Restaurant Style

Preparing batter

1. In a bowl take 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 3 tablespoons maida (all purpose flour).

2. Next add ½ teaspoon ginger paste and ½ teaspoon garlic paste.

3. Now add ¼ teaspoon crushed black pepper or black pepper powder and ¼ teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder. Also season with salt as required.

4. Then add ¼ cup water or add as required. With a wired whisk or a spoon mix very well to get a smooth batter without any lumps. The batter is of medium consistency.

5. Now add paneer cubes in the batter. With a spoon gently coat the paneer cubes with the batter.

Frying Paneer

1. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a frying pan. I have pan fried the paneer cubes. You can also deep fry them.

2. Once one side is done, flip it and fry the other side. Flip a couple of times and fry till the paneer cubes are crisp and golden. Also do not over do the frying as then the paneer cubes can become hard.

3. Remove the fried paneer cubes and place them on kitchen paper towels for the extra oil to be absorbed.

Stir Frying

1. In the same pan, there will be some oil left. So no need to add any extra oil. Add 2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger, 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic and 2 to 3 green chillies (slit or sliced).

2. Stir fry on medium to high flame for some seconds.

3. Then add ⅓ cup chopped spring onions. Stir fry spring onions for 1 to 2 minutes on medium to high flame.

4. Next add ½ cup sliced capsicum.

6. Stir fry on medium to high flame for 3 to 4 minutes. The capsicum only needs to slightly cooked.

7. Lower the flame and then add ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder.

8. Then add 2 teaspoons soy sauce.

9. Next add 1 teaspoon red chilli sauce.

10. Stir and mix the sauces and red chilli powder with the remaining stir fried ingredients.

11. Add ½ to ⅔ cup water.

12. Mix well.

13. Let the mixture come to a simmer on medium to medium-high flame.

14. Take 1 tablespoon cornstarch in a small bowl.

15. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons water for dissolving corn starch. Corn starch is known as corn flour in India.

16. Mix very well to get a smooth paste.

17. Lower the flame and then add this corn starch paste to the gravy.

18. As soon as you add, mix the paste very well so that no lumps are formed.

19. Add ½ to 1 teaspoon sugar or as required.

20. Season with salt as per taste. Do keep a check on salt as soy sauce and red chilli sauce already have salt in them.

21. Mix very well and simmer till the sauce has slightly thickened and the corn starch has cooked. You can check the taste and you should not feel any raw taste coming from the corn starch.

22. Add the fried paneer cubes.

23. Mix paneer cubes very well with the gravy.

24. Switch off the flame and then add ¼ to ½ teaspoon rice vinegar or white vinegar. You can skip vinegar if you want.

25. Then add about 2 to 3 tablespoons of chopped spring onions greens. mix very well. Check the taste and if you want, you can add more soy sauce, chilli sauce, salt, black pepper or sugar.

26. Serve chilli paneer restaurant style garnished with some spring onions. You can serve it with any Indo Chinese rice recipe.

Chilli paneer also goes well as a side dish with veg pulao or jeera rice. You can also have paneer chilli with plain paratha or pudina paratha or naan or roti.

More popular paneer recipes

• Palak paneer
• Malai kofta
• Paneer manchurian
• Paneer butter masala

This post is from the archives and has been republished and updated on 24 May 2020. 

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Chilli Paneer Dry (Street Style Recipe)

This is a quick 30 minutes street style dry chilli paneer which is truly spicy, sour, sweet and tastes so good. This is a dry snack and can be has an appetizer.

When I make paneer (Indian cottage cheese) at home, then most of the times (when there is capsicum in the fridge I make this chilli paneer.

It is best to use fresh paneer to make this dish. You can add less or more sauces (e.g. soy sauce or red chilli sauce) as per your requirements.

You can serve these dry chilli paneer as starter snack or even roll them in roti and make a chilli paneer wrap. This incredibly spicy paneer dish tastes best when served hot. Instead of having them with veg fried rice, we have them with roti or naan and it tastes yum.

Some more awesome dry Paneer recipes 

• Paneer 65
• Paneer tikka
• Paneer pakoda
• Achari paneer tikka

How to make Street Style Chilli Paneer Dry

1. Pat dry 200 to 250 grams paneer first. Then slice the paneer in cubes or rectangles. Keep aside in a mixing bowl. If using frozen paneer, then keep them soaked in hot water for some minutes before slicing.

2. Peel and finely chop 1-inch ginger and 7 to 9 medium garlic cloves. Diagonally chop 3 to 4 green chillies. Quarter 1 small to medium-sized onion and remove all the layers. Slice 1 small to medium capsicum in squares. Remove its seeds and pith (white part). Keep the chopped veggies aside. Instead of onions, you can also use spring onions (scallions).

3. Add 2 tablespoons corn starch (corn flour), ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder, ¼ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper or black pepper powder and salt as per taste to the paneer cubes.

4. Gently mix without breaking the cubes. Or else you can shake the bowl and toss the paneer with the dry ingredients. If there is some moisture in the paneer, the corn starch will become sticky. But still, no issues as the paneer can be still fried.

5. Heat 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil in a non-stick pan or a well-seasoned pan. When the oil is medium hot, place the paneer cubes in the pan. You can use any other oil instead of sesame oil.

6. When the base is slightly cooked, flip over and fry the other side.

7. Turn them gently and fry so that they are uniformly golden. You can also deep fry the paneer cubes if you want.

8. Fry them till golden and crisp. Do not overcook as then they harden.

9. Place the pan fried paneer cubes in a plate. Keep aside.

10. Whilst the paneer cubes are getting fried, do the following. In the same bowl, in which we marinated the paneer cubes, there will be some leftover corn starch (corn flour) and spices. Add 2 tablespoons water to the bowl

11. Mix very well. we will add this corn starch paste to give a glaze to the sauce.

11. In another small bowl, add 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon green chilli sauce, 1 teaspoon sweet red chilli sauce, ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder and ¼ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper or black pepper powder.

12. With a spoon mix all the three sauces very well.

13. In the same pan, there will be some oil left after pan frying the paneer cubes. So add the finely chopped ginger-garlic and green chillies. Stir.

14. Then add the onion and capsicum squares. If using celery, you can add 1 teaspoon chopped celery at this step.

15. On a medium flame, stir fry till the edges of the onions and capsicum get cooked or become light browned.

16. Add mixed sauces.

17. Then add little salt and sugar. Go easy on the salt as the sauces already have salt in them.

17. Stir very well.

18. Now add the corn starch paste.

19. Stir again very well. Do check the taste and add some soy sauce or chilli sauces or red chilli powder or sugar or salt if required.

20. Add the pan fried paneer cubes.

21. Stir and mix the paneer cubes with the rest of the sauce so that the sauce coats the paneer cubes evenly.

22. Here the Street Style Best Chilli Paneer is done and ready to be served.

23. You can garnish with some coriander leaves or chopped celery or spring onion greens before serving. Serve Dry Chilli Paneer hot. This spicy paneer dish tastes best when served hot.