Mango Chicken Stir Fry

Myriad of flavors will dance in your mouth and tickle your taste buds…

Without any doubt, mango and chicken are quite compatible. I once had mango chicken at a Thai restaurant in Omaha, NE, it was delicious and since then I had been getting constant cravings for the same. I had the feeling that it was big time I succumb to my irresistible craving for mango chicken. Last weekend, I had bought half a dozen of really good and fresh ripe mangoes with the sole intention of making mango chicken. The mangoes were really sweet and juicy that I couldn’t stop eating it while cutting them and I got little worried whether there would be any mangoes left to make the dish. I did have to scream at myself to stop eating the fruit and focus on preparing my favorite dish.

For making this there are 3 main steps: making the mango sauce, frying the chicken, and combining the mango sauce and the fried chicken. I was so impatient to taste this dish and greedily tasted some while it was simmering in the pan. There was an outburst of flavors in my mouth: spicy, tangy, juicy, sweet, and mango flavor. The taste was just phenomenal, and of course, I felt this dish tasted much better than the restaurant style. The preparation method for this dish is quite flexible you could tweak almost everything according to your needs.  If you want more spice, add more chili paste; if you prefer to have more mango taste, add more of the mango sauce, etc; the end result will be absolutely delicious.

Mango Chicken

Ingredients:

For frying chicken:

• Chicken breasts, skinless and boneless, cubes- 2 or 3
• Rice flour or all purpose flour- 1/2 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Oil- 1/4 cup or more for shallow frying

For making mango sauce:

• Mangoes, ripe and sweet, cubed- 2
• Chili paste (sambal oelek) or dried whole red chili- 1 1/2 tsp of chili paste or 1 red dry chili
• Soy sauce, low sodium- 2 tbsp
• Rice vinegar- 1 tbsp
• Fish sauce-  2 tbsp
• Lemon juice- 2 tbsp
• Brown sugar- 1 tbsp
• Garlic, chopped- 3 cloves
• Ginger or galangal chopped- 1 1/2 inch slice
• Lemon or lime zest or kaffir lime leaves-  zest of 1/2 lemon or 2 kaffir leaves
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Other ingredients:

• Red bell pepper, cut into long strips- 1
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/4 cup

Instruction

• Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.
• Coat the chicken with flour.
• Place a large cooking pan over medium heat, add oil.
• Add the coated chicken to the oil and shallow fry in 2 batches till they turn golden in color.
• I used rice flour and the chicken turned really crispy. You could use all-purpose flour instead.
• If you want you could add more oil to fry it.
• Transfer to a paper towel and keep aside.
• To a blender jar, add all the ingredients to make the mango sauce and puree to a smooth paste.
• To the same pan used for frying the chicken, pour the mango sauce and add the red bell peppers to it.
• Combine well and let the sauce come to a boil.
• Add 1/4 cup of water to thin it down.
• Let cook for 3 minutes.
• Red pepper shouldn’t be cooked well, it should have a crispy texture.
• Add the fried chicken, combine well and cook for a minute.
• Have a taste and adjust the spice level and salt level.
• Add the chopped cilantro over the mango chicken.
• Remove the pan from the stove and serve in a serving bowl.
• Enjoy with Jasmine rice or Basmati rice.

Tips:

• I find using red peppers gives a nice flavor and color to this dish, so make sure to use red peppers only.