"Devilled" dishes are the pride of Sri Lanka's Chinese-influenced restaurant menus — bold, glossy stir-fries in a sweet-hot-savoury sauce, thick with onion wedges, capsicum and tomato. Devilled chicken is the most popular of them all: pieces of chicken fried until just crisp, then tossed through a fiery sauce so they stay a little chewy and catch all that flavour. It's a party dish and a takeaway favourite, and it comes together fast once everything is prepped.
The move that makes it taste like the real thing is cooking the chicken first, then the sauce, and combining them at the very end over high heat so the vegetables stay crunchy and the chicken doesn't go soft. A chilli paste plus fresh green chillies gives the signature heat; tomato and chilli sauce bring the sweet, sticky gloss.
Ingredients
- 600g boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (divided)
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 2 large onions, cut into wedges and layers separated
- 1 red or green capsicum, cut into chunks
- 1 tomato, cut into wedges
- 3 green chillies, sliced
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp chilli sauce (or 1 tsp chilli paste, to taste)
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- Salt, to taste
Method
- Toss the chicken with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, the cornflour, a pinch of salt and the pepper. Leave for 10 minutes.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Fry the chicken in a single layer, in batches, until golden and just cooked through, 5–6 minutes. Remove and set aside.
- Add the remaining oil to the pan. Add the curry leaves, ginger-garlic paste and green chillies and stir-fry for 30 seconds.
- Add the onion wedges and capsicum. Stir-fry over high heat for 2–3 minutes — you want them softened at the edges but still crunchy.
- Stir in the ketchup, chilli sauce, chilli powder, sugar and remaining soy sauce. Let the sauce bubble and thicken for a minute.
- Return the chicken to the pan along with the tomato wedges. Toss everything together over high heat for 2–3 minutes, until the chicken is coated in the glossy sauce and the tomato has just softened.
- Taste, adjust salt and heat, and serve immediately with steamed rice, fried rice or bread.
Cook's notes
- Fry the chicken first and add it back at the end — this keeps it chewy-crisp instead of stewed.
- Keep the heat high and the pan moving so the onion and capsicum stay crunchy.
- Balance the sauce: it should be hot, a little sweet and savoury all at once. Adjust chilli and sugar to taste.