Make Chilli prawns gravy or Chinese style chilli shrimp recipe at home with step by step pictures. Spicy yet slightly sweet gravy based chilli prawns made of batter-fried prawns, tossed in onion, garlic, tomato sauce, chilli sauce and soy sauce. This is an Indo-Chinese dish which is quick and easy to prepare. Because prawns do not take much time to cook, and this dish gets ready by stir frying. This prawn gravy pairs well with a variety of dishes, including Chinese fried rice, noodles, pasta, and spaghetti.
For making chilli prawns, first, make a batter with an equal amount of cornflour and all-purpose flour with egg, salt and pepper, dip the prawns into the batter & shallow fry. Later, stir fry the prawns with onion, garlic and capsicum(green bell pepper) in chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, soya sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. Lastly, use a cornflour slurry to make the gravy.

Here, chilli is an important ingredient after the prawn. That can be green chilli or red chilli, along with Chinese chilli sauce. I made this gravy with both green chilli and green chilli sauce. You can use red chilli and red chilli sauce instead, or green chilli with red chilli sauce as well.
If you are a prawn lover and a fan of Chinese dishes, then you must try this recipe in your kitchen.
Feel free to ask me any queries about this recipe through the comment section below(end of this post).
Chilli prawns gravy recipe | Chinese style chilli prawns
Prep time: 15-20 mins
Cook time: 15-20 mins
Served in: 30-40 mins
Course: Main course
Cuisine: Indochinese / Chinese style
Served for: 4-5 people
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients of chilli prawns
(1 cup = 250 ml)
For making the batter
- 500 gms Prawns (22-25 prawns)
- 3 tbsp Cornflour
- 3 tbsp All-purpose Flour
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 tsp Salt + 1/2 tsp Pepper(crushed)
- 1/2 cup of Oil (for frying)
For making the gravy
- 1 Capsicum
- 2 Onion
- 1/2 inch Ginger
- 2 tsp Chopped Garlic
- 3 Green Chillies
- 1/2 cup spring onion(finely chopped)
- a handful of spring onion leaves
- 3 tbsp Tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp Chili sauce(red chili or green chili)
- 2 tsp Soya sauce
- 1 tsp Vinegar
- 3 tbsp Cornflour
- 1+1/2 cups of water(for slurry)
- Black pepper or white pepper(crushed)
- Salt(as required)
- Refined oil or Sesame oil
How to make chilli prawns gravy with step by step pictures:
Introduction
How to make the prawns batter
- First, clean the prawns by removing their heads and shells and devein them. Or even use cleaned store-bought prawns. Wash them properly and keep them in a mixing bowl.

- Then add one egg, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper powder to the mixing bowl.

- Next, add cornflour and all-purpose flour to the mixing bowl, one by one.
- Nicely mix them and the batter is ready.
- Cover the bowl and leave it for 10-15 mins marination.

How to fry the prawns
- Then take a pan, place it on a medium-high flame.
- Let the pan becomes hot, add 1/2 cup of refined oil or sesame oil to the pan.
- Let the oil get hot.

- Add the prawns in oil along with the batter as shown in the pic.

- Shallow fry or deep fry the prawns. Fry until gets light golden brown.
- Each side will take 1-2 mins to fry, overcooking or frying makes it chewy.

- Remove the prawns from the pan and keep them aside for later.
How to make chinese chilli prawns gravy
- Take the same pan(used earlier), place it on a high flame, (add oil if required), when the oil gets hot, add chopped garlic to it. Stir it for a few secs.

- When the nice aroma starts coming from the garlic, add capsicum or green bell pepper(cut into cubes) to the pan. Stir it well.

- Then add onion(cut it into 8 pieces) to the pan by separating its layers from each other as shown in the pic. Stir it nicely.

- Next, add the green chillies( cut into diagonal slices) and 1/2 inch julienne cut ginger, as shown in the pic. Mix them well.

- Then add 1/2 cup finely chopped spring onion to the pan and give a quick stir.

- Next, add 2 tsp soya sauce and 3 tbsp tomato ketchup. Mix it nicely.

- Then add 1 tbsp green chilli sauce (or red chilli sauce) and add 1 tsp vinegar. Give it a good stir.

- Next, add black or white pepper(crushed or powdered) and salt and stir it quickly.

- To make the slurry, take 1+1/2 cup of water, add 2+1/2 tbsp corn flour to it, mix it well to get a lump-free mix.
- Immediately add the cornflour slurry to the pan and bring it to boil. As it’s in high flame won’t take much time to boil.

- Once the gravy starts boiling, add the batter-fried prawns to the pan and give it a good stir.

- Prawns won’t take more than 2-3 mins to get done, then sprinkle chopped spring onion leaves from the top. Stir it well and turn off the flame.

- Serve these chilli prawns and their hot gravy with Chinese style fried rice or noddles.
Try this recipe at home and please let me know your valuable feedback by writing it down in the comment section below.
Tips
- 15 mins marination in the batter will make the prawns soft as salt has been used in it. After the addition of salt, it has a tendency to release the water from the food and make it soft.
- Stir frying or tossing of the vegetables is required, that will hold the crunchiness of the veggies. And toss or stir each vegetable for few seconds after adding it to the pan.
- As I wanted to keep gravy in it, I used more water If you want to make it dry, add 1 cup of water with 2 tbsp of cornflour.
- While adding salt in the gravy, must be very careful as tomato ketchup and chili sauce both contain salt.





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Hi Ma’am,
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