Chili garlic fish – the easy way / Fish glazed in chili garlic sauce. Ready in 15 minutes, a delicious seafood side dish to have with rice or noodles.
Tilapia or Swai fillets are excellent for making this easy version of chili garlic fish. If u want to whip up something fast some sauces really come in handy to make the twist like the chili garlic sauce. I skip the usual practice of coating fish in the batter and deep frying. Instead I shallow fry the fish with two or three teaspoons of oil, carefully in a non stick pan without crumbling it. Then add it to the veggie cooked in sauce. This way the fish pieces are filled with flavor and the shape is intact without all the oil.
Best Tilapia recipes to have in your quick and easy recipe collection to pull off a fast and delicious meal in 15 minutes without much effort on a busy weekday.
FAQs
Clean , rinse then coat the fish pieces in few drops of vinegar.Allow the fish to sit for few minutes then wash off and continue cooking. Lemon juice works well too. It is better to cut the fish into small pieces for the acid to work its way rather than whole fish with skin on.
A chemical compound called Geosmin is responsible for the earthy smell. The fish could be feeding on decomposing matter. The soil in waterbody in which the fish is found acts as an important element. Clay and loam soils are likely to produce muddy taste. The clay particles suspended in the water absorbs the geosmin and easily passed through the gills of the fish. Trouts and some bottom feeders like tilapia is found to have this odor.
Clean, rinse nd cut fish into small slices then soak in a vinegar and water mixture for few minutes then continue cooking. A tablespoon of Chickpeas flour added to this water vinegar mixture ensures all the odors disappear. Cooking seafood in acidic flavors such as vinegar soy sauce tomato based or tamarind based dishes helps in masking the flavor to a large extant.
Original recipe posted on Nov 11 2012 Pictures updated in June 2022
Chili garlic fish – the easy way / Fish glazed in chili garlic sauce
Ingredients
- 4 fillets Tilapia/ Swai fillets
- 1 tsp Chili powder
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 Red Onion Diced
- 1/2 Bell pepper Red (Diced)
- 1/2 Bell pepper Green (Diced)
- 1 tbsp Lime juice
- 1 tbsp Chili garlic sauce (I used Vietnamese Huy Fong hot chili garlic sauce)
- 2-3 Spring onion chopped
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the fillets well then cut into small pieces and marinate with chili powder, turmeric powder, salt and lime juice. Let it rest for at least half an hour.
- Shallow fry the fish in a non stick for 5-7 minutes veg oil till both the sides are golden brown fry in batches if a small pan is used. Remove fried pieces and keep aside.
- In the same pan add a tsp of oil or more and saute onion till transparent and slightly soft add the bell peppers too. Put the chili garlic sauce sprinkle some water and saute for a minute or two.Put the fried fish pieces back into the pan, give it a gentle toss. Switch off flame garnish with spring onions chopped.Serve warm with as a side dish for plain white rice or noddles, fried rice or use a filling in wraps.
Notes
- When u find that fish has an earthy taste this recipe works best because the vinegar in the sauce does the trick.
- I use non stick pan for making this so that the sauce doesnot stick to the bottom and change its color.
- Do not marinate for long the acids will breakdown the fish.
Nutrition
anishathefoodie
Hi Meena,
This sounds good, so simple. I will try this out soon.
Great job on the blog 🙂
Anisha Kuruvilla
Meena Kumar
Thanks a lot Anisha, you made my day!
Anonymous
i tried this..it came out really good, my friends liked it!
Meena Kumar
Thank you so much for trying this recipe so glad to know it came out well.