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Chilli Paneer is a popular Indo/Chinese dish made of Indian cheese, lightly fried with chunky peppers and onions – coated in a rich, sticky chilli sauce. The dish is quick to cook and makes for a lovely treat lunch or dinner which I tend to serve this with Chinese or Indian side dishes – such as egg fried rice or onion bhajis.

The paneer is lightly battered then fried in a small amount of oil – making this at home version much lighter than a restaurant or takeaway. The chilli sauce is made up of soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, honey and ketchup – so it’s stuff you’ll likely have in the house.

You should be able to get paneer at your local supermarket, I find mine in my local Morrisons and M&S (and live in a small town). Paneer also has a great use by date so if you have it in, you can whip up this chilli paneer without needing to go to the shops for ‘fresh’ ingredients – this is the one I get, a brand called ‘Everest’:

When making this dish, I recommend you to chop and prep everything ahead (as below) as once it’s cooking, everything moves along very quickly, the sauce begins to thicken as soon as it hits the hot pan and coats the paneer and veggies as a thick, glossy sauce:

This dish is, of course, vegetarian, so great if you’re hosting either a dinner party and have friends over – if you fancy a similar dish with chicken try my chilli chicken recipe.

How to make Chilli Paneer at home

Scroll down for recipe card and ingredient list.

1. Begin by cutting your peppers, onions and paneer into bite-sized pieces

2. Then, to a bowl add the ‘batter’ ingredients

3. Stir to make a thick paste/batter

4. Then, add in the diced paneer, and stir until coated in the batter (if the batter is too thick at this point, add in a tbsp more of water)

5. In a separate bowl, mix together the ‘sauce’ ingredients – then set aside

6. Heat oil in a non-stick pan and heat to medium heat

7. Add in the battered paneer – cook for 1-2 mins on one side until the batter touching the pan has browned

8. Then flip the paneer using a spatula – continue cooking until each side is browned and crisp (about 1-2 mins each side, don’t overcook else the paneer can become ‘rubbery’)

9. Remove the paneer from the pan and set aside on some kitchen roll

10. Then, add in the sliced onion into the same pan of hot oil

11. Cook for a couple of minutes – until blistered and browned like this:

12. Then add in the sliced peppers, and cook for 1 min more

13. Next, pour in the sauce

14. Stir to mix in with the peppers immediately

15. Then add in the paneer and stir – the sauce should thicken very quickly due to the heat of the pan, and everything should be evenly coated. Once this happens, turn the heat off and it’s ready to serve