My Salt and chilli prawns recipe is one of my favourite Chinese dishes. The crispy fried prawns along with the crunchy vegetables and the lovely spices of the chilli salt makes this colourful dish a huge hit with my friends and family.

One of the more popular dishes on this blog is my salt and chilli chicken recipe which you can find here, this recipe is very similar but both chicken and prawns go really well whatever you may choose!

I got the original recipe off a good friend who runs his own Chinese takeaway and it is a very popular dish amongst his customers. This is always the dish I order off his menu when I go for a nice Chinese.

The below measure of ingredients makes enough to feed 4-6 hungry adults.

Ingredients:

• 250 grams of Fresh Prawns – De-shelled, deveined with the heads removed. You can buy these prepared from any good supermarket. I prepare frozen prawns. Here is a blog post I wrote about preparing fresh prawns.
• Chilli salt – You can get this in any Asian supermarket, you can buy them in single sachets or get a big jar of it.
• 2 x Carrots – Peeled and cut into batons
• 1 x Green Pepper – Cut into strips
• 1 x Onion – Cut into strips
• Handful of chillies – I used two chillis cut into small pieces
• 2 x Tablespoons of Chinese 5 spice – You can find this in any Asian supermarket
• Diced Garlic
• Salt and Pepper for Seasoning
• 1 x Egg (beaten)
• Corn Flour (you’ll need enough to cover the prawns before frying)
• Handful of scallions for dressing (optional)

Method:

1. Marinade the prawns with salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of Chinese 5 spice. Set aside in the fridge until you’re ready to fry. (For best results, leave them overnight but at a minimum 1 hour)
2. Cover all the prawns with cornflour and eggs and mix well so that all the prawns are covered
3. In a deep fat fryer, set the temperature to 190 degrees and cook the prawns for 1 to 2 minutes until they turn golden brown. Don’t leave them any longer as you don’t want to over cook the prawns
4. Remove from the deep fat fryer and leave on paper towels to soak away excess oil. Set aside and cook the vegetables.
5. Put the carrots, peppers and onions into the deep fat fryer and fry for 2 minutes (Don’t overcook the vegetables, they should be crunchy and al-dente
6. Head up a wok with some oil and add the chillies and garlic to bring out the flavour
7. Add the prawns, carrots, onions and pepper
8. Stir fry for 3 minutes, mixing all the contents of the wok together
9. Add the chilli salt (be careful not to add too much at once) and stir
10. Stir fry for a further 3 minutes, throw in the scallions and stir
11. Serve with fried rice or boiled rice or chips
12. Enjoy!

Note that this is a dry dish, so there isn’t a lot of sauce, you can make some curry sauce on the side to serve with this salt and chilli prawns recipe

Salt and chilli prawns ingredients.

Cut carrots, onions and peppers into strips

Marindate the prawns with salt, pepper and Chinese 5 spice

Deep fry prawns for 2 minutes until golden brown don’t over cook them!

leave the prawns to rest after frying

Fry the onions and peppers

Fry the carrots in a deep fat fryer

Add chillies and garlic to oil in a hot wok

Add the vegetables to the pan and fry

Add prawns to the vegetables

Add scallions and stir fry for 3 minutes

Enjoy

Served with fried tofu and rice