Garlic Herb Grilled Chicken

I have been away from this blog for a really long time, but couldnt help it, I had to be silent. I am glad to be back with a post now :). I dont think I can be very regular like how I used to be with the frequency of posting but I promise I will try very hard to post atleast 1-2 times a week.

This dish is something I made for S without actually a recipe plan in mind and he loved it so much. Simple flavoured grilled chicken served along with fresh carrots and mashed potatoes. S loves this combination of grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and had been requesting me to replicate at it home. I think after almost a year I made this, took me so long!!

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Spice Level - Low
Prep Time - 10 min
Cook time - 10 min
Marination time - 4 hrs atleast

Chicken breast Pieces - 4
Garlic cloves - 4, finely minced
Parsely - 3 Tbsp, finely chopped
Cilantro - 3 Tbsp, finely chopped
Lemon zest - 1 Tbsp
Salt and fresh ground pepper - as per need/adjust to taste
Olive oil - 4-5 tbsp or enough to soak all the chicken pieces


How do you do it

1. First take a plastic transparent sheet like below and places chicken pieces on them and cover. Use a meat mallet and pound the pieces to an even 1/2 inch thickness. Pounding the meat tenderizes the meat and helps cook evenly when grilled.

2. Now add all the ingredients in a bowl, add the chicken pieces and coat well.  Set aside for 4 hrs.

3. Heat a pan/grill pan and place the pieces and cook covered for 2-3 minutes on each side. Make sure the chicken is marinated well with garlic, lemon zest and the herbs to ensure the flavor is intact.

4. Once the chicken is done, serve them with salad and mashed potatoes for a delicious lunch/dinner

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Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani

This is a no fuss recipe for Chicken Biryani that I have been using very often for a while now. Planning a non-vegetarian menu is so much more easier than planning an elaborate vegetarian meal because you dont need to bother making a variety of dishes when it comes to non-veg menus. If there is a tasty chicken biryani pot on the table, everything else is forgotten and so I wish I had gotten into the habit of cooking chicken/fish based dishes earlier, it would have made my life much easier :).

As long you have some mint leaves in your hand and remember to marinate the chicken well in advance, this can be made in less than 30 minutes. Chicken biryani served with some pappad and simple onion raitha can make weekend lunches very special.

Ingredients

Adapted from  - Solai

Serves - 4
Spice Level - Moderate
Prep Time - 30 min
Cook time - 20 min

Chicken - 1/2 kg, cut into medium sized pieces
Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Coconut milk - half a cup if canned, if fresh use 1 cup
Onion - 2 , chopped finely
Tomato - 2, chopped finely
Salt - as per need
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Mint Leaves - 2 handful
Green chillies - 2, slit
Plain red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 Tbsp
Oil - 2 Tbsp

For seasoning

Bay leaf - 2
Cinnamon - 1 inch pieces, 2 no.
Cardamom - 3
Cloves - 3
Star Anise - 2

To grind to a paste

ginger -3 small pieces
garlic-10 pods
fennel seeds-1 teaspoon
small onions - 10
green chili- 6
Cinnamon- one inch piece
Mint leaves - 2 handful
cloves-3

For Marination

Lemon juice - of half a lemon
Curd - 1 tablespoon
Red Chilli powder -1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 Tsp
Pepper powder - 2 Tsp
Cumin powder - 2 Tsp
Half of the above ground paste


How do you do it

1. Grind the paste with ingredients under " To grind to as paste" with little water and keep aside. Wash and soak basmati Rice in enough water for 30 minutes

2. Wash the chicken well and marinate the chicken with the listed ingredients under "For marination" for 2 hours at-least.

3. Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a kadai. Drain the water from the rice and add it to the the kadai. Saute the rice for 2 minutes until it gives out a nice aroma. Keep aside.

4. Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add the items under "To season" one by one and let them roast. Add onions, green chillies and ginger-garlic paste and saute well until the onions are cooked well.

5. Add the tomatoes and turmeric now and half the quantity of salt, mix well. Let the tomatoes get cooked well - 4 minutes. Now add the red chilli powder and remaining half of the ground paste [step 1 paste] and saute well for about 5-7 minutes.

6. Add the chicken pieces and mint leaves now and cook for 5 minutes.

7. Mix coconut milk and water to get 3 cups in total to add the pressure cooker. If you are using canned coconut milk, use half cup of that and remaining 2.5 cups of water. If using fresh coconut milk, use 1 cup of that and 2 cups of water. Now add this to the pressure cooker. Add the required salt and rice now and mix well.

8. Close the cooker with the lid and Pressure cook for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes switch off flame and let the pressure release naturally. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and cashews.

Serve this delicious chicken biryani with raitha and pappad.

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Spicy Kasoori Methi Chicken Gravy

If you are a regular visitor here you would know that non-veg recipes are very limited here, mostly because I don't cook them too often and have  limited exposure when it comes to eating-cooking chicken/fish based dishes. Off-late I have been quite open to trying a lot of shrimp and fish dishes in restaurants here in Tampa and realized my taste-buds are more suited to sea-food than red meat. I am happy about that because sea-food is definitely very nutritious and high in protein content and don't mind becoming accustomed to that kind of food :). Chicken strictly has to be either tandoori based or really hot Chettinadu style for me to even consider eating them.

I tasted this Kasoori Methi Chicken in my Sis-in-laws' place a few months back and immediately fell in love with it. I always look forward to eating non-veg dishes cooked by my SIL, she cooks them really spicy and tasty and I like them that way. I got an outline of the recipe from her and added my own twist to the dish and was extremely happy when it turned out to be absolutely delicious. If you are fond of Chettinadu based chicken dishes I am sure you would love this :).

Ingredients

Serves - 4
Spice Level - High
Prep Time - 20 min
Cook time - 20 min

Chicken - 1/2 kg , cut into small pieces
Onion - 2, chopped finely
Tomato - 2, chopped roughly
Green chillies - 4, slit lengthwise
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 Tbsp
Plain Red chilli powder - 1 Tbsp
Coriander powder - 2 Tsp
Pepper Powder - 1 Tbsp
Cumin Powder - 1 Tbsp
Kasoori Methi - 1/3 cup, tightly packed
Salt - as per need
Water - 1/2 cup or as per need
Oil - 4-5 Tbsp
Cloves - 3
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece, one
Cardamon - 2
Pepper - 1 Tsp
Cumin - 1  tsp

For marination of chicken

Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Lemon - juice of half a lemon
Yogurt - 1 Tbsp
Salt -1 Tsp
Plain red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 tsp

How do you do it

1. Firstly, clean and wash the chicken and marinate it with the ingredients under "for marination". Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hr. I did this overnight and would suggest doing that if you have time.

2. Take a small pan and dry roast the kasoori methi for a couple of minutes until it turns a darker shade and keep aside.

3. Heat oil in a kadai, add cloves, cinnamon, pepper, cardamom and let them roast. Add onions, green chilli and ginger-garlic paste and saute well until they are cooked well.

4. Add tomatoes now and little bit of salt and mix well and saute until the tomatoes are soft and mushy and cooked well. Add all the spice powders - coriander, pepper, chilli, cumin and saute well. Add the marinated chicken pieces, saute them for 3 minutes, then add 1 cup water and remaining salt now mix well, close the kadai with a lid and cook in medium flame for 7-8 minutes or until the chicken is almost cooked.

5. Remove lid now, lower flame completely, crush the roasted kasoori methi and add it to the kadai and cook for 5-8 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked and is tender and all the flavors are blended well. The consistency of this dish is semi-dry or with little gravy. Add water according to the consistency you prefer.

6. Switch off flame, and let the chicken remain in the kadai for 15 minutes for it to absorb all the flavor.

7. Serve this with rotis or dosai for a super combination.

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Murgh Kali Mirch Tikka | Black pepper grilled chicken

Appetizers in Indian [Bombay-Bangalore] restaurants are very highly priced, so much for a few pieces of grilled chicken. I used to feel bad about wanting to order them all the time we went to one. You know when you are in between those days when you feel you have been eating at super restaurants too often and want to minimize those visits, but you end up there anyways and try to not order too much. Even then, I cant resist the temptation for kebabs, I just have to eat them if I am dining outside. Back then I had no other choice since I couldn't replicate the restaurant type kebabs at home with my OTG. It took forever to broil chicken and they turned out dry and stretchy. So I am not to be blamed!

Now having access to a very powerful oven in my US kitchen, I am grilling away to my hearts content :). One of my favorite chicken kebab recipe follows.

Ingredients

Serves - 10 pieces
Spice Level - Moderate
Prep Time - 25 min
Cook time - 20 min

250 gm boneless chicken cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Peppercorn - 2 Tbsp
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 Tsp
Green chilli - 3
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Onions - 2 medium sized, sliced thinly
1/2 cup hung curd/Greek Yogurt or normal yogurt which isn't very sour
1/2 tbsp corn flour
1 Tsp garam masala
1 Tsp Tandoori Masala
Salt to taste
1/4 Tsp cardamom powder

How do you do it

1. Dry roast pepper corns on a heated kadai and crush to a coarse powder using mortar-pestle or your mixer grinder. Grind green chillies and ginger-garlic paste to a fine paste.

2. Heat oil in a kadai and saute the onions until brown. Cool and grind to a paste.

3. In a large bowl, combine the brown onion paste, yogurt, corn-flour, ginger-garlic-green chilli paste, crushed peppercorns, salt, garam masala, tandoori masala, cardamom powder. Add the chicken cubes, mix well and marinate for 1 hr in the refrigerator.

4. Pre-heat oven to 400 deg F.

5. Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil. Smear it with oil. Arrange the chicken pieces on this baking sheet.

6. Broil on high for about 20 minutes in total. Turn the chicken over after mid-time.

Serve hot with mint chutney and lemon wedges.

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Chicken Schnitzel

Little did i know about chicken schnitzel when I made it. I googled later to find out what schnitzel meant. The below is the wiki description of this dish.:).

Chicken schnitzel is a traditional Austrian dish made with boneless meat thinned with a hammer, coated in bread crumbs and fried. It is a popular part of Viennese, Austrian cuisine and German cuisine. In Austria, the dish called Wiener Schnitzel (Viennese schnitzel), is traditionally garnished with a slice of lemon and either potato salad or potatoes with parsley and butter.

Me and S have been on a low/no carb diet for a couple of weeks now. So all types of food which are protein rich catch my eye.I saw this simple dish in the Master-Chef Australia show and decided to try my hand at this. It turned out well and here goes my first dish with an international twist.

Chicken Schnitzel

 

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Spice Level - Not spicy but flavorful
Prep Time - 20 minutes
Cooking time - 15 min

Chicken Breast pieces [boneless] - 4
Toasted Bread - 8 slices
Parsley leaves - a handful
Thyme - a Handful
Parmesan cheese - 50g
Salt - 1 Tspn + 1 Tspn + 1 tspn
Pepper 1 Tspn + 1 Tspn + 1 tspn
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Olive oil - for sauteing the chicken pieces

Cling film - 1 sheet
A hammer or hammer shaped tool for flattening/thinning the breast pieces


Method

Wash/clean the chicken breast pieces and slice them into pieces with approx 1 inch thickness and around 5 inches in length.Place the sliced pieces on a wooden slab and cover the top of wooden slab with a cling film.Use the hammer/hammer shaped tool and slightly pound/tap the breast pieces to flatten/thin them down. A few taps on each piece until they are evenly thinned.Keep aside.

Gather the toasted bread pieces , cheese , parsely , thyme , 1 Tsp salt , 1 Tspn pepper into your food processor and pulse it until you get the bread crumbs texture.This is your herbed bread crumb mixture. Keep aside.

Break the egg into a bowl and add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper , mix well and keep aside. Gather the all purpose flour in a bowl and mix it with 1 tspn salt and 1 tsp pepper and keep aside.

Now take a chicken piece , dip in flour, make sure its coated well with flour. Then dip the flour coated chicken piece in egg and coat well. Next step is to coat this piece with the herbed bread crumb mixture. Make sure its coated well with the bread crumbs, that forms the crunchy outer texture of the chicken.Repeat for all chicken pieces and arrange on a plate.

Take a pan, add 2-3 tbsp olive oil on it and heat it.Place one of the coated chicken pieces on the pan. On low heat, let it get cooked/browned. Once the bottom browns flip it to brown/cook the other side. Transfer to a plate.Repeat for all chicken pieces.Each piece will take about 3-4 minutes to cook well.

Serve with Tomato ketchup and lemon pieces.


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Chettinadu Chicken Kuzhambu

Another brilliant chettinadu chicken item. Rice , Chicken Kuzhambu and chicken gravy for a Sunday lunch is a perfect setting.Cooking up a storm for Sunday lunches make me feel very good. And that too if its a non-vegetarian menu, I please myself and S to  the maximum extent possible.

Enough said, lets move on to the recipe.! :)

 Chicken Kuzhmabu

 Ingredients


 Recipe Source - Adapted from solaiachiskitchen


 Serves - 3
 Spice Level - Moderately Spicy

 Chicken - 350 gms
 Small/Sambar Onions - 20, chopped lengthwise
 Garlic cloves - 20, minced well
 Ginger garlic paste- 2 Tspn
 Tomatoes - 2 small sized, chopped
 Chilli/Curry powder- 1 Tbspn
 Coriander powder-2 Tbspn

 To Temper

 Oil - 2 Tbspn
 Cloves - 2
 Bay-leaf - 1
 Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
 Fennel - 1 Tspn
 Jeera - 1 Tspn
 Curry leaves - 2 Sprigs
 Mint Leaves - half a handful

 To grind to a paste

 Coconut grated - 2 Tbspn
 Fennel - 1 Tspn
 Cashews - 5

To marinate Chicken

Curd-2 Tbspn
Turmeric powder-1 Tspn
Curry/Chilli powder-2 Tspn
Salt-2 Tspn
Ginger garlic paste-1 Tspn


Method

Firstly marinate the chicken with the items under "To marinate chicken" and keep aside for 1 hour.
Grind the items under "To grind to a paste" with little water to a smooth paste.

Once the chicken pieces are marinated well, start off with the following. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a pressure cooker. Add the items under "To temper" one by one and roast well. Add onions, garlic and ginger-garlic paste and saute well.Add tomatoes pieces and saute well.Now add the curry and coriander powder and mix well. Saute for 1 more minute. Add the marinated chicken pieces and mix well with the masala. Saute for 2-3 more minutes. Now add about 2 cups of water and salt and stir well.Close the cooker and pressure cooked for 10 minutes. Start with high flame, and once the first whistle comes out, move the flame to low and cook for he remaining time. Let the cooker cool. Once the cooker cools, open the lid, add the ground paste, and let the kuzhmabu boil. Taste now to see if the salt-spice level is as per taste. If needed more , you can add them at this stage. Also if the gravy is thick now, add more water, or if its watery, let it boil until you get desired consistency. So once you get the desired consistency, switch off flame.

Serve this chettinadu chicken kuzhmabu with steamed white rice, and chicken gravy. :)



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Spicy Chettinadu Pepper Chicken

This is my first non-veg recipe on this blog. Hopefully we will see many more :). I always have difficulty trying to work with the raw smell of chicken/fish/mutton etc, so I delegate the task of cleaning them and doing the basic marination of turmeric/salt to my dear S  :). Due to this problem I have stayed away from cooking non-vegetarian. As they say I do it once in a blue-moon ;).

Non-vegetarian dishes always reminds me of Sundays. When I was growing up, Sunday meant mutton/chicken clear soup in the mornings, big non-veg meals for lunch and dosai/idli with remaining non-veg curries during the dinner time. :). Infact on those Sundays when its a fried item, like Fish Fry, Mutton Chops, or Mutton Cola Urundai [mutton meat balls] , we would start eating them way before lunch beings and mom would warn us about how nothing is going to remain during lunch time.Good Old Sundays.I would like that, and from now on, Sunday's in my home would also be like that hopefully. I am going to give it a earnest try and start to gain expertise over cooking non-vegetarian food,  not forgetting S huge love for non-veg food.

Pepper chicken is a very popular spicy Chettinadu dish. Goes very well with chicken biriyani or with rice and chicken Kuzhambu and also many other things if you know what I mean ;)

Chettinadu Pepper Chicken

Ingredients

Recipe Source - Adapted from Solais Kitchen

Serves - 3
Spice Level - Quite Spicy


Chicken pieces - 500 gm
Onion - 2 Larges , chopped very finely
Tomato - 2 small sized , chopped into small pieces
Ginger garlic paste - 1 Tsp
Coriander powder - 1 Tbsp
Pepper powder - 2 Tbsp
Lemon juice - Juice out of half a lemon
Turmeric - a pinch
Coriander Leaves - a handful , chopped

To Temper

Oil - 4 Tbsp
Bay leaves - 1
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon - 1inch stick - 1
fennel - 1tspn
Curry Leaves - 2 Sprig

To marinate chicken

Curry/Chilli powder - 1 Tbsp
Salt - 2 Tsp
Turmeric - 1 Tsp
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 Tsp

Method

Firstly clean the chicken well. Then marinate the chicken with the items under "To marinate chicken" and keep aside for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a kadai, and add in one item after another from the "To Temper" list. Let it roast. Add in the onions, ginger-garlic paste and saute well till translucent.Add in the tomato pieces , a pinch salt, a pinch of turmeric, and saute until the tomato pieces are soft and mashed well.Now add in coriander powder and mix well.Add the remaining salt as per need. Remember 2 Tsp was used while marinating chicken . Add 1/4 cup water and mix well with the masala and let it be for a minute or two. Now lower flame and add in the chicken pieces and wrap well with the masala. Saute well until the chicken pieces get moist. Don't wait until it gives out a lot of water. Just a little bit would do.Then close the kadai with a lid and let it get cooked in low-medium flame. Once the chicken is cooked, add the pepper powder and mix well.Saute for a couple of more minutes. Add coriander leaves and mix well. Switch off stove.

Before serving squeeze lemon juice over it. Serve with rice and chicken kuzhmabu. :)



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