Fried chicken

It was a rainy Sunday evening, and I wasn't really in a mood to cook anything too elaborate. The hubby said he wanted roast chicken with pasta, and even offered to make the pasta (using a premix) if I would make the chicken. To keep him away from the kitchen, I came up with this fried chicken dish.

1 chicken, curry cut

1 medium onion, sliced fine

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp red chilli powder

1 tsp paprika powder

Salt to taste

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp cornflour

Method:

Wash the chicken well, make slits in the leg pieces

Make a marinade with the sauces, salt and paprika powder, and let the chicken marinate for 30 mins. 

Heat the oil, fry the chicken in batches (about 5 minutes each), and keep aside. 

Fry the onions till caramelised. 

Add back the fried chicken pieces, and extra marinade. Sprinkle the cornflour. Mix well, cove and let it cook on a low flame for 15 minutes. 

Serve with pasta or with veggies on a bed of steamed rice. 

Chicken in peanut sauce

The hubby was home for the weekend after nearly a month, and the only way we know how to celebrate is by cooking something good. So I pulled out a recipe that I had liked a couple of weeks back, and adapted it slightly to suit our taste. I could have tripped on the peanut sauce- it was that good. Going to make it again soon.

1 kg curry cut chicken
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice

For the marinade:

4 tbsp roasted peanuts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 inch ginger
2 green chillies
8  pods garlic
1 tsp haldi powder

2 tbsp jaggery*

2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp coriander stalks
Salt to taste.

Method:

Blend all the ingredients listed under marinade into a fine paste. Add water if required.
Marinate the chicken pcs and keep in the fridge a few hours or overnight.
Heat a little oil in a pan and add the mixture.
Cook on medium heat stirring off and on.
Keep covered for a while.
Sprinkle lemon juice, and serve with rotis.

*- the recipe called for honey, but I substituted with jaggary.

Honey Chicken

Sunday dinner tends to be Chicken, This weekend, it was a sweetish chicken, which I served with mashed sweet potatoes

For Dry Chicken
1 large curry cut chicken
4 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp paprika powder
Salt to taste
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp melon seeds
3 tbsp torn basil leaves

Method:
Wash the chicken and pat dry. Marinate for 30 minutes in a mixture of soya sauce, Worchestershire sauce, honey, lemon juice, paprika powder and salt.
Heat the oil, add the chicken pieces in batches and cook so all sides are evenly done (about 2-4 minutes per side). Return the chicken to the pot, add the remaining marinade, cover, and let it simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
Add sesame seeds, melon seeds and basil leaves, cook for an additional minute, and serve.


For Mashed Sweet Potatoes
2 large sweet potatoes
2 tsp chilli flakes
Salt to taste
1 tsp butter
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:
Boil the sweet potatoes till soft. Peel and mash.
Add chilli flakes, salt, butter and lemon juice, and mix well.

Chicken in dark sauce

I modified this recipe from my older recipe for roast chicken. The sauce is nearly the same, but the method of cooking makes it much easier.

5 chicken legs (I used curry cut chicken, but legs would be much better)
3 small onions, or a handfull of shallots
5 tbsps soya sauce
2.5 tbsps Worcesterchire sauce
1 tsp freshly ground pepper powder

1 tbsp sugar
5 tbsps olive oil
Salt to taste

Method
Wash and clean the chicken. Make a few small slits in the flesh. Marinate in a mixture of soya sauce,Worcestershire sauce and 2 tbsp oil for 1 hour.
Heat the remaining oil, pour in about 1 tbsp of the marinade, add sugar and stir it on high heat for about 30 seconds (till the sugar starts to melt). Reduce the flame, add the marinated chicken, with the marinade. Add pepper powder and salt, and bring to boil. Cover and let it cook for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile peel the shallots or make cross cuts in the onion (taking care not to cut all the way through).
Turn all the pieces around, place the onions/ shallots over the chicken, and cover them with sauce. Cover and let it cook for 15 minutes (or a bit more till done).
Thicken the gravy if needed.
Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables


For mashed potatoes, boil the potatoes, and mash with butter, milk, salt and oregano.
For steamed vegetables, steam the vegetables, and season with salt and pepper.

Cauliflower stir fry

I had a huge head of cauliflower in the fridge, but didn't want to make the same boring cauliflower subji. The hubby doesn't like cauliflower dalna, and since I didn't have the veggies to make fried rice, any Chinese dish was out. Time to innovate. Taking off from this recipe, I threw together a whole bunch of stuff, and was pretty surprised when everyone said it was awesome!

1 medium cauliflower (or equivalent)
6 pods garlic (the more the better)
2 tbsp cooking oil (I used olive oil)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chilli sauce (or to taste)
2 tbsp honey
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:
Remove the stem and leaves of the cauliflower and cut/ break into small pieces. Soak in salt water for about 10 minutes to remove any worms that might be there.
Heat the oil, throw in the garlic and cauliflowers, and stir fry on high heat till the cauliflower starts browning.*
Add the soy sauce, lemon juice and chilli sauce, lower the flame, and cook with stirring for another 2-3 minutes.
Add salt to taste, and the honey, mix well. Turn off the flame, cover, and let it cook in its own steam for about 10 minutes.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.


* I had some stir fried yellow bell pepper, so threw that in too, but it did nothing for the dish, so not adding it next time

Sesame Ginger Noodles

Once I decided to make ginger chicken for dinner, I knew I had to pair it with noodles. Here's what I came up with.

1 packet hakka noodles
3-4 tbsp spring onions chopped fine
1 inch piece of ginger cut into stripes
2 tbsp cooking oil
salt, soya sauce, vinegar to taste
sesame seeds for ganish

Method
Cook the noodles as per the instructions on the packet, drain, toss with a little oil and keep aside.
Heat some oil, add the spring onions (after keeping 1 tbsp aside) and ginger and fry till the raw smell goes
Turn off the flame. Add the noodles, and the sauce, vinegar and salt and toss well.
Sprinkle the sesame seeds, and garnish with the reserved spring onions

Pepper chicken

I had heard so much about my mother-in-law's pepper chicken, that I was petrified when she told me "Today, I will teach you to make pepper chicken", when we visited her the first time after our marriage. Me, who had never cooked non-veg food in my life. How was I worthy of possessing the Family Heirloom? What if I ended up poisoning the entire family? What if....
She brushed my fears aside, and told me that all pepper chicken required was five ingredients- vinegar, soya sauce, peppercorns, oil and salt. Though I don't think of either oil or salt as ingredients, I can "see" her counting the ingredients out everytime I get down to making pepper chicken.

1 kg chicken, cleaned
4 tbsps vinegar
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp peppercorns
cooking oil
salt to taste

Method
Coarsely grind the peppercorns, so some of them are ground well, some are merely broken and some remain intact.
Clean the chicken pieces, make a few slits in the flesh (if required) and keep aside
In a thick bottomed kadhai, mix all the ingredients together, and marinate the chicken for 30 minutes (you can skip this process if you don't have time, but it helps).
Turn on the fire, and when the mixture comes to a boil, turn the heat to the lowest, cover the vessel and let it cook in it's own steam. Turn the chicken pieces over every 15 minutes or so.
After 45 minutes, lift up the lid, let the gravy thicken (if required), and serve.

Roast veggies

I had a whole bunch of vegetables in the fridge, and instead of making the usual curry with them, decided to attempt something new. The older one liked it, because it reminded him of roast chicken, but nobody else had anything to say, so this is the first and last time I make it. Pity, because it was nice, in a very different sort of way.

Mixed vegetables cut into equal sized pieces (I used beans, carrots, peas, and potatoes)

2 tbsps soya sauce
1 tbsps Worcesterchire sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
oil

Saute the vegetables on low heat for a few minutes.
Add the soya sauce, the Worcestershire sauce, chilli powder and salt, mix well, and keep cooking till the vegetables are well coked.
Add the honey, stir well.
Check for seasonings before searving.

Roast chicken with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables

Growing up in a former British colony, Roast Chicken was one of the few non-vegetarian dishes that I ate regularly. This recipe is by Monica Bakre, who got it handed down from the coffee planters family that she married into!

For Roast Chicken
5 chicken legs
5 tbsps soya sauce
2.5 tbsps Worcesterchire sauce
5 tbsps olive / refined oil
1 tsp chilli powder

Method
Marinate the chicken legs in the chilli powder, soya sauce,Worcestershire sauce and oil for aboutt 2 hours. TIP- Do not make slits in the legs as they have to undergo 3 processes of cooking.
Take some ghee in a thick bottomed vessel and fry each marinated leg at a time and keep it separate. Do so for all the legs individually.
Then put all the fried legs back into the vessel along with the marinade and cover to cook. You may add a little water now.
Once the chicken legs get cooked , take them out of the marinade and keep aside.
Just before serving, roast the cooked chicken legs in an oven for about 10 minutes at 200 degrees.
Pour heated marinade over the roasted chicken legs and serve with boiled carrots, beans, peas, corn, or mashed potatoes.

For Mashed potatoes :
Boil 2-3 potatoes well ,peel and mash them.
Add a little milk and beat the potato mash in a hand beater.
 
For Steamed vegetables
Carrots
Beans
Peas
 
Steam all the vegetables in a microwave for 3 minutes, till slightly cooked. Drain out excess water. Season with salt and pepper. 

For corn
Heat 1 tbsp butter in a pan, add the corn kernals, and saute till slightly brown. Season with salt and pepper.