Chicken on the Fly (!)

Homemade chicken with spicy Indian flavours - 3 step grilled chicken!

Step 1:

Wash small, thawed chicken and cut in half. Drain all water and keep aside.
If the chicken is larger, make a few cuts (without cutting into pieces) to let the masala seep in properly.

The 'Cornish hen' in American supermarkets tastes great! Folks in India, get smallest whole chicken you can find (fresh / frozen; think Godrej chicken, < 1 kg)

Step 2:

In a bowl, mix ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt and chopped coriander (cilantro / dhania).  Beaten yoghurt is optional. 

Cover chicken evenly with this paste. Let it stand for 5 mins. Preheat oven till then (~ 350°F).

Step 3:

Place chicken on grill rack with a tray / baking dish below to catch drippings.

Set timer for 30 mins initially.

After 30 mins, flip over and set for another 10 - 15 mins.

Check if done - meat should be tender and should cut easily.

Add 10 mins at a time and keep checking (no need to flip over each time!)

Cooking time will depend on size of chicken and oven used.

When done, add a squeeze of lemon and dig in!

Toaster-ovens can perfectly fit a small chicken. You could as well use a regular oven if cooking a larger bird or if you don't have a table-top oven.

Hope you have a great weekend lunch, catching up on your favourite series online while savouring this!

Bachelor Cooking (2)

Being a hardcore non-veg lover at heart, I couldn't possibly not post a few non-veg recipes here! This one's an easier version of Chinese style Chilly Chicken; I'll call it Simplified Chilly Chicken, on the lines of the simplified version of their language!

This recipe isn't a quickie but it's not particularly time consuming either.

Simplified Chilly Chicken, Chinese style:

1. Take about 200-250 g boneless chicken (this quantity should serve about 2 people).
2. Wash the meat thoroughly, and cut into small squarish pieces.
3. Sprinkle liberal amount of salt, mix it and leave for a couple of minutes.
4. Put the pieces in a pressure cooker vessel, keep the vessel in the cooker, add some water around the vessel (inside the cooker), close the lid and place the cooker on low flame. After sometime increase the flame to medium.
5. Dice 2 big capsicums and onions (keep the pieces a little large) and cut 3 green chilies into 4 pieces each, exposing the seeds inside.
6. In about 10-15 mins, the cooker should have whistled 3-4 times; if not, increase the flame to maximum. After 4 whistles, switch off the flame and let the lid fall on its own.
7. Heat oil in a vessel (kadhai) and put in the onions and chillies, stir occasionally. After sometime put in the capsicums. Add salt to taste.
8. While the onions and capsicums are getting fried, take out the chicken and check if it's done properly - the meat should be tender and easily broken with two fingers.
9. Put the chicken into the frying vessel and stir occasionally. Add little water/oil from the vessel in which the chicken was steamed, to the frying vessel - this will add flavour to the dish since that water/oil has the juices of the meat.
10. After about 5-8 mins, add soy sauce and pepper as per taste.
11. Fry for 2-3 mins more, switch off the flame and we're done!

Note: This recipe does not have many spices; the only spiciness is from the chillies and pepper, so add lot of pepper or a couple of chilies more for a sharp spicy taste. In should take about 30-40 mins from start to end for this recipe.

Bachelor Cooking (1)

The tittle says it all - a series of posts in which I wish to share some basic recipes that'll be useful to any of you living alone or away from home. Some of these have been taught by my mom, a brilliant cook indeed! Also some of them are a result of my own experimentation at 2 am! I had talked about writing such a series of posts and after encouragement from a friend (yes Shravan you get a mention here like I had said!) I'm finally going to write these.

Here's a basic recipe of Lady's-finger vegetable:

1. Take about 200g Lady's-finger (for one - two persons) and wash and dry thoroughly with a cloth.
2. For each of the long vegetable, cut off the hard end portion; then cut circular slices of the rest of the length (don't cut too thin or thick).
3. Take one/two green chilies, wash and cut them each into 4 pieces (first cut perpendicular to length, then cut each of the halves longitudinally, exposing the seeds inside).
4. Now keep a vessel with little oil in it to heat - keep the flame medium high.
5. After a couple of minutes, put just one or two mustard seeds, and see if it crackles. If it does, then lower the flame and put in two good pinches of mustard seeds. If it doesn't crackle just wait for another minute and try again!
6. Now quickly add the chili pieces, and a small pinch of tamarind powder.
7. Stir a little and add the cut Lady's-fingers.
8. Stir properly making sure the spices spread everywhere. Add salt to taste.
9. Keep a lid over the vessel, and let the vegetable cook for about 5 minutes on low flame. Check in between to make sure it's not burnt, and stir once or twice.
10. Remove the lid, fry some more if needed. When the vegetable is properly cooked, it will turn soft and a few of the thin slices will have become golden brown. Turn the flame off.

Note: My mom warns me that this vegetable has to be properly dried before putting it in to cook, else it will become sticky and messy afterwards, which I totally dislike!

A very quick recipe, just learnt last night and it barely takes 10 minutes, from start to end! Tastes great with chapatis / rotis.

Comments, suggestions and alterations on this and future recipes are welcome! Also, if you do make any of them, I'd be happy to know! Hope I can write more of such.