Chicken Hariyali

As the name suggests, this chicken is green. The reason being the main ingredient-coriander or cilantro.

Chicken hariyali can be made gravy style or as a starter. The starter is usually called chicken hariyali kebabs and are made with boneless chicken on skewers. I have made the kebab style as well, but with boned chicken pieces instead. I always feel that boned chicken tastes better than boneless chicken.

Chicken and Cheese Balls

Today's post is something I had made in Ramadan to open our fast with. It's heavy and different from the normal kebabs/cutlets I make. My sister in-law, Lubna had made them back home and they went down very well with everyone, from kids to adults in the house. 
Knowing how much I love to try new recipes, my mom told me about them and Lubna forwarded me the recipe.

These chicken and cheese balls have a surprise ingredient that adds a differently nice flavour to them. As all surprise ingredients, this one is also not detectable unless pointed out.

Spicy Chicken Wings

This is the first time I have made spicy chicken wings myself. I never much cared for them until I had the very best chicken wings at Fathima's place when she had us over for dinner once. They were so good that they were all gone within minutes.

I got to catch a glimpse of how she made them and so I tried my hand at them. Believe me, you will want to make them over and over again once you have them.
I don't like eating chicken with skin on it and so I got the chicken wings de-skinned. Chicken wings are usually made with the skin on, so if your okay with eating the skin, you don't need to get them de-skinned.
A bit of pre planning is required for this dish as you will need to marinate the chicken wings over night or for atleast 4 hours before making them.
Here's what you will need to make these yummy bites
Preparation time - 15 minutes
Cooking time - 30 minutes
Serves - 6 people
Ingredients
For marinade
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste
For chicken wings
1 kg chicken wings (de-skinned)
cornflour(enough to pat and coat the chicken wings in)
1 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsps tomato ketchup
2 tbsps Tabasco sauce 
2 tbsps chilli sauce
1 tbsp sweet and sour tomato sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
oil to fry the chicken
Method

• Mix the chicken wings with all the marinade ingredients and keep aside either over night or for 4 hours atleast.
• Take cornflour in a rounded plate and pat each wing in cornflour until coated well.

Heat the oil while you are coating all the chicken wings so its  hot enough to fry the chicken.

• Fry the cornflour coated chicken wings in hot oil on medium flame to ensure they are cooked well. Fry until a lovely golden brown

• In a non stick wok/pan add all the sauces with 2-3 drops of oil and mix well. Place on flame and let it heat a little. Then add sugar and mix. Finally, add all the fried chicken to this and toss until the wings are well coated with the sauce.

Serve hot. Enjoy!

Notes

1. I have used red chilli sauce here but the green chilli sauce would work great as well. If you want it very spicy then leave out the sweet and sour sauce and add an extra tbsp of chilli sauce instead.

Shabnam

Pepper Chicken

My daughter and me thoroughly enjoy a hearty meal of daal and rice but being true Tamilians at heart, we do enjoy it more with something to 'tottify' at the side :)

I was wondering what to make as a tottifier for lunch today. I needed to make something quick and easy.  What had I not made in a while that was quick and easy and yumm!? Of course! pepper chicken! Since I had some left over pre boiled chicken from the spring roll filling I made, it hardly took me 5 minutes to make this dish.

I had boneless chicken so I've used just 250g. You can make it with normal chicken pieces as well ( it is actually much tastier with the bones) and use 500g instead. Also, I've added green chilli paste instead of slit green chillies for one simple reason -  when my husband sees whole green chillies in any dish he finds it extra spicy also if its not :) 

Pepper chicken is something made at my mom's as a usual tottifier with daal and rice or rassam sadam. That's where I got this lovely recipe from.

To make it you will need

Preparation time - 15 minutes

Cooking time - 5-7 minutes

Serves - 4 people

Ingredients

250g chicken cooked in 1tsp ginger garlic paste

1 onion

1 green pepper

1 tsp coarsely ground pepper

1/2 tsp green chilli paste or 2 slit green chillies

1 tbsp oil

Procedure

• Cut the onion and pepper into cubes and toss them in a pan with 1 tbsp oil and salt to taste. Sauté for 2 minutes and add the coarsely ground pepper and green chillies to this.

• Continue to sauté further until the onions are translucent. Add chicken to this and sitr well.  

• Stir so all ingredients are blended well together. If you dont want it too dry then you can add 2-3tbsps of water at this stage and bring it to a boil. Remove from flame and serve hot with daal and rice or anything of your choice.

Enjoy

Note

1. You can make this dish with fish, lamb or any vegetable of your choice

Shabnam

     

Shami Kebabs

Shami kebab literally means Syrian kebab (Sham) in Arabic. These succulent Juicy kebabs have been around since the Moghul era.I however, learned how to make them from my mom who is the best cook i know :)

Shami kebabs are very popular in India and are usually made with beef, Channa dal(lentil) and a bit of rice.I have gone for the healthier option and chosen chicken here instead.It tastes equally good with chicken as it does with beef.

These kebabs make a grand starter and do not take much time to prepare.They have always been a hit at my dinner parties.They can also be served as a whole meal dish with freshly cut salad, naan bread and any sauce of your choice.

Shami kebabs need a bit of pre planning though.The chicken needs to be marinated in ginger garlic paste and left over night or for a minimum of 4-6 hours.The daal and rice also needs to be washed and pre soaked in hot water for an hour to ensure they are soft and get cooked well. Use just enough water to soak the daal and rice. 

To make these delicious kebabs you will need


Cooking time - 20 minutes
Preparation time - 15 minutes
Makes roughly 40 medium sized kebabs

Ingredients
1kg bonless chicken washed and cut into cubes and marinated in 2tsp ginger paste and 1tsp garlic paste

175g channa daal

75g rice
7-10 whole red chillies

1tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp garam masala(mixed spices)

1 handful chopped corriander

1tbsp whole cumin seeds

1tbsp whole corriander seeds

2eggs lightly beaten

salt to taste

Procedure

• Place the marinated chicken and pre soaked dal and rice in a pressure cooker along with the whole red chillies and salt to taste. Cover with the water in which the daal was soaked. You can add more if required. Make sure there is just enough water to cover the chicken.Adding too much water will make the kebabs soggy and hard to make.

• Pressure cook until chicken is tender. This usually takes 20 minutes
• Make sure there is no left over water in the chicken, daal, rice and chilli mixture.If there is any water remaining, dry it on high flame making sure you dont burn the mixture.
• Wait for it to cool. Then using a hand blender or mixer grinder, blend this mixture into a paste.It will be thick and slightly sticky due to the presence of daal. Transfer into a big mixing bowl.
• To this add the chilli powder(the red chilli powder can be adjusted to your level of spice. The kebab mix already has whole chillies in it so adjust accordingly.), garam masala and chopped corriander.
• Put the whole cumin and corriander seeds on a pan and roast it until it crackles.Add this to the Chicken mixture. Mix well until evenly spread

• Add eggs to this and mix gently. The eggs should be added just before you make the kebabs. Egg ensures proper binding of all the ingredients

• Then make small balls and flatten them with your hand.Shallow fry this in a pan and serve hot with onions and lime.Mint chutney goes great with this.

Note

1kg chicken makes around 40 medium sized kebabs but if you don't want to make so many kebabs, you can halve the quantity of all the ingredients and make half as many. I usually freeze them and store them in food packets to fry and have later. Its great to have these in the freezer for those lazy days when you don't want to cook. Just fry these delicious kebabs and enjoy with naan bread and salad. 
Update
If you shami kebab mixture does become soft/sticky then add a slice or 2 of plain bread into the mixture. Knead it into the mixture so it absorbs the excess water. You can also add bread crumbs or toast the bread slice and powder it before adding it to the mix. Alternatively you can add 1-2 tbsps of gram flour. Addition of gram flour does change the taste a bit.

Shabnam