Barbeque Chicken

Last week for the first time in my life I went camping. OK now that this confession is out of the way I can concentrate on the food.

So last week for the first time in my life I went camping. Now Mono INSISTED that he makes this trip all rugged and rough, as are all camping trips are supposed to be, I was having none of that. I carried my toilet paper, my face wash, my lens case and solution, and even my perfume...if I was dying in the wilds I was going out in style. In addition I decided that my last meal would not be crappy. You see I was convinced I was going to die. So ignoring Mono's protests I marinated the chicken I was taking to the camp. I wanted good food. It doesn't always have to be too too rough. Not when you are going out just for a night.

And are we so glad that I insisted. Because you see...this barbeque chicken..was excellent!! Without further ado this is what I did. I got this recipe online and you can go here for the original
We need 3 things:

1. Magic dust
2. Barbecue sauce
3. Chicken thighs.

MAGIC DUST

• 1/2 cup paprika
• 1/4 cup regular salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons mustard powder
• 1/4 cup chile powder
• 1/4 cup ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup  garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons cayenne (or less to taste)

Combine ingredients in a container and mix thoroughly. Use some and keep the rest. Trust me, you will use this dust to make this chicken again and again.

For the chicken, I punched some holes in the chicken and sprinkled the magic dust all over the chicken. I left it on the marinated it in the refrigerator overnight. Though I guess you could use the chicken right-away as well.

BARBECUE SAUCE

This is what I used

• 2 cups ketchup
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon magic dust (recipe above)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Hot sauce (such as Tabasco) to taste

I put all the ingredients into a saucepan and boiled it. Once it started boiling I turned the heat down to a simmer and cooked it for about 10 minutes until it was think and dark. Once it was done I cooled it and packed it up for my camping trip.

Once we got to the campsite I realized that the grill there would not let us use coal. So I improvised and decided to cook it on fire. One thing I did though was cook it on indirect heat. I didn't want my chicken burnt. I cooked the chicken for about 5 minutes without any sauce. After about 5 minutes I coated the chicken with the sauce and cooked it for about another 20 minutes turning it frequently.

The result was delicious. And the best part? I survived to tell you all about it! Only sad part is I dont have any pictures for it. Well...I know I am making it again. So I am sure I will put it up sometime soon.

Roast chicken

 

OK so I confess. I didnt roast a turkey. I dont like turkey and I dont think my friends do either. But more importantly the thought of roasting a turkey scared me. What if I failed...my thanksgiving would have been ruined. So I took the safer way out and decided to roast a chicken instead. And I am glad I did because the chicken turned out to be pretty darn good.

And it was so simple. Here is what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 whole Chicken, Rinsed And Patted Dry
• 3/4 cups Butter, Softened
• Lemons
• Rosemary
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Zest lemons. Strip the leaves off of one of the rosemary sprigs and chop it up finely.

In a bowl, combine softened butter, lemon zest, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste.

Use your fingers to smear the butter mixture all over the chicken, under the skin, and inside the cavity. Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice of one lemon all over the chicken. Place the lemon halves (if they'll fit!) and the some rosemary leaves into the cavity of the bird.

 

Place the chicken into the oven and roast it for 1 hour, 15 minutes or until done.

 

I put the chicken directly on the rack. I used the drippings to make gravy (drippings on veggies, flour, chicken stock and fillings from one sausage...boil until it thickens).

Both delicious.

 

And so simple.

 

 

Honey Chicken Sriracha

Mono and me have re-discovered Sriracha. I mean Sriracha has always been a part of our lives for the past 3 years...but it has become indispensable these days. Like soy sauce. Once you start using it...you cant do without it!

For those who dont know what Sriracha is its a Thai hot sauce, made of chili pepper distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. It is pretty hot...but not for people who are used to Indian food.

And the best part is you can add it to ANYTHING!!

So having said that I made some Honey Chicken Sriracha. And this is how..

Chicken Breast. Trim all fat.- 4

Honey- about 2 tablespoon

Yellow mustard - 2 tablespoon

Sriracha- 1 tablespoon

Lemon juice - 3 tablespoon

Mix the honey, mustard, sriracha and lemon juice and blend it well. Marinade the chicken in this and keep it for a day (or overnight) in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 375F. Once that is done put in the chicken for about 55 minutes. 

As a finishing touch, I broiled the chicken for 4 minutes once the chicken was done. 

Enjoy!

Peruvian Chicken

I have been lazy lately. Either I have not been cooking, or I have been cooking simple stuff. I have not even been eating out...I guess I have officially become a bum!!

However, on Sunday we went out to eat. It was this hole of a place, with an unimaginative name..."Peruvian Chicken". The food however was anything but! It was one of the better cooked chicken in the country.

They serve you either whole chicken, 1/2 chicken, or 1/4 chicken. I took 1/4. It came with a side of rice and salad. Rice was cooked with peas, very bland...it went well with the chicken. The salad was a simple cabbage and carrot salad with dressing which had mint in it! The mint dressing could also be used for chicken. But the chicken...that was so good! It was roasted over charcoal. And the way way it fell off its bones, I am assuming it was roasted for sometime. Maybe even more than 12 hour. Whatever they did to it, the flavors were good...and went right till the insides of the chicken. It had a woody (in a nice way) taste, and the skin was crisp. Yumm, yumm. 

Oh and by the way, I ordered a coconut juice for my drink. It was not intentional but the two went well!

I need to go back to the place again!

Buttermilk Roast Chicken

OK so the picture looks sad....there are just 2 pieces there.The thing is we forgot to take pictures and we realised this only when we had these 2 pieces left

Anyways here's what I used :

chicken..drumsticks preferred but you can use any fleshy chicken i suppose.6 pieces is enough for 2 people :)

1 cup buttermilk....curd and water in equal parts.mix well.that's Indian buttermilk i suppose.That's what i used anyways.

Vegetable oil.

Garlic

Chillies

Salt

Ground cumin...jeera.

Maple syrup (now the thing is...since i bought this syrup i have a big bottle of it....the concept of small bottles is unheard of in the US....pity; but ya...since i have this bottle the next few days i ll b making a lot of things which has maple syrup in it)

So this is what you do:

Put the chicken drumstick and the buttermilk together in a bowl and mix.put a little bit oil to it.Now peel 2 garlic cloves...2 pieces of garlic and smash it.I saw Nigella do it with a flat part of the knife so i do the same.you can use your fist if you want...but i strongly advice against it.So after you smash the garlic once put it in the bowl too.Now chop the chillies real fine and put it in.Salt to taste and about 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup (yes I had to buy a bottle of it for 1/2 tbsp) put it all in and mix well.

Cover it up and put it overnight in the fridge.If possible stir it once in between.

OK here's the thing.The book I was reading from asked me just to pick the pieces up and roast it.But there seemed too much of buttermilk mix to waste...so well,,,i went ahead and poured it all in....

anyways so preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.line a baking dish with aluminum foil.put everything (chicken mix i mean) in.pour in a little oil over the chicken.Roast for about 30 minutes.

Serve.We had it without anything else...oh ya I had maaza and Mono had White wine.but well...no food side dish.

Yummm

Mint flavored baked chicken

1.Chicken...drumsticks without the skin will be good.however we used all parts of chicken that had meat in it :)...about 3/4 kg

For the seasoning

mint...about 3 fistful of leaves

coriander....about 1 fistful

half an onion

about 2 inch long ginger

4 big garlic cloves

salt to taste

make a paste of the seasoning stuff. coat the chicken with it.leave it in the fridge for about 15 minutes.then bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (of course after pre-heating the oven). after 30 minutes..remove turn the chicken around and then bake it again for 20 minutes.that's it...the chicken was YUMMY...we dipped it in curd while having it.

PS: after we coated the chicken with the sauce we had some left over sauce...i had a bright idea of cutting large potatoes into 4 long pieces (with the skin) and baking that too...baking takes only about 30 minutes.these were equally heavenly...no marination was needed.

PS : note that no oil was used in the cooking process (apart from the little that was used to line the baking pan)....so that means this food was low cal.....Yahoo

Chicken Biryani

Ok now this may not look that good....but trust me this was one of the best things i have made till today...an all time favorite dish of mine whether i make it or whether i eat out...i love biryanis...

though i must warn everyone...i made this dish today and had it.that means my diet for the past 2 weeks has gone down the drain...ok so lets get started...

we will make this in 2 parts.

This is what is used for the first part...the chicken...

Butter....LOTS of it...everywhere

3 onions, sliced

1.5 kg chicken pieces (i used the ones with bones but while i was eating the biryani i realised boneless would have been better)

2 tsp grated ginger

1 whole garlic, crushed

2 tsp of of the mixture of following spices mixed in equal quantities...cumin, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom..i love cinnamon so i was a little more liberal with it.also i like all my spices freshly ground whether i am making biryani or plain sabji at home.

1/2 tsp flour

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup yogurt

1/2 cup cream

salt to taste

heat the butter and fry the onions till golden brown.set aside.

take chicken in a vessel and cook it.yes just like that..no oil nothing...after sometime the chicken will secrete lots of fat and then it will cook in its own oil.anyways cook the chicken till its golden in color.set aside.

take oil in another pan (yes i know thats 3 vessels already...there will be more) put in the garlic, ginger, the spices and flour.cook for sometime then add the stock, yogurt and cream and cook continuously.after about 10 minutes of cooking and stirring add the ckicken and half the onions and cook it till the the chicken gets just cooked.remove it and keep it covered...dont want all that aroma drifting away do we?

now for the rice this is what you need.

butter.lots of it.

1/2 tsp saffron

big cardamom seeds...keep them whole

salt to taste

1 cup basmati rice,well washed

4 cups chicken stock

take the butter and heat it.put in the cardamom seeds, saffron and rice.fry it for sometime.put in the chicken stock and boil till the rice is cooked.cover it and let it stand.

now take an oven proof dish.put in a layer of rice.above the layer of rice put the chicken.cover the chicken layer with another layer of rice.above that put in the remaining fried onions.cover and put it in a preheated oven.at 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes.

garnish with roasted cashewnuts.serve with raita.

yummmmmmmm!!!

Honeyed Roast Chicken

Ok so now that i baked that cake yesterday i got into the cooking mode and well cooked up a storm today...

i made 3 things.all from this awesome receipe book my friend gave me.

the first one was a receipe using quail...but i substituted quail with chicken and i was happy with the result...

Ingredients:

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/4 cup soy sauce (though go a little easy on this one...if used in excess it turns the coating slightly bitter in a muddy way...trying tasting raw soy sauce and you will understand what i mean)

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sesame seeds (the recipe didnt call for it but i used roasted sesame seeds)

about 1/2 kg chicken.

To make the coating, put oil, soy sauce, honey, lemon juice and sesame seeds in a small vessel and cook stirring continuously over a low flame...till it thickens slightly.

Boil the chicken in water with a little salt.not to cook the chicken but just to 1/4 cook it (i didnt know what half of semi was..basically i mean boil the chicken for 5 minutes)

Now drain the 1/4 cooked chicken and coat it with the above mixture and roast it..for about 15 minutes or till the chicken is cooked.

So easy no?