CHICKEN CUTLETS

Some foods remind us of some good memories and good peoples right? This chicken cutlets is that kind of one which is very much related to one lovely person Suja aunti,my ammas friend and colleague in Rubber board . Suja aunti had  resigned the job long time back and went abroad to join with her husband. The last time I met her was around 25 years back, such a long time. Though I was  too small to memorize things, I clearly remember her smiling face and the cutlets she used to pack for us via amma.She makes the best cutlets in the world. I believe it is her love she puts in makes her cutlets yummy. My amma is not good in keeping the contacts  ,so we do not have any idea where suja aunti is now. But whenever we have cutlets me and amma used to have long talk about her. Regardless of distance and time, good peoples stay close to our heart forever.

cutlets are one of the most demanded bakery item in kerala.it is a family favorite.it is one snack that can be made easily and is able to please everyone. Do try and win applause J

ingredients

1.    Chicken -10 small boneless pieces

2.    Potato- 3 medium,peeled and squared

3.    Ginger- 1medium size piece,roughly chopped

4.    Garlic-5 or 6 pods,chopped

5.    Green chilly-3 or 4 nos,finely chopped

6.    Onion-1 big,roghly chopped

7.    Bread crumbs-1 n ½ cup or as required

8.    Bread slices- 1 or 2 (optional)

9.    Garam masala -1 tsp

10.  Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp

11.    Pepper powder-1/2 tsp

12.     Salt

13   Oil- for deep frying

14.   Egg- 2 ,lightly beaten

Method of preparation

1.    Cook chicken pieces by adding turmeric powder, pepper powder and salt.

2.    Boil potatoes. Mash it and keep it aside.

3.    Heat 1 tbsp. of oil in pan. Sauté onion, ginger garlic and green chilly till onion turns soft.no need to be browned.

4.    Take cooked chicken, sautéed onion mix in a mixie jar. Grind all this. Just one or two pulse is enough. This is to mince the chicken and blend well with other ingredients.

5.    Transfer chicken mix, mashed potatoes in mixing bowl. Add salt,garam masala and bread slices soaked in water. Mix well. the mix should not be too thick and too thin. You should be able to make balls out of this. Adding bread pieces makes the mix thick and prevent from breaking while frying.

6.    Take lemon sized ball out of it and flatten slightly. Dip in beaten egg, roll in bread crumbs.

7.    Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan. When the oil is really hot, reduce the flame to medium and fry the cutlets for few minutes until both sides turn brown in color.

Serve hot with tomatosauce.

EASY CHICKEN DUM BIRIYANI(KERALA STYLE)

Kerala biriyanis are distinct by the dominating flavor of green chilly. This is a spicy, rich biriyani bursting with Kerala flavors.

I already have an easy biriyani here. Though it was flavorful, it was more of rustic style (a thattikootu biriyani). unlike the former this I made it in authentic Dum method. I called this one easy as it requires no sautéing process, the most time consuming process in cooking. Here we don’t need to chop heaps of onion again sparing you from shedding tears. One sad thing is that, it cannot be prepared in a jiffy as the poultry required to be marinated for long hours. That’s not a matter when we don’t need to sweat in the kitchen, right? I was very dubious about the outcome as I never ever imagined a biriyani masala without adding onions. All such misconceptions were just vanished when I tasted it.

It was such a delicious  or even more tastier than the normal one. I would say it is a must try. Once you make this, you will end up in making this again and again

Ingredients

1.    Chicken- ¾ kg ,cleaned and cut into medium sized pieces

2.    Cashew nuts-10nos

3.    Poppy seeds (kus kus)2tsp

4.    Oil or ghee-2tbsp

5.    For the marinade

Ginger-1 big pieces,peeled

Garlic-around12 pods,

Green chilly-7 nos

Mint leaves-one handful

Coriander leaves-one handful

Unsour thick curd-1/4 cup

Biriyani masala powder-2tbsp( I have used eastern brand)

red chilly powder-1tsp

garam masala powder-3/4 tsp

salt

6.    For the Rice

Basmathi rice or jeera rice-2 n ½ cup (around 500 gm)

Whole spices-cardamom 8nos,cinnamon sticks 2,star anise 1,cloves 1nos

Salt

Lemon juice-1tsp

Water of cooking the rice

7.    For layering

Ghee-2tbsp (optional)

Saffron- a pinch soaked in 3 tbsp. of warm milk

Cashew nuts and kismiss-50 gms each

Onion-2 medium, thinly sliced

Chopped mint and coriander – a few

pineapple-chopped,1/4 cup

Method of preparation

1.    Cook rice by adding plenty of water and whole spices. When it is half cooked, add lemon juice and salt. Cook till ¾ th done. Drain it and keep it aside.

2.    Grind together ginger,garlic,green chilly and greens into smooth paste. Mix all other ingredients listed under for the marinade. Take a bowl, add the chicken and the marinade. Massage the pieces well with the marinade and keep it in the fridge for minimum of 2 hours. (should not keep in the freezer.) overnight marination is best.

3.    Grind together cashew and poppy seeds into smooth paste.

4.    Take a biriyani pot or a thick bottomed pan. Heat oil or ghee. Fry cashew and kismiss till golden brown. Also fry onions till brown. Keep this aside for later use.

5.    In the same oil add chicken. Give a nice mix. If required add ¼ cup of water and cook for 5 to 8 minutes. Add cashew and poppy seed paste mix again. Once chicken is half cooked, layer the rice on top of this chicken. Sprinkle all the ingredients mentioned under for layering.

6.    now it is the  time for dum. for that take a sheet of aluminum foil which fits well to cover the pot. Cover the pot with the foil. Carefully pour ½ glass of water over the foil. Now keep the lid over pot covered with foil.(pls chk this link to see how to do dum) Keep it in low flame for 20 to 30 minutes or once the water above foil is really hot you can be sure that the biriyani is done.

8.    Open the lid carefully. Now you can feel the fragrance of biriyani all over the kitchen. Mix the rice and meat very gently. Enjoy with raitha,papad and pickle

STUFFED CHICKEN BUNS

Nowadays I am not very fond of cooking. So does the blogging. But I can never stay away from baking.I love sitting in front of the oven while the baking is going on and the sight of rising cakes,or buns gives me intense happiness. I have made this bun on a lazy dinner. Once I have tried this long before but was not happy with the outcome. But this time both the stuffing and bun texture turned out awesome. So I clicked the pics and couldn’t stop myself from sharing this wonderful recipe. I would say it is a must try for all bakery food lovers like me. I tried making it as healthy as possible. I have made Around 12 buns and one good sized cater pillar bread with this measurement. The bun was super soft and melts in mouth kind of texture. For the filling I have used both chicken and vegetables. The filling can be modified according to your imaginations. Here goes the recipe…

Ingredients for the bun

1.    All purpose flour/ Maida- 4 cups

2.    Dry yeast- 1 n ½ tbsp

3.    Warm milk- as required to knead the dough ( I didn’t measure)

4.    Sugar-1/4 cup

5.    Salt-1tsp

6.    Oil-1/4 cup

7.    Curd-2 or 3 tbsp

8.    Egg- 1 lightly beaten ,for brushing the bun

9.    Sesame seeds-white or black for sprinkling over the top

For the filling

1.    Chicken – around 150 gms

2.    Green beans-10 nos,chopped

3.    Carrot-1 medium sized,grated

4.    Cabbage -1 cup,chopped

5.    Onion- 2 medium sized,chopped

6.    Ginger garlic paste-1 n ½ tbsp

7.    Chilly podwer-1/2 tsbp

8.    Coriander powder-1/2 tbsp

9.    Garam masala powder -1 tsp

10    Salt to taste

11    Oil-1 bor 2tbsp

12.   Water-1/4 cup

Method of preparation

1.    Mix yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar in ¼ cup of lukewarm water and keep it aside for 10 minutes for proofing. This is the most important step .If your yeast fails to proof then your bread or bun will become as hard as stone. So make sure the yeast mixture has well risen.

2.    Take the flour in a deep and big bowl. Add curd and salt into this and gently mix. Mix the risen yeast,oil.sugar, warm milk in another bowl.(keep some milk aside as iam not sure of the quantity of the milk needed to knead the dough.)Add this into the flour and knead into soft and smooth dough. Add more milk if required. The dough has to  be kneaded for at least eight minutes. Keep the kneaded dough covered in a warm place for 3 or 4 hours to rise and doubles the volume.

3.    For the filling- Cook chicken by adding ¼ cup of water, salt and little turmeric powder. Once chicken has cooked remove the pieces from the stock. Cook the chopped vegetables in the same chicken stock. (this gives some extra flavor for the filling).chop the cooked chicken and keep it aside.

4.    Heat oil in a pan. Add ginger garlic paste and onion and sauté until onion turns soft. Add the spice powders and sauté until the raw smell goes. Now add the cooked chicken and vegetable Add salt if required and mix everything well. Switch off the flame .Now the filling is ready.

5.    Lets get back to the dough. Punch the risen dough to release the air. Divide the dough into medium sized balls slightly bigger than that of chappathi balls. Flatten the balls into thick discs and shape it into cups. Keep a big spoon full of filling into this and punch the edges to shape them into buns. Grease a baking tray ,place buns with few centimeters gap as it will rise while baking. After shaping all the buns preheat the oven At 250◦c for 10 minutes. By this time the buns will have a second rise. Brush the top of the buns with beaten egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds and bake at 180◦c for 15 minutes or until it is cooked and turned slightly brown.

LOW FAT KERALA STYLE CHICKEN FRY

I know very well that no one would say no to chicken fry. But to be honest, they are not my favorite :). But once I tried this low fat version I totally fell in love with chicken fry. This recipe uses very less oil and but taste as good or even better than that of normal deep fried one. Here the chicken is juicy inside and crispy outside, exactly the same way we love our chicken to be.

Ingredients

1.      Chicken- 2 drumsticks and 5 boneless medium sized pieces

2.      Ginger-1 big piece

3.      Garlic-8 pods

4.      Chilly powder-3/4tsp

5.      Cumin powder-1/4tsp

6.      Coriander powder-1tsp,heaped

7.      Garam masala powder-3/4tsp

8.      Curd-2tbsp

9.      Salt

10.  Water-1/2cup

11.  Oil-2tbsp(preferably coconut oil)

12.  Curry leaves-a few

Method of preparation

1.      Wash and clean chicken pieces. Make few slits on the pieces.

2.      Grind ingredients 2-9 in to smooth paste. Marinate chicken pieces in this. Keep it marinated for at least 30 minutes. The more the resting time the tastier it will be.

3.      Cook chicken pieces in a cooker by adding ½ cup of water till 1 whistle. Let the pressure comes down by itself.

4.      Take a frying pan. Add the chicken stock (keep the pieces aside).Heat it in high flame until dries up .when the liquid forms like a thick paste reduce the flame and add the kept aside chicken pieces in. Mix well .Add the oil and curry leaves and cook in medium flame for few minutes until outer portion of the chicken pieces turned dark and crispy. When one side is cooked, Flip it and cook other side too. It will not take much time since the meat is already cooked.

Serve it as a starter or side dish. It goes well with rice or rotis

5.       

6.       

EASY BUTTER CHICKEN

Butter chicken is one classic Indian dish loved by Indians and non Indians as well. We never fail to order this whenever we gorge on North Indian cuisine. Recently my Mother in law got a butter chicken recipe from a professional chef. She tried it at home and we all enjoyed it to the fullest. But that recipe calls for lots of ingredients and the entire process took one half day!!!So I never ever wanted to give it a try by myself. Though I love cooking, I don’t like to spend much time in kitchen. Then I happened to see this recipe here . Immediately i tried it with slight modifications.  I did  not use cream, instead I used milk. However it turned out as delicious as the one we get in Punjabi  dhabbas or restaurants .The actual recipe calls for the use of home made tandoori masala..The deliciousness of this curry greatly depend on that masala.I strongly recommend you to make it rather buying from stores.

While reading the methods you may wonder is this the easy butter chicken??Trust me only description seems elaborate, but the work involved is very less!!!

Ingredients For the tandoori masala

1.      Garam masala- 2tbsp

2.      Cumin powder-2tbsp

3.      Coriander powder-1tbsp

4.      Kashmiri chilly ppowder-4 and ½ tsp

5.      Kasuri methi-2tsp

6.      Turmeric powder-1tsp

just mix everything up by using mixie or even with a spoon.

Ingredients for the marinade

1.      Ginger,garlic- finely chopped,1tbsp each

2.      Curd-1cup

3.      Tandoori masala-1tbsp

4.      Tomato paste-1/4 cup

5.      Salt

6.      Ghee or butter-2tbsp,melted

Chicken-cleaned and cut into medium sized pieces,around750gm

Mix everything and marinate the chicken pieces well. Keep the marinated chicken in fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. Arrange the chicken pieces along with the marinade in a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven 200◦C for 30 minutes.

 Ingredients For the gravy

1.      Ginger ,garlic-chiopped,2tbsp each

2.      Tomatoe-4 medium sized,chopped

3.      Tandoori masala-remaining masala after the marinating process

4.      Kashmiri chilly powder-1/2tsp

5.      Salt

6.      Milk-1cup( see notes)

7.      Kasuri methi-1tbsp

8.      Coriander leaves-1tbsp,chopped

9.      Water- 1/2cup

10.  Butter-2tbsp+2tbsp

11.  Sugar-1/2 tsp

Method of preparation

1.      Heat butter in a pan. Saute ginger and garlic for a minute or until the raw smell disappears. Add in chilly powder and tandoori masala powder. Stir .Add chopped tomatoes and salt. Cook until it turns mushy. Let this cool down. Grind this into smooth paste by adding little water. Pour it back into the pan along with ½ cup of water. Bring it to boil.

2.      Add baked chicken along with the juice into the gravy. Close the pan and cook in medium or law flame for about 10 minutes. Check for saltiness. Add milk ,kasuri methi,chopped green chilly.mix well. Do not let it boil. Just heat it up. Lastly add chopped coriander leaves,sugar and remaining butter.Give a gentle stir. Switch off the flame. Keep it closed for some time.

Enjoy with any  flat  breads…

Notes: the actual recipe uses cream instead of milk. Since I did not have it on hand I substituted it with milk. If you use cream reduce the amount by ½ cup. If the gravy is too thick, more milk can be added.