* Chicken Butter Masala.........

                  Chicken Butter Masala is  probably the most famous Indian  dish abroad. I  have  been asked  by many of  my co-workers  or friends who have at least once tasted Indian food in restaurants for this recipe,,I  can understand why,Because every Indian  Restaurant you  go in Toronto,,the  silky textured yellowish-red  gravy with boneless chicken tikka pieces is  the most ordered dish. Originally the  chicken tikkas  are done on clay oven which imparts a  great aroma.The oven is a great alternative but that smokey flavor goes missing. It’ also  has got this wonderfully distinct it the rich sauce. The incredible orange color appeals to the eyes and the thick creamy texture is just waiting for warm pieces of naan to be dunked and scooped up.

Here  goes the recipe ...........

This dish  has two  steps :
1. Preparation of the  chicken tikka
2. Preparation of  the gravy.

Preparation the Chicken  Tikka :

These tikkas can be  enjoyed  as  an  appetizer.You can grill or bake or barbecue them.This time  I pan grilled them ,but  any  process is  good enough for the tikkas.

Ingredients for Chicken Tikka:

1. Boneless chicken : 1 lb  (cut in small cubes)

2. Ginger &  garlic  paste  : 1 tb sp

3. Salt : to taste(Always taste the  salt in your marinade  before you add the chicken) 

4. Garam Masala : 1/2  tsp

5. Coriander Powder : 1 tb sp

6. Cumin Powder : 1 tsp

7. Oil : 2 tsp

8. Turmeric : 1/2 tsp

9 .Yugurt : 2 tb sp
10.Lime juice 2 tb sp

Procedure  for Chicken Tikka :

1. Mix all the  marinade except chicken  and  adjust your  salt level.Add chicken  cubes  and  keep it  for at least  1  hour.You can keep it for a  day,if you have time or you plan ahead.Overnight maritation gives the best  result.

2. In a  pan add a  tsp  oil and  pan fry  the  chicken  cubes for  10 -15 minutes or  until done.(Don't  wash the  pan  if you are going to make  butter chicken ,Use  the  same  pan,the flavor  will  be really nice)

                Chicken tikka  is ready.if you are  having as  an  appetizer  then  squeeze some  lemon  juice  on top  and it  tastes awesome.I  always  munch on few  tikkas in the process of  cooking.just can't resist :)

Preparation of  the gravy:

Ingredients for  chicken  Butter masala  gravy :


1. Onion :  1  cup (Chopped)

2. Tomato : 1 cup (chopped, Use the  bright red color  tomato)
3. Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Kasuri Methi) : 1 tb sp
4. Sugar  : 1 tsp
5. Tomato  ketchup - 1-2  tb sp
6. Corriander  powder : 1 tsp
7. Cumin Powder : 1/2  tsp
8. Garam  masala : 1/2  tsp
9. Red chilly Powder : 1/4 - 1/2  tsp or green chillies : 2
10.Cashew : 10 numbers
11. Butter  : 2 tb sp
12. Cream : Optional
13. Red Food Colour : Optional optional,if you  want that resturant like  look then go ahead and  add(I did
     not add colour)

Procedure for  chicken  Butter masala  gravy :

1. In the same  pan heat oil,add chopped onion.When  onions are  transparent add  ginger garlic paste .When  you get  the nice  smell  of  ginger garlic paste, then add the chopped tomato.
2. Saute the tomatos  for  1  minute and  add  coriander powder,cumin powder,garam masala, red chilly 
    powder and cashews. Cook these spices for   3-4 minutes or  until cooked.(yo can add 1-2 tbsp water if 
    you feel it is dry)you will  know  it is cooked by  the texture and  smell.Add some  crushed  Fenugreek   
    leaves and  mix well..It  looks very mushy and  the raw smell of the spices will go away.
3. Cool down this mixture for  some time and  blend  it in a blender to  a fine puree.
4. Don't  wash the  pan yet......we want the full flavor in our  butter chicken.So in the same  pan add 1  
    tsp of  butter and pour in the puree you  just prepared. Bring it to boil.
5. Now time to add the chicken tikkas  to the  boiling gravy.The gravy is  already cooked,so no need to 
    cook for  a very long time now.Just cook for  5-7 minutes.You can see the silky texture of the   
    gravy.Add  the  tomato ketchup and  adjust your  seasoning now.Now is the time to add your  optional 
    ingredients: The red food colour and  and  cream.(I didn't add any).
6. While serving  top it with the rest 1 tb sp  of  butter.


       Serve  with  hot naans or  roti(Indian flat bread) and  you will  be licking your fingers.Enjoy  and  happy cooking.

* Thanks-giving Chicken Roast with gravy

Roasted Chicken is a simple dish.I wanted to make it for a long time and what can be a better occasion than a Thanksgivings.Well I love to try new food all the time,,Cooking is a big stress buster for me.I have to try new things with same or different ingredients.But really I get bored if I keep making the same things.So I always try to find a chance to make something new.As it was my first time roasting the whole chicken so was little skeptical about the taste and flavour ,so gave twist by marinating the whole chicken with yogurt and spices too along with thyme and basil.
This thanksgiving I prepared Roasted chicken with gravy and had a wonderful private dinner with my hubby.

Ingredients for roasted chicken:

1.Whole chicken(skin on)- 1-2 lb(keep the skin on the chicken ,so that the roasted chicken will
be moist and tender)
2. Fresh Thyme - 3 strands
3. Fresh Basil - 3 strands
4. Plain Yogurt - 2 tb sp
5. lemon juice - 2 tb sp
6. Freshly grounded pepper powder- 1/4 tsp
7. Salt -1/2 t sp
8.Olive Oil - 1 tb sp
9. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
(Here you can add any spice like,coriander powder,garam masala etc to add flavour to the chicken)
10. Cubed potato - 1 large
11. Cubed Onion- 1 large
12. cubed carrot -1
(Roasting the chicken in vegetable bed makes the veggies nicely flavoured from the juice that comes from chicken while roasting, its optional)

Preparation:

0. Preheat the oven.
1. Make a paste of yogurt,lemon,pepper powder,salt,cumin powder,oil and taste the salt at
this point.
2. Clean and thaw the chicken completely before starting to marinate.
2. Soak the moisture from the chicken with a paper towel .
3. At this point rub the marinate on the chicken,,and pour some inside the cavity too.
4. Insert the fresh thyme and basil leaves under the skin in thigh and breast.
5. Drizzle some olive oil on top of chicken and sprinkle some salt and pepper
6. Spread the veggies on a baking tray and put the chicken on the vegetable bed.
7. Bake for 60 minutes(If your chicken is a different weight, you can work out the timings: allow
20 minutes per 500g, plus an extra 20 minutes.To keep the chicken moist baste at around 30
minutes)
8. Now roasted chicken is ready.Serve it with gravy .


Ingredients For gravy :

1.2 cup chicken broth or you can use the chicken bullion cubes(check the salt while using the
cubes)
2. Collect the Chicken drippings from your roasting pan.
3.Flour - 1- 1.5 tb sp
4. Ground pepper- 1-2 pinches
5. salt (as per taste,you may not need if you are using bullion cubes)

Gravy preparation:

1. In a pan or a sauce pan, heat the chicken drippings at medium high.

2. Add the 2 spoons of flour and keep stirring until blended. Add water, 1/4 at a time until you get the right consistency. Remember to always keep stirring all the way.
3. Add the chicken broth /chicken cube and crush it until it dissolves. Take it out of the fire and add a dash of ground black pepper.

Enjoy your chicken gravy with the roasted chicken.

The best thing about the roasted chicken is , it is very healthy and easy to make without much hassle.

* Chicken curry

Chicken Curry...this a quicky recipe that I make in weekdays when I'm really tired after work and don't want to chop veggies or we want to eat something yummy with less work.Now it explains it is an easy recipe and tastes awesome.This is one type of chicken curry recipe,,there are many variation of a chicken curry.For me this is the simplest of all and my husband loves it.
One more inspiration behind this post is my colleagues who always wanted to know the recipe.

This time I tried to make a movie from the pictures of the preparation steps,didn't have much time to do a good editing as we are busy with our moving to our new place , but still I hope the video will be more helpful .

So here is the recipe:

Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes with the following ingredients:

1.Chopped chicken (1 lb,here for this curry I prefer chicken thighs because the fat in the chicken
adds flavour to the curry)
2. 1 tsp ginger garlic paste(you can make it at home blending equal amount of ginger and garlic
or use the store bought verity-Indian stores in Toronto do have them)
3. 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4. 1/2 tsp cumin powder
5. 1/2 tb sp coriander powder
6. 1/2 tsp salt

Mix well all the ingredients and keep it for at least 30 minutes.

Ingredients for Chicken Curry:


1. Marinated chicken
2. Vegetable oil - 3 tb sp
3. Chopped Onion - 1 cup
4. Chopped Tomato - 1 cup
5. Green Chillies - 2 (optional)
6. Chopped Cilantro
/Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
7. Clove - 4
8. Cardamom - 4
9. Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
10. Pepper Corns-8-10 (optional)
11. 1/2 Star anise (optional)
12. Mace - 1 floret (optional)
13. Red chilly powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
14. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
15. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
16. Coriander powder - 1 tb sp
17. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tb sp
18. 1/4 tsp garam masala (very aromatic blend of all spices like cinnamon,cardamom,clove,star
anise, mace, need not make at home ,also you can find them in Indian stores,it adds that extra
flavour to the curry,You may find it in no-frills, walmart, if you don't have it still you do
without it)



Preparation of Chicken Curry:

• Place your pot on stove top in medium flame.Once it is hot, pour 3 tb sp of vegetable oil and 1/2 t sp of sugar.Here, sugar is for caramelization which give the extra colour to the curry.It makes the gravy look pretty rich.


• Once Sugar caramelizes(Don't over caramelize), add chopped onions and add a little pinch of salt(Salt help to absorb moisture from the onion and cooks quickly)


• Stir well and when onion turns golden , add the whole spices and green chillies.


• Add ginger garlic paste at this point and stir for 1-2 minutes (or until you can smell the flavour of cooked ginger garlic paste )


• At this point,add the coriander powder,cumin powder,turmeric powder,red chilly powder(red chilly powder is optional) .


• Pour in the chopped tomatoes immediately so that the spices don't get burnt.here keep stirring for 3-5 minutes until the spices get cooked(if it gets too dry then add 2 tb sp of water )


• Now its time to add the marinated chicken.


• Mix the chicken and the cooked spices well .At this point you can add chopped potatoes (adding potatoes is completely optional although I like the curry with potatoes)


• Mix all the ingredients well and cover.Let it cook for 10-15 minutes .Do stir in every 5 minutes.


• Once the required amount of gravy is left in the pot add garam masala and mix well.Stop the flame and sprinkle Chopped cilantro/coriander leaves.It goes very well with Steamed rice or paratha or naan.

Now enjoy the dish and I would be more than happy to get a feed back from you.

* Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani

Hyderabadi Dum Biryani.............My husband is a die heart fan of Hyderabadi Chicken dum biryani.Wherever he goes he was chasing for dum biryani,,be it any place in world.And it is very difficult to get a A+ from him Regarding this dish.He is very particular about the smell & the taste.This post is lengthy but I would suggest it is worth it.It takes practice to master the art of biryani making.So if you don't get it right in your first attempt try try try,you will learn to get it right eventually.I will try my best to explain properly.I'm making this chicken biryani once a week from last 2 years now.And it took me many attempts to get it right.The biryani day is easy and less mess for me in kitchen and we get to eat this awesome biryani with less effort which makes a busy day easy.So here comes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Basmati rice(2 cups)-I like 'India gate' brand basmati rice,,but you are good to do with any Basmati rice you like.

1 lb chicken thigh

Shan Chicken biryani mix(If I don't have my biryani mix then I go for this stored bought spice,I will post the biryani masala in another post)

2 tb sp Ginger Garlic paste

5 green chillies(adjust to the hot level you can eat)

10 cloves

8 Green cardamom

1 Black cardamom

4 florets of mace

10 whole black pepper corns

2 inch cinnamon

3 star Annis

2 tb sp shahi zeera(1 type of cumin,you can replace with normal cumin too)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp red chilly powder

1 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves

5 strands of fresh mint leaves

1 cup plain yogurt

3 tb sp lemon juice

1 pinch of saffron

5 tb spoon milk

3 tb sp Rose water(optional )

2 tb sp ghee(clarified butter)

2 tb sp vegetable oil

1 cubed Onion

Now here don't get scared of the long list of spices.some part I use for marinating the chicken and some for infusing the flavour to the rice.
There are three very important things to remember when you make Dum biryani

• Marinate the chicken at least for 3-4 hours(What I do is marinate the chicken in the morning before leaving for work or the night before),which makes the chicken very tender and juicy.
• While cooking the rice,constantly monitor,,few seconds of over-cooking can ruin the beauty of biryani.
• While cooking the biryani monitor the time and heat(The entire time of cooking it will be closed so you can't see in between the cooking process)
  
  

There is three parts of the entire process

• Marinate the chicken
• prepare the rice
• Assemble chicken and rice

So here is the first step--Marinate the chicken

In a bowl mix the below ingredients

• yogurt
• 2 tb sp ginger & garlic paste
• 5 cloves
• 4 Green cardamom
• 3 florets of mace
• 5 whole black pepper corns
• 1 inch cinnamon

• 1 Black cardamom
• 1/2 star Annis
• 1 tb sp shahi zeera(1 type of cumin,you can replace with normal cumin too)
• 1 bay leaves
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp red chilly powder
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
• 2 strands of fresh mint leaves
• chopped green chillies
• salt as per your taste
• 2 tb sp vegetable oil
• Lemon juice
• cubed onion
• 2 tb sp shan biryani mix
• chopped chicken(taste the salt before you add chicken to the marinade)

Mix all these ingredients and cover the lid or seal with cling plastic, keep it in refrigerator overnight.

Now the second step : Cooking the rice

1. Soak the basmati rice for at least 30-40 minutes before cooking.
2. To infuse the aroma of spices into rice,In a cheese cloth tie rest of the whole spices or you can just add to the water.If you add to water then they may interfere you while eating.So here its your choice :)
3. In a pot heat water,add just the right amount of salt and the spices(in cheese cloth or loose).
4. When the water starts boiling add the soaked rice and monitor it carefully.
5. In few minutes it will start boiling and when its half cooked take it out of the heat and drain(when to know rice is half cooked: press the rice grain if should just break,). As the rice was already soaked it takes just 5 minitues to get the required consistency. a little overdone rice may result sticky biriyani..
   

Before you start assembling prepare the saffron milk mixture.For getting a very good colour of saffron roast it slightly on stove top for 2 minutes on a spoon and crush them and add to warm milk.This way actually the saffron flavour and colour comes wonderful in any dish.

The third step is Assembling the rice and chicken

1. Grease a heavy bottomed pan with some vegetable oil.
2. Pour the well marinated chicken at the bottom and spread evenly.
3. Add one layer of rice(use half of the cooked rice for this layer ). On top of rice layer and 1/2 tea sp shana biryani masala mix,mint leaves,coriander leaves,some rose water(optional),1 tbsp ghee(clarified butter).
4. Spread another layer of rice and pour the saffron milk mixture,1 tb sp rose water(optional) and rest 1 tb sp ghee(clarified butter)
5. Now cover the top of the vessel with either a silver foil wrap or a kitchen towel(purpose here is not to let the moisture evaporate)
6. On top of the kitchen towel place the lid(Note it here Just place the lid on top of the kitchen towel,don't tighten the lid)
7. keep the vessel on high heat for first 5 minutes,in medium flame for next 20 minutes and in very low for next 5 minutes.(if the vessel buttom is not heavy then the chicken may get burnt .you can use a benmerry or cook with less flame for longer time)
8. After the entire time of cooking let it stand for next 10 minutes and you can serve Biryani with kachumbar/raita(yogurt with cucumber onion ) or a gravy.

Enjoy this aromatic delicacy of Hyderabad.