This weekend, my kids demanded chicken fry! My mother has an excellent recipe for chicken fry which I inherited and am now sharing with my readers at Foodatarian! Hope you all like it.
Ingredients

900 gm Chicken boneless

1 medium Onion

1 Bay leaf

5 Cloves

5 Cardamom

1 inch Cinnamon

5-6 Clove flakes

2 Star anise

1 tsp Ground cumin powder

1/2 tsp Chilly powder

1/2 tsp Garam masala

25 blanched almonds

1/2 inch Ginger

5 cloves Garlic

3 tablespoon Yoghurt

3 tablespoon Fresh cream

Recipe

Cooking tip: As far as possible, always take out the ingredients in a plate 5 minutes before you start cooking. If the chicken was kept in a freezer, make sure you defrost it.

Grind ginger,  cloves of garlic and blanched almonds, with little water, in a blender and keep it aside. Wash the meat and pat it dry. Cut the meat into narrow pieces.

Fry the meat pieces in oil till golden brown.

Transfer the chicken pieces to a dish and allow the oil to strain. Next  warm a little oil in a pan and add bay leaves, cardamom, cloves, star anise (optional) and cinnamon. Fry till the bay leaves turn dark brown on a low flame. Add chopped onion and fry for two minutes. Add the ginger garlic almonds paste and fry till oil leaves the side. Now add cumin powder and chilly powder and fry for 2 more minutes. Whisk yoghurt and add 1 tblsp. Mix well for 30 seconds and slowly add the remaining yoghurt. Continue mixing, add chicken and fresh cream to the paste and cook at high flame for a minute.

Now lower the flame, stir the chicken well and cook for 15 minutes. Add garam masala and coriander leaves and cook for another five minutes.

Remove it in a dish and serve with hot bread/chapatis

Check out some more Chicken recipes here

I had some guests over for lunch. My husband suggested me to prepare a chicken recipe that is not a usual curry recipe. But since I was serving rice, I thought of experimenting bit with the usual honey chicken recipe.

Chilli Honey Chicken is a chicken recipe where boneless chicken pieces are marinated with soy and chilli sauce, egg, salt and corn flour. Later deep fried and dropped into a thick sauce with scallions, peppers and mushrooms seasoned with salt, pepper, soy sauce, chilli sauce, fresh green chillies, honey and vinegar. Serve over rice or noodles.

Ingredients:

250 grams of boneless and skinless chicken breasts; chopped into small chunks,

For the marinade -

1 tsp light soy sauce,

1 tbsp hot chilli sauce,

Salt and pepper,

1 large egg; lightly beaten,

Corn flour as required.

For the sauce -

3-4 sprigs of scallions with the greens, chopped and greens separated,

1 tsp minced garlic,

1 yellow pepper; diced,

1 red pepper; diced,

5-6 mushrooms; sliced,

1 tsp dark soy sauce,

1 tbsp hot chilli sauce,

3-4 green chillies; slit vertically,

2-3 tbsp honey,

1 tsp white wine vinegar,

2 tbsp tomato ketchup,

Salt to taste,

1 tbsp corn flour dissolved in 2 tbsp water

Olive oil + Vegetable oil for deep frying,

Some water for the gravy.

Method:

Mix all the ingredients for marinade (except corn flour) and add chicken chunks to it. Slowly add corn flour to prepare a thick batter and let it coat all over the chicken pieces. Let this marinate for around 1 hour in the refrigerator.

Later heat vegetable oil for deep frying in a wok. The oil should not be smoking hot. Then add marinated chicken chunks in batches and fry at a golden-brown color. Drain on paper towels.

To prepare the sauce -

Heat some olive oil in a pan. Add garlic and sauté until just fragrant. Then add onions and sauté for a minute. Then add peppers and mushrooms and stir fry for few minutes.

Then add scallion greens and stir fry. Now add soy sauce, chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, salt, honey, some water (according to your requirement of gravy) and bring to boil. Add vinegar, corn flour paste, stir and remove from flame.

Serve over steamed rice or noodles.

I love to eat at KFC. The zinger and fried chicken (bucket) make me drool. My husband says if a KFC outlet was close by (where I live) I would have been there everyday. So one day I thought of making my own fried chicken which I can have whenever I want to. This is not a KFC recipe, but my invention and tastes some what similar to the one they serve.

Ingredients:

250 grams chicken (I used boneless but you can take whole cut chicken),

1 cup Flour or as required,

1 egg; beaten,

1 tsp garlic; minced,

1 tsp paprika or cayenne pepper,

1/4 tsp dry rosemary,

Salt to taste,

Oil for deep drying.

Method:

Combine egg, garlic, pepper, rosemary, salt and chicken in a mixing bowl. Then add flour to it and keep mixing. Combine well so that the chicken pieces are coated entirely with the mixture and the batter is thick. Adjust the amount of flour accordingly, or if the mixture is too thick, thin out by add little water. Leave it in the refrigerator for an hour or more.

Heat oil in a wok for deep frying. The ideal temperature is about 180° C or 360° F. The oil should not smoke. Drop in the chicken pieces in batches and dry them until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot with tomato ketchup or chilli sauce.

It was a lazy Sunday. I got some chicken pieces for a curry and some boneless chicken for trying out a new recipe. My husband insisted that he would prepare a chicken curry, with my help of course. So by the time we finished curry, parathas, rice and salad, my boneless chicken laid there, waiting for me =) It was almost time for supper and I didn’t know what to do with it. Since it had thawed I didn’t want to put it into the freezer. While still thinking about what to do, I marinated it with sea salt, pepper and garlic. And the rest is for you to read below. But it turned out really good! Quick and simple.

Ingredients:

250gms boneless chicken breasts; cut into bite size pieces,

2 tsp finely chopped garlic,

Sea salt (rock salt or use plain salt) and pepper to taste.

For the batter -

2-3 tbsp flour,

1 egg,

1 tsp light soy sauce,

1 tsp red chilli sauce,

Salt to taste (soy sauce has some amount of salt, so adjust as per taste),

Oil for frying.

Method:

Marinate the chicken with sea salt, pepper and garlic until you make the batter. In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients of the batter and beat well. Then add the chicken pieces into the batter and mix them to coat properly. Set it aside for 15-20 minutes. Then heat oil in a wok (for deep frying) or pan (for shallow frying). Fry the chicken bits on low-medium flame until they are cooked and get a reddish color all over.
Serve hot fritters with ketchup.

Ingredients:

200gms boneless and skinless chicken; cut into small kebab size pieces,

Oil for basting,

Skewers.

For marinade -

2 tbsp thick hung yogurt,

1/4 cup mint leaves, finely chopped,

1/4 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped,

1-2 green chillies, ground into paste,

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste,

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

Combine together all the ingredients of marinade and marinate the chicken pieces into it for 4-5 hours. Later arrange all the pieces on Skewers and grill them in a tandoor until they are done or in a pre-heated oven at 175 degrees C for 7-8 minutes.