Roasted Chicken

Roasted Chicken is popular all over India, but it can be ubiquitously found on the menus of take-away joints of Punjab. Served with mint and coriander chutney, this hot, crispy chicken, tender from inside is a favorite snack of Punjab. In the evenings in bustling market-places when you walk around on foot you can actually feel your senses tingle with the aroma of roasted chicken and fresh green chutney. 

The recipe I am giving below will give the same taste and aroma as the popular chicken joint near you. It is also very easy to achieve. Another plus point is that this recipe requires no garlic & ginger, thus saving you a lot of time gone in peeling and chopping. The chicken is cooked with whole spices and marinated with cream melts in the mouth. Do give it a try. You will love the taste and recipe too. 

We need :

• 2 Chicken ( 1400 gm) 

• 200 gm Dairy Cream

• 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

• 2 Tbsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder

• 2 Tsp Salt

• 4 Green Cardamom

• 2" Piece of Cinnamon Stick

• 1 Tbsp Whole Black Pepper

• ¼ Tsp Nutmeg Powder

• 2 Tbsp Chat Masala for sprinkling

• 1 lemon for Garnish. 

Here We Go:

1. Cut the Chicken into big pieces. One chicken ideally cut into eight pieces. Wash the chicken. Keep aside to drain water. When the water is completely drained, wipe the chicken pieces with a kitchen towel. When the chicken is dried make an incision on every piece for the marination to be fully absorbed. 

2. Rub salt, Kasmiri red chilli powder and lemon on the chicken pieces and set aside to Marinate for 15 minutes. 

   

3. Meanwhile Grind whole black pepper, cinnamon stick, green cardamom and nutmeg powder. Add cream to this masala powder and set aside. 

   

4. After fifteen minutes , add masala mixed cream to the marinated Chicken. Mix everything together. Keep it in a refrigerator for 5 to 6 hours for Marination. 

   
   

5. After the Marination process, take out the chicken and let it come to room temperature. Meanwhile preheat OTG at 250 degree for 15 minutes with both rods on. When the oven is preheated, assemble chicken pieces on the middle grill inside it. Set the temperature at 180 degrees and cook for 30 minutes. You can cook it in an air fryer too. The process is the same. Preheat Air fryer at 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Keep marinated chicken pieces and roast for 25 minutes at 160 degrees . 

6. When the chicken is done take out and sprinkle some chat masala and lemon juice. Serve with Coriander Chutney and onion wedges . 

   

Preparation Time : 30 min. 

Marination Time : 5 to 6 hours

Cooking Time : 45 min. 

Tips:

The longer the Marination Time, the better the taste. 

Do slit chicken pieces for better absorption of Marination. 

Amritsari Fish Fry

Amritsari Fish fry is a street food originated from the streets of Amritsar, a city in Punjab and famous all over the world. Boneless and skinless cubes of fish are marinated, deep fried and then served with green chutney and radish salad. For this recipe you can use any river-water fish (white Fish eg Basa, Soul.) The reason behind using river-water fish is that these fish have a long skeleton which can be removed without much difficulty. And in Amritsari fish we use a skinless and boneless fish. Big fish fillets are cut into smaller cubes and marinated with spices and chickpea flour or 'Besan' and deep fried. 

This recipe requires two very simple types of marination. The first marination is gently rubbing some salt and lemon juice and keeping it for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes the marination of spices and flours is given. But this marination is not to be kept for too long, because fish is delicate in texture, if kept too long in marination it is bound to lose its crispness. The recipe is very simple and requires not much active effort. So let us get started. 

 We Need:

• 500 Gm Boneless skinless Fish cut into cubes. 

• 1 Tbsp of Lemon Juice. 

• 2 Tbsp Chickpea flour (Besan) 

• 2 Tbsp Corn flour

• 2 Tbsp Rice Flour (Mandatory) 

• ½ Tsp Turmeric Powder

• 2 Tsp Red Chilli Powder

• 1 Tbsp Carom seeds (Ajwain) 

• 1 Tbsp Dhania Powder. 

• 1 Tbsp Sour Curd / 1Egg

• 1 Lemon. 

• Salt to taste or 1 Tsp. 

• 1 Tbsp Chat masala 

• Oil for Deep frying

• Garlic- 10-12 cloves

• Green chillies- 2

Let us start:

1. Marination One: In a bowl take the cubes of fish, lemon juice and salt. Mix everything and keep aside for 15 minutes. This helps to remove smell from the fish and it also becomes tangy and tasty. 

   

2. Grind garlic cloves and green chillies to a fine paste. 

   

3. Marination Two: In another bowl mix chickpea flour, rice flour and corn flour. To this add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, carom seeds, dhania powder, garlic and green chilli paste and sour curd or one egg. Add fish pieces. Mix everything together with your hands rubbing each piece. Set aside for another 15 minutes. 

   

4. Heat cooking oil in a pan on medium flame. When heated add fish pieces. Fry them till half done and the fish pieces are of golden  colour. Drain them on tissue. Fry all pieces like this. Set aside for 5 minutes. 

   
   

5. Again fry them in medium hot oil till reddish brown and crisp. This double frying method makes the fish pakodas nice and crisp. Sprinkle some chat masala for extra tang. Serve them hot with green chutney and grated raddish . Enjoy them as evening snacks. 

   

Preparation Time 10 min

Marination Time 30 min

Cooking time 20 min. 

Tips:

Unlike chicken, fish needs less time in Marination as it is very delicate and cooks early. 

You can fry once also but frying twice makes it more crispy. 

I recommend mustard oil for frying as it enhances the taste of the fish. 

Apple Salad

This sweet and savoury Apple salad is  a treat in itself whether you serve it as a side dish or make a lunch of it. It is simple to make and hardly takes 15 minutes to assemble it. Diced apple, cucumber and deseeded tomatoes tossed in mayonnaise and topped with pumpkin seeds is my version of Apple Salad. Either you serve it on a bed of Lettuce or you chop Lettuce leaves and add to it. I prefer the second option. You can top it with toasted walnuts too. If you are health conscious then you can substitute Mayonnaise with yoghurt. But then add a bit of Honey too. However I prefer the Mayonnaise version. 

We Need:

• 2 Medium Red Apple cored and Diced

• 2 Tomatoes 

• 1 Cucumber Diced with skin

• 4 Lettuce Leaves

• 2 Tbsp Mayonnaise

• 1 Tsp Black Salt

• 1 Tsp Red Chilli Flakes

• 1 Tsp Mustard Sauce

• 2 Tbsp Pumpkin Seeds/Chopped Walnuts

Here We Go:

1. Cut Apple & Cucumber  into cubes with their skin. 

2. Remove the seeds of tomatoes and cut it into squares. 

3. Roughly Chop lettuce leaves. 

4. Take a large Bowl and add mayonnaise, mustard, salt and chilli flakes. Mix everything . 

5. Now toss Apple, cucumber and tomatoes in this dressing and serve it topped with Pumpkin Seeds. Enjoy my version of Apple salad. 

       

Preparation Time: 10 min

Assembling Time: 5 min. 

Tip:

Serve it as a Side dish with roasted or fried Chicken. You will love it. 

Zafrani Kheer

In traditional Indian cuisines, sweet dishes hold a special place. According to ayurveda , the food should have three elements ie. savoury, sour and sweet. Therefore, Every Indian meal is incomplete without a sweet dish. Kheer has always been a favorite of everyone. It has many varieties. Zafrani kheer is one of them. This recipe includes a tip which reduces cooking time and effort. I have taken full fat milk and added soaked and ground rice and almonds to it, thus making it an easy and quick recipe. For extra flavour saffro jin or Kesar has been added. To make it more rich some more dry fruits are added. Do try it once you will love the Royal flavours it has. 

We need:

• 1 Litre Full Fat Milk (8%) 

• 75 gm Rice

• 50 gm Almonds

• 4 Green Cardamom / 1 Tsp Cardamom powder

• 75 gm Sugar

• Few Strands Of Saffron or Kesar

• Cashews and raisins to garnish

Let us get started:

1. Soak rice and almonds in water for 15 minutes. 

   
   

2. Boil 1 litre of milk in a heavy pan. When it boils, keep the flame on low and let it boil for 5 minutes. Keep on stirring otherwise milk will stick to the bottom of the pan. 

   

3. Drain water from rice and almonds and coarsely grind them.

   

4. Add these ground almonds and rice to the milk. Keep on stirring milk while adding them otherwise lumps of rice will be formed. 

   

5. Keep the pan on low flame foranother ten minutes. Meanwhile keep on stirring the milk mixture. Scrap the milk which sticks to the side of the pan. 

6. Take two tbsp of warm milk and mix  saffron strands to it. Keep aside. 

   

7. Crush cardamom and add it to the rice, almonds and milk mixture. Let it boil for another 2 minutes. Add the saffron milk to the pan and continue to stir for another 2 minutes. 

8. The Zafrani Kheer is now ready. Garnish it with chopped almonds, raisins and cashews. Refrigerate it for two hours and enjoy this Royal Zafrani Kheer. 

   

Preparation Time : 10 min

Cooking Time : 30 min. 

Refrigeration required: 2 hours.