KFC style Fried Chicken

Have you ever wondered how the combination of just flour, salt, pepper and chicken can taste so good?

I have, many a times, whenever I happen to snack at KFC. Back in 2000 when I came to US for the first time, I was so much addicted to this food, that this became the evening snack on the way back home from work.  Ahh..those carefree days...:)

Last week I made these for my kid. Something interesting for him to eat as he was giving me a hard time, literally eating nothing for the past two weeks because of cough and cold. He seemed to like it and had a few pieces, which made me happy..:)

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken pieces , cut into thin strips

salt and pepper as required

1 egg

2 cups all purpose flour

Method:

Marinate the chicken with little salt and  pepper.

Break an egg in a wide bowl, add salt and pepper, and whisk well

Take the flour in a plate .

Heat oil in a saucepan for frying.

Dip the chicken in egg , and the coat with flour, again dip in the egg and coat with the flour.

Drop in the hot oil and fry till golden.

Serve with your favorite sauce.

Note:

Dipping the chicken twice in egg gives a nice crunchy layer, but its up to the individual's taste. To make it more spicy, you can also add some hot sauce to the egg.

Methi Chicken for T&T

From the begining of this month I have been trying to make this dish specially for this months T&T which featured one of my favourite blogger.Although I have tried many recipes from Sailu's Kitchen never blogged about it.This time I took the time to click a few pictures of this delicious  Methi chicken curry.
I had a packet of frozen methi and wanted to use it. Unfortunatly this one had frozen pureed methi cubes. Anyways I went ahead and used it and hence the colour was totally different from hers. Nevertheless the curry was very delicious and well appreciated.
Next time I will definitly try this out with fresh methi leaves.

T &T is a monthly event created by Zlamushka to appreciate fellow bloggers.This months it is hosted by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles

Egg Fry / Muttai Varuval

I have already posted an egg fry recipe using tomato paste. This is another verson of that without using the tomato paste.This is how my mother used to make along with lemon rice during my schooldays. Even now sometimes during vacation I ask my mom to make this simple combo and wind of the cooking as early as possible (which is very hard for her to do), so that we have some time to talk .
But that never happens, because now that she has some extra time in her hands, she starts making preparation for some nice elaborate snacks for the evening...
And when the time comes to leave she would always say " pesa kooda neram illa" - meaning  "didnt get time to talk at all"  : ). Thats how it is everytime...
But I manage to finish up all the chit chat through phone....thanks to the voip technology .
Now coming to the recipe...

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1tsp chilli powder
2 cloves garlic , chopped
few curry leaves/curry leaves powder
salt and oil as per taste

Method.
Hard boil the eggs and make cut into two equal halves.
Add two tsp of oil in a non stick pan.
Add the chopped garlic and curry leaves to the hot oil, stir for a minute.
Reduce the flame to medium and add the chilli powder and salt.
Stir for a minute and add 1/2 cup of water, and let it boil.
Now add the eggs, cut side down and cook till all the water evaporates.
Turn the eggs gently, so that the masala is coated well on all sides.
Serve with any mixed rice.


Cooking from Other Blogs:

Now and then I keep reminding myself that I need to cook up the bookmarked recipes from other blogs. I do that, but mostly they are baking recipes. There was this event which I used to like very much called the "MBP" - Monthly Blog Patrol, which would motivate me to look into other blogs for interesting recipes, with a purpose, instead of just browsing through. Iam not  sure if that event is still going on or it had been stopped. Any Idea !!

This weekend , bored with the usual chicken curry I started looking at my bookmarks and decided to try  Sarah Naveen's " Nadan Chicken roast " from Vazhayila. It was absolutely delicious and the taste was totally different from what we were used to, and that was excatly what I was expecting. Iam glad I tried it and will be making this often.

I followed the recipe as such, except that I added two tsps of tomato paste, to get that colour, as  my tomatoes were very bland, typical for this time of the year.

After Inspired by this recipe , I have decided to check out all the other bookmarked dishes, atleast once in a week. Lets see how it goes.

Spicy Chettinad Chicken Fry / Chettinadu Kozhi Varuval

We have had an overdose of chicken lately for the past few weeks which made me try out some special chicken dishes and thus ended up with this wonderful recipe. I learned this one from a TV show in which some famous Chettinad ladies showcased their family recipes. At that time I wondered how few red chillies can bring spiceness to the dish, but I should warn you, It was really really hot and awesome. I generally try to avoid Chettinad dishes because of the grinding of the spices involved( as I dont have a smaller mixer), and also because of the amount of coconut involved( as I try not to use coconut in our diet). But after trying out this recipe I started searching for chettinad recipes for each and every vegetable that I had in my refrigerator and the whole week was like a chettinad fiesta. In this process I also stumbled upon Solai's chettinad kitchen blog, very nice blog for people who love spicy food with some fabulous recipes.
Here is the recipe for Chettinad Chicken Fry:

Ingredients

Chicken - 1/2 kg

For Marination:

red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

lemon juice - 1sp
For frying

red chillies  - 4-5
cinnamon - 1 inch piece

cloves - 2 nos

fennel seeds/sombhu - 1tsp

chopped garlic - 2 tsp

chopped ginger - 1tsp

1 medium onion finely chopped

few curry leaves

salt to taste
Method:

Wash and marinate the chicken pieces with chilli powder , turmeric, ginger garlic paste,salt and lemon juice for atleast 1/2 an hour or overnight.

In wide pan heat few tblsp of oil.

Add cinnamon, cloves, curryleaves, sombhu and redchillies to the hot oil.

Give it a stir for a minute and add the chopped onions, garlic and ginger. Fry till translucent. Now add the marinated chicken pieces, stir well, add 1/2 cup of water and close with a tight lid. Cook in medium flame for 10 mins. Open the lid, stir well , check for salt and cook till the water is absorbed(approx 10 more mins). Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. 

Special Note:-Alternatively you can cook the marinated chicken first by adding them to a pot of boiling water along with cinnamon, cloves for about 6-7 mins.Strain well and reserve the liquid for making soup. Then follow the above process by adding little amount of water. Both method works well.

Some pictures of the Chettinad Chicken Kuzhambhu/Curry and Pepper Rasam that I made on the next day for lunch.

Chicken , Tofu Fajita Wraps

Chicken Fajita Wraps


Nowadays it seems that each and every post of mine is linked to one or the other eventin the food blog world.This shows either the number of events is more or I have become so lazy that these events keeps me going. The later is very true.
This is one such event where the theme is my favorite too - Chicken. Though Iam a big fan of Non-veg especially chicken, I have blogged only one or two dishes based on it.I made chicken several times this month for lunch and dinner for guests, but never found the time and patience to click some pictures.Finally last week I made a simple and quick dinner with the few tortilla wraps and managed to take a few shots of those.

Here is the recipe.



Slice some onions and peppers (any colors, I used red ,yellow and green) into thin strips








Slice 2 chicken breasts into thin strips.Marinate them with chili powder, 1 tblsp lemon juice, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp of dried oregano, some chopped garlic and salt.marinate it for
minimum of 20 mins.



Method
Add 2 tblsp of olive oil in a pan, Add the marinated chicken strips , toss and turn the chicken pieces, allowing them cook well for atleast 10 mins. Remove the chicken pieces and keep aside. Add the sliced onion and peppers in the same pan and stir fry till the onion is browned and caramelized.

Assembling:

Warm the tortilla in a pan. spread the chicken pieces , spread the stir fried onion-peppers, add 2tbsp of fajita sauce or salsa.(I used store bought ones) Finally top it up with some lettuce and a dollop of sour cream or yogurt.I used the later.Fold it into wraps.

Wrap the bottom of the fajitas with a thin strip of aluminum foil to hold it together.


These Fajita wraps are going to Chicken - My Favorite


Tofu wraps

The tortilla package I bought had 8 of them and the instructions told not to refrigerate them for more than 4 days.Since I used only 4 of them I decided to do an other Fajita wrap this time with Tofu.



Squeeze the water from the tofu ,cut into cubes and marinate with 2 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of chilli powder, 2 tsp of chopped garlic and salt for aleast 20 mins. Add it in a hot pan with 2 tblsp of oilve oil. Toss and turn for 10 mins, until the tofu is cooked through.




Rest of the ingredients , and assembling is the same as in chicken fajita recipe above.


Since both Tofu and chicken are rich in Protein, these Fajitas also goes to Sangeeths
'Eat Healthy - Protein rich'



Check out an other yummy protein rich recipe here ,

Chettinad chicken curry

Chettinad chicken is one of my all time favourites among chicken dishes.

Chettinad is a small part in southern tamilnadu which is famous world over for its unique cuisine.The flavour of freshly grinded chillies, coriander and fennel, coconut and all other spices gives it a fiery taste.Once you taste any chettinad dish you will never forget the taste of it.
I adapted this receipe from one of the Tamil cookbook magazine and it turned out great.

ingredients:

Chicken 1.5 lb - cleaned and cut into medium sized pieces
to marinate - 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 pinch of turmeric and some salt

2 medium size onions
8 garlic cloves
1 inch ginger
1 medium size tomato chopped
few sprigs of curry leaves

To roast and grind:

1 inch cinnamon
4 cloves
8 red chillies
2 tblsp coriander seeds
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
2 tsp shredded coconut

Method:

Clean the chicken pieces and marinate them by adding the chilli powder, turmeric for atleast 30 mins.Cut 1 onion into small pieces, peel the garlic and ginger.Fry these in a pan and grind them to a smooth paste.Roast all the spices without oil, finally add the coconut and grind them together to a smooth paste

Chop the remaining 1 onion and the tomatoes.

Take 3 tsp of oil in a pan and add the curry leaves, chopped onion and fry well.
To this add the onion-ginger-garlic paste and fry till the raw smell leaves.
Now add the roasted spice paste and fry well.To this add the chopped tomatoes, 1/2 tsp of turmeric and fry well till the oil leaves the sides of the pan.Now add the chicken pieces and stir well so the masala coats the chicken well. Add salt and check for the spice level.
Add 1/2 cup of water and close tightly with a lid.Reduce the heat to medium and allow it cook for 10 - 15 mins. Add 1/2 cup of chopped coriander leaves and mix well before switching of the stove.

Serve it hot with Rice, chappati, puri's or even Idli's

Updated with some new pictures that I took when I made this curry recently.

Check out my other interesting chicken recipes below:
 'Chettinad Chicken Varuval / fry'
Chicken/Muttton Kuzhambhu

Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori Chicken

This Weekend was very normal and not a very busy one for us.We spend most of the time at home, watching movies , and having nice food. Since I had lot of time this weekend , I decided to cook by long time favorite food - Tandoori chicken.
This is one dish I love to eat whenever I visit the Indian restaurants over here.
I retained the name Tandoori, though I used the regular oven to roast the chicken, may be I should have called this receipe 'Roast chicken'...nahhhh somehow I like the name 'Tandoori chicken'.Anyway its very easy to make and its a great party food, without consuming much of your time.

Ingredients:

4 chicken drumsticks
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp of garam masala
1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
3 tsp of curd/yogurt
2 tsp lemon/lime juice
1 tsp of pepper powder
1 tsp of jeera powder
1 pinch of red food clour (optional)
green onions for garnishing
salt to taste

Method:
Remove the skin from the drumsticks and wash throughly and drain
add all the ingredients and mix well.you can mix all the ingredients first, check for salt and spice level and then add the chicken and stir well to coat.
marinate the chicken overnight.The minimum time to marinate is 1 hour.
When u r ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350C
Cover the baking tray with aluminum foil, spray with pam cooking oil.
place the chicken within 1 inch apart and then place the tray in the preheated oven.
Bake for 15 mins. Now take out the tray and flip the chicken pieces using a tong and then bake again for 15 mins.
Now take the tray out flip the chicken again and set the oven settings to Broil.
Allow it to broil for 5 mins, or until you get a nice golden red colour.
But be careful, if you keep in broil for a long time the chicken will get burnt.
Garnish with cilantro and spring onions.