Chicken "Nawaabi"

Overview:

The nomenclature of this dish is not original. I, the Author did it. And that is because this Indian recipe is actually a blend of two regional Indian recipes. I thought of trying them out as a merger because I felt they had a lot in common. So, it takes ideas from "kashmiri" and "UP" style cooking.

Chicken "Nawaabi" as I like to call it, looks royal in presentation and is much better on the calorie count than many other of its chicken counterparts. I would tell a way, in which Indian non-vegetarian recipes can be made really healthy. And that would work for all the recipes which require similar ingredients. 

FYI, Author is a vegetarian :)

Preparation time: 60 mins including marination, baking and pre-cooking set-ups and serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

You will need : 

• 2 lbs ( roughly a kilogram) of  your choice of  boneless chicken 
• 1 big onion, some ginger and 5-6 cloves of garlic, green chillies.
• flavor spices : 3 big black cardamom(badi elaichi), 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 Bay leaves(tej-patra), 2 small Cinnamon sticks(Dalchini), 2-3 Cloves (laung), 2 tbsp finely grated fennel seeds (Saunf), crushed black pepper, salt to taste
• dry spices : 2.5 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, Zafrani garam Masala from Shan foods
• 1 cup plain yogurt beaten into a smooth mixture.
• 2 tbsp cooking oil.

Now Fennel seeds is a common kashmiri ingredient and onion,ginger,garlic comes from UP cooking habits. The common things in both the cuisines is that tomatoes are not used. Rest, most of the spices are similar.

Marination : 

It is particularly simple unlike regular chicken dishes. Wash chicken properly, cut into 3X3'' pieces. Sprinkle salt and crushed black pepper evenly over all pieces and lay them in a flat tray.

Set aside for 30 mins.

Baking needs:

Since here in US fresh chicken meat is available only in selected Indian grocery stores, most of us rely on frozen chicken. I always bake any type of frozen meat except seafood.

If you have fresh chicken, then you don't really need to bake. For the rest, I would suggest to do marination in the baking dish itself.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees  F(220 degree C) and bake the chicken for about 6-7 mins.

Let it cool down, drain the fat lost by the meat and separate the pieces into a bowl.

Recipe:

1. In a small bowl mix the mentioned amounts of coriander powder, red chilli powder, grated fennel seeds and 1 tsp zafrani garam masala and salt(according to taste). Add water to make a thick but smooth paste and set it aside.

2. Blend together, onion, ginger, garlic and 3 green chillies.

3. Put a large skillet* on stove top and let it heat on high flame for around 3 mins.

4. Put the blended paste of onion, ginger green chilies and garlic into the skillet and stir briskly. When the water in the paste evaporates, it takes at least 3 times lesser oil to fry.

5. Now in another smaller pan, put 2 tbsp cooking oil and heat it over high flame for a minute. Add black cardamom, cumin seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon and Cloves. Fry lightly.

6. Now add this oil to the heated paste in the large skillet and fry the whole mixture together for around 4 minutes. The mixture should turn brown by this time.

7. Now add the paste of spices we made in step 1 in the skillet. Stir briskly for around 1 minute

8. Now add baked chicken/marinated chicken to the skillet and toss and turn gently. All the mixture should be evenly covering the chicken.

9. Mix well and cook covered for 2-3 minutes on high flame. Now add the yogurt mixture to the skillet.

10. Cook covered again for 5 mins on medium flame.

11. Add a cup of hot water and cook covered for around 10 mins this time, but on medium flame. Chicken cooks very fast and it will not take much time.

12. Cook on low flame for another 5 mins. You can increase or decrease the viscosity of the gravy as per your needs. To make it thicker add more yogurt and to thinner it add water. Just make the salt content proportionate.

*Skillet should be with a cover with air vent. or a pressure cooker could be used. In case you use a pressure cooker, you have to turn off the stove just before the first whistle because chicken cooks extremely fast.

Serving Instructions:

Serve hot in a bowl garnished with cilantro and green chilies diced into halves along the length.. with rice/chapatis.

Now now.. don't tell me you all are not astonished with the amount of oil used in the dish. just 2 tbsp ..!! Isn't that great !! After-all it is healthymealsonline and I will try my best to stay coherent with that. Wait till you taste the chicken. Hope some of you will revert back with nice things to say.. 

Next up in chicken domain will be : Chicken Dopyaza and Chicken biryani (A legacy of my late grandfather)