Spicy Chicken.. oven cooked

My studies are keeping me very busy, and even though I feel like blogging at times, time puts the constraints on me.. I was planning to post this recipe for quite a long time but didnt really get into the mood of writing. 

The recipe is originally Mr Husband's. This is one of the easiest and tastiest chicken recipe I have ever tasted.

Ingredients:

Chicken legs(8-10), 

A small onion, few pods garlic, an inch ginger, green chilies.

Bay leaves, kasuri methi, Red Chili Powder, a small cinnamon stick. Salt, turmeric

Vinegar, Curd, oil

Procedure:

Wash and clean the leg pieces. Make slits on the pieces. Now make a paste of onion, garlic ginger chilly. Into this paste add salt to taste, half teaspoon turmeric, red chilly powder(as per your taste), a small spoon of crushed kasuri methi, a tablespoon or two of curd, a tablespoon vinegar, 2-3 tablespoon of oil. Mix the paste thoroughly. Now marinate the chicken pieces with this masala. Keep the marinated chicken for 6-7 hours or overnight. Pre-heat the oven at 380-390 F. Arrange the chicken pieces on a baking dish. Cook or bake for 45 minutes checking time to time. After half an hour turn the pieces.  The chicken would slowly cook in its own juices. Check after 45 minutes. Broil for 5 minutes once the chicken is fully cooked. Remove from oven. Garnish and enjoy.     

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Chicken Biryani

There is this show on Times Now called Foodie which is simply fantastic. The host Kunal Vijaykar takes you through a tour to some place , shows you some local recipes and then hogs and hogs and hogs. Every time we watch this show, we have a strong craving for these delicacies and thus one fine day we were tempted to try the Chicken Biryani.
This was our first take on the recipe and we were quite skeptical about the end result. But to our surprise, it turned out to be exceptionally well with just one drawback- the saffron we used was not very good and it didnt color the rice as orange as we had excepted. Apart this all was perfect and we completely relished the biryani.
So here goes the recipe for the Chicken Biryani
For the Chicken:
Marinate the chicken(we used around 1 and 1/2 lb) with a cup of thick yogurt, salt, turmeric, ginger and chili paste. Keep the marinated chicken for an hour. In a kadai, temper oil with whole spices (little jeera, a few pods of cardomom, Bay leaves, a few cloves). Add a cup of chopped onions. When onion turns brown, add coriander powder, turmeric, and ginger garlic paste ,saute for a minute or two. Now add chopped or pureed tomatoes. Season with salt and keep frying till oil separates. Now add the marinated chicken and cook stirring occasionally. Add a little garam masala I cooked the chicken till it was completely done. Do not add any water as the chicken would release its own juices while getting cooked.
Meanwhile for the rice:
Soak rice (1 and 1/2 cup) for half an hour, drain the excess water. Boil 5-6 cups of water in a pot. Add whole spices : javitri(mace), badi ilaichi, a stick of cinnamon , bay leaves to the boiling water. Smear a spoon of ghee on the rice and add the rice to the the boiling water. Let it cook till it is 3/4 done. Drain the excess water and keep aside.
Now in a heavy bottom pan, arrange the chicken in a layer(I actually smeared the bottom of the pan with ghee to avoid the chicken from sticking ). Now arrange a layer of rice. Add few mint leaves. Sprinkle saffron water and a little ghee or butter. Top with fried onions. You can repeat the layers of chicken and rice again if you are left with them. Now seal the pan with aluminium foil. Cook it on very low flame for 20 mins. Serve with raita.

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Pomfret in tomato gravy

My husband simply loves fish and thanks to him after marriage I have started devouring fish like never before. previously it was mostly him cooking fish, but recently I have started trying my hand in all possible fish recipes. We bengalies are fanatic about fish(except me.. I never liked fish atleast before marriage) and only fresh water fish is preferred.So we usually get Rohu and Hilsa (every bong's favourite.. we call it ilish), and have tried various concoctions with these. A day back we bought lovely looking pomfret. Now hubby and myself both have tasted pomfret but never have known how to make it. So the sunday was dedicated to the lovely pomfret and my cuisine unbelievably turned out very tasty. So heres the recipes for all those pisces lovers.
You need to have:
4-5 pieces of pomfret
2-3 gloves garlic and a little ginger, grate and pound them.
tomato puree
2 tablespoons curd,
chopped chillies , coriander.
Smear the fish with turmeric, salt a drop or two of oil and a drop or two of lemon jiuce. Keep it aside for half n hr or so(you can keep it for less time). Fry the marinated fish pieces till golden on both sides. Now for the gravy, heat oil in a kadhai. Add cumin seeds and small stick of cinnamon. Let it crackle , then add the pounded ginger garlic. Fry for 2 minutes now add chopped tomato or tomato puree, chillies, salt turmeric. Fry til oil separates add the curd. Fry for a few more minutes. Add jeera powder and if you want really hot then red chili powder, a pinch of sugar. Fry a few more minutes , making sure that the masala doesnt burn off. Now add a cup of water.Let it simmer for 5-8 minutes. Add the fish pieces after 8 minutes keep it on simmer for another 5 minutes and switch off the oven. You can restrict the water amount as per thickness of the gravy. garnish with chopped coriander and serve with steaming rice. Enjoy!!

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Chicken fingers do pyaza

This one is from my hubby. When it comes to cooking non-veg(primarily poultry: egg or chicken ) he is the most creative person I have seen. He loves egg the most and has hundreds of ideas to cook it. With chicken he tries all unconventional styles. And his cooking is super duper fast, very tasty and with a bit of more oil.

So one fine evening (fine as I was little tired to cook), my hubby offered that he would try out something. We had some frozen chicken fingers(ready to eat with 15 mins of oven heating). The other necessities were: onion, garlic , chillies, tomato and chicken masala (salt ofcourse). He first suated the chicken fingers(since they were frozen), then added the onions , chillies and garlic. Once the onion was translucent, tomato, salt(very little as the chicken strips already has) and chicken masala was added and kept on flame for 5 more minutes. And wow we had a wonderful dish ready in no time. It was too tasty and when I ate it I got the notion that instant chicken manchurian can be made of this with some slight variations(you will need cornflour and soya sauce though). So next time when I try the Instant Chicken Manchurian I will let you know of how it tastes..

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