Chili chicken

This recipe for chili chicken must be the easiest ever. And it tastes great too. No wonder I always use this as my default chili chicken recipe!

http://mydhaba.blogspot.com/2005/12/chilly-chicken.html

Super easy and tasty chicken fry

You can also call this chicken dish SM chicken in honor of my cousin S's MIL who came up with this ultra easy recipe to make super yummy (but non-oily) chicken fry.

Below is the recipe in its original form. I have made notes regarding minor variations at the end. Please note that a non-stick pan is a must if you don't want to be hunched over your chicken while it is cooking and/or don't want to use copious amounts of oil.

Ingredients
Chicken 1/2 kg - cleaned and cut into medium sized pieces
Red chili powder 1.5 - 2 tsp (as per your spice tolerance level)
Dhania powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
2 tbsp plain yoghurt
Juice of 1/2 a medium-sized lemon
1" piece cinnamon stick
5 large pearls of garlic (or 7-8 small cloves)
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Take a wide non-stick pan and add enough oil to coat base of pan. Place on medium heat.
2. Add the cinnamon stick. Crush the garlic using a mortar-pestle (or the wide edge of a knife) and add.
3. When the garlic has cooked a bit and gives off a nice aroma, add the chicken pieces, chili powder, dhania powder and turmeric powder. Mix well so all the chicken pieces are coated with the spices.
4. Cover the pan with a lid, reduce heat to low.At this point, you can leave the chicken undisturbed and simply let it cook for 15-20 minutes. No necessity to add any water.
5. Check the chicken to see if it is done. If not, continue to cover and cook.
6. Else, add necessary salt, the yoghurt and lime juice. Mix well and cook without the lid till all the liquid from the yoghurt has evaporated and the chicken is mostly dry and has a nice coating to it.
7. Turn off heat and serve hot with rice or rotis.

Notes:
1. You can use 2-3 sprigs of curry leaves as seasoning along with the cinnamon and garlic to get a nice flavor.
2. There is no necessity to marinate the chicken beforehand. However, if you are so inclined, you can marinate the chicken with all the turmeric and about 1/2 of the chili powder you are planning to use and a little bit of salt. Adjust the ingredients accordingly while cooking.
3. The original recipe tastes great as is. Really, no tweaking is necessary.

Madurai style chicken kuzhambu

This is an easy recipe for chicken kuzhambu and is pretty tasty to make too.

http://websamayal.blogspot.com/2006/09/madurai-style-chicken-kuzhambu.html

These are the minor modifications I made to the recipe:

1. Added about a tablespoon of dhania powder and 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder to the chicken marinade.
2. Added 1 tsp of roasted fried gram (pottukadalai) to the dry ingredients to be ground.
3. I added 1.5 tbsp of coconut instead of 4 tbsp (I think no coconut shd also be fine).
4. Added a handful of curry leaves and 1/2 tsp of fennel seeds (sombu) as well for seasoning the oil used for tempering. I added only 1 cardamom instead of 3.
5. After opening the cooker, I added a  handful of chopped coriander leaves and let the liquid simmer for about 10 minutes before switching it off.

Easy chicken biryani

This recipe makes tasty chicken biryani. As an added bonus, it is quite easy to make. I was quite thrilled when I put the lid on the pan for the last bit of cooking and realized that I had not spent much time over the stove. The secret to that was using oil liberally (still not as liberal as the recipe suggested). Now I realize why restaurants have such a free hand with oil and ghee!

I followed the recipe exactly as is except for these alterations:
1. Added 1 slit green chilli to the seasoning items.
2. Cut down the recipe to use 2 cups of basmati rice rather than 3 cups and scaled the rest of the ingredients accordingly.
3. I cooked basmati rice till it started boiling in the electric rice cooker.I also added a bay leaf to the basmati rice along with the water and salt before cooking.
4. Since Indian gas-stoves do not have the "very low" temperature setting, I heated a tawa on high, then reduced the heat to the lowest setting and placed the dutch oven containing the layered chicken and the rice on top of the tawa for the last stage of cooking.
5. After turning off the stove, I left the dutch oven covered for 10 more minutes before opening the lid and mixing the chicken and rice together.

This recipe is dedicated to my sis who recently wrote about her rather interesting experience making chicken biryani :-).

Chicken liver pepper fry

My husband is a liver-lover. I don't care much for it though.I had to be forced to eat it during childhood - liver was considered to be very nutritious and thus was one of the foods I had to eat compulsorily.

This recipe from Solai's kitchen made such delicious liver fry that I voluntarily ate a few spoonfuls. My husband polished off the entire dish. Try it out!

Chicken liver pepper fry

 I made the dish with chicken liver and halved the ingredients as eye-balling told me that I probably had closer to 100g of liver rather than 200g.

Chicken kuzhambu

Basic, easy-to-make, tasty Chettinadu chicken kuzhambu:

http://solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/08/chettinad-chicken-kuzhambu-authentic.html

Follow the instructions exactly and it is difficult to go wrong. Just follow the instruction to not use too much coconut very diligently  - extra coconut does turn the kuzhambu into kurma (believe me, I know). BTW, this kuzhambu tastes good with rice. dosas, idlis or rotis.

The blog author posts authentic Chettinadu recipes and most of the recipes on her blog sound (and look) so tempting.

Spicy chicken kuzhambu

Another recent find. If you love the spicy taste of black pepper, this one is for you:

http://www.spicytasty.com/meat-and-seafood-entrees/spicy-chicken-kuzhambhu-spicy-chicken-curry/

Since the heat mostly comes from black pepper, it is good for you. Tastes great with rotis and dosas. Would taste even better with malabar parottas.

I followed the recipe exactly except for adding more curry leaves than specified because I like the flavor of curry leaves (and because I have a big bag-full of curry leaves at home, thanks to the custom of getting free-curry leaves whenever you go vegetable-shopping in Chennai :-D).

Tandoori chicken / Mint sauce

This is a super-tasty, guilt-free chicken recipe. There is hardly any oil involved:

http://saffronapron.blogspot.com/2009/07/oven-baked-tandoori-chicken.html

Though I have tried the recipe exactly as written above (including making the tandoori masala powder from scratch) you can also used store-bought tandoori powder and follow the box directions for marination. The end result is delicious either way.

Where the above recipe totally shines is the baking part - cook exactly as per the direction given and you will be looking at juicy, professional looking and tasting tandoori chicken in the end.

The following mint sauce recipe makes a great dip for the tandoori chicken:

 http://www.tarladalal.com/Mint--Yogurt-Dip-16369r

I followed the directions exactly - only added a wee bit more garlic (I like garlic) and half a green chilly.