Italian Herb Baked Chicken Breasts

ashus-Baked Chicken Breasts

In continuation with posting of the recipes from the Tandoori platter that I had cooked for lunch last week, sharing here the recipe of the baked chicken. (You can check picture and the recipe links at the end of this post)

I am very fond of Tandoori food and it is a favorite food at home, the meat or vegetable may change but the Indian spices used for marination always remain same. But my Jr was after me for a long time to make something that is grilled but not using the Indian spices. Having tasted the recipes using chicken breast in some fast-food joints here, I decided to use the home available ingredients and dish out something new for him. As I stock up on my dried herbs, I have an Italian herb mix that I had asked my hubby to bring for me during one of his tours to Rome. It is my most favorite herb mix, it gives the Marinara sauce that I make at home for my Pasta dishes the perfect taste. Sharing with you all what I made the other day and it was the most delicious baked chicken meat that I ate.

BAKED CHICKEN BREASTS

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken- 2 chicken Breasts

Garlic- 2 cloves

Olive oil- 2 Tbsp

Bread crumbs- 75 gm

(Readymade) Italian seasoning mix- 2 Tbsp

Grated Parmesan cheese- 2 Tbsp

Salt- To taste

Note: Ingredients of the Italian seasoning used were-dried Garlic, Tomato, Oregano, salt, Onion, Carrot and Celery.

ashus-Italian seasoning mix

In case you do not have readymade seasoning available, then you can make a homemade mix of dried Oregano, basil, red chili flakes, salt, pepper, and dried onions, and garlic. If dried garlic is not available then simply increase  the garlic cloves used in the recipe to 3 or 4 in number, depending on the size of the cloves. We want to impart garlic flavor to the oil, but it should not be too strong.

ashus-Italian Herb Baked Chicken

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.

Clean and wash the chicken and pat dry using a kitchen towel or tissue.

Poke the chicken flesh with a fork, this will enable the oil and herb marinade to penetrate inside.

Take a small sauce pan, heat olive oil and then add crushed garlic cloves and the herb mix and switch off the gas flame. One could also use butter instead of oil, but my choice is always olive oil.

Mix the bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese and a pinch or two of the herb mix. Season lightly with salt.

Apply the herb olive oil to the chicken meat, it should be rubbed well so that the flesh is drenched with the herb mix and oil. Leave it to marinate for 15-30 mins.

Note: (If in hurry to eat, bake it without marination time 🙂 )

Coat this herb oil drenched chicken flesh with the bread crumb mix.

Grease a baking dish with the herb oil and put the coated chicken breasts and let the dish then go into the oven for baking. Bake for 30-40 min.

ashusrecipe-The breadcrumb coated chicken meat is ready to go into the oven.

The chicken should be turned once so that both sides are evenly baked. It takes around 30-40 min for the chicken to get cooked. Once it is cooked, I turned on the top grill function of the oven for giving the chicken surface a grilled appearance. Grill it for 10 mins so that the top coat of the bread crumbs get crispy and gave the bite the perfect crunch.

The chicken was well cooked, perfectly marinated, with crispy outer coat. I also baked few baby corns and carrot cuts along with it.

Go ahead and try out this Italian herb seasoned baked chicken dish from ashusktichen 🙂 .

Alternative to oven: In case one does not have an oven, then use a frying pan to cook the chicken. Heat the pan and add 1 Tbsp oil to it and let the chicken cook in the pan for sometime and then only turn. Later tossing and turning it from time to time gives it a crispy outer coat.

If you would like to check out other recipes from the Tandoori platter picture below, do click the links (in red) given to open the recipe posts.

ashus-Tandoori Platter

ashus Tandoori platter- Tandoori Paneer , Tandoori Prawns, Tandoori Gongura prawns.

Using the ingredients that are available at home one can always dish out something new and interesting with just a bit of motivation. Hope you all liked this simple chicken bake and would go ahead and give it a try. Happy Baking 🙂

Enjoy!!

ashu.

 

 

 

Homemade Pizza

Pizza, a food loved by almost all family members, young and old. This was my dad’s favourite too, he always looked forward to eating this at home. The early or first pizza preparation done during my growing up days at my parents house was using a readymade pizza base, but not any more. Though the readymade base seems an easier option, but baking the base at home is also easy, though it needs a bit of planning ahead. As the base uses yeast, so it needs some time before we can put the dough in the oven.

Use of fresh ingredients makes pizza eating an experience in itself. The freshly baked pizzas eaten in Italy were the most cherished moments of that vacation. But I am yet to master the pizza base flipping in air done by the pizza chefs that I witnessed in Italy. Baking it fresh at home for dinner becomes a meal that is looked forward to by my pizza loving family. The best part of the home baked pizza is that each family member’s pizza topping specification is met. The thickness and crustiness of the base can also be done to one’s own preference. The tomato sauce is perfect to my taste, a bit of chilli and garlicky taste. The toppings choice could be endless depending upon our taste. In this post I have used both chicken, that was sautéed and cooked with spices to make it taste tandoori style, and also used only bell peppers and onion in the vegetable style pizza. Let’s start noting the ingredients and method to start with baking the pizza base.

HOME BAKED PIZZA :

INGREDIENTS FOR THE BASE:

Refined flour(Maida)- 4 cups (400-450g apprx), Active dry yeast: 10 g (2 tsp), Water: 50 ml (lukewarm), Sugar : 15 g(1 tbsp), a pinch of salt, Oil: 2-3 tbsp Olive oil( any oil would do, but best is olive).

METHOD:

Mix salt to the refined flour. Take water in a bowl and heat to make it lukewarm and dissolve the sugar in it. Add the active dry yeast to this bowl of water. Cover the bowl and keep aside to let the yeast dissolve and the liquid to become foamy.

Take 4 cups/bowl of refined flour in a big bowl. Mix the foamy liquid of yeast with the flour. Add 2 tbsp olive oil to the flour. Mix the flour and form a soft sticky dough of the flour. Knead the dough and place it in an oiled bowl and cover with a plastic wrap/cling and keep aside for 45-60 min approximately or till the dough rises to double i’ts size. Knead the dough again for couple minutes to make it soft. This soft dough is used to make the base of the pizza.

Let’s make the tomato sauce for the pizza.

TOMATO SAUCE FOR PIZZA:

INGREDIENTS: Ripe red tomatoes-3 nos (blanched), Long red chilli-1, Garlic cloves- 2-3, Onion-1 small.

METHOD: Boil water in a pot and add the tomatoes (give it a cut) to it. As the tomato skin gets torn, remove the tomatoes from the water and peel out the skin. Chop these blanched tomatoes roughly, chop the chilli, onion and garlic and grind to a smooth sauce consistency. Add red chilli powder if a more hot sauce is desired and salt as per requirement.

PIZZA TOPPINGS:

INGREDIENTS: Chicken-250-350 g (Sautéed in little oil with spices, red chilli powder and salt to get tandoori flavour), Bell peppers, olives, shredded mozzarella cheese, and dried oregano.

Prepare and keep the toppings ready as shown in the picture.

PIZZA BAKING:

Preheat the oven to 220-230 deg C.

Take some portion of the pizza dough, form a ball, and using extra flour roll the dough ball to make a circle of desired thickness, but make sure not to make it too thin. Using a baking tray, bake this circular pizza base at 220 deg C in a preheated oven for 10 min. Remove the tray from the oven and top the base of the pizza with the freshly made tomato sauce, and all the required toppings- the bell peppers, onion slices, olives, tandoori chicken, mozzarella cheese and sprinkle the oregano herb on top. Insert the tray with the pizza  into the oven again and bake till done, cheese melted and the base is crusty. Remove from oven and cut into slices and serve hot. The snaps show both the veg pizza and also the chicken pizza. Go ahead give it a try and enjoy the home baked pizza meal. Though it would seem a time consuming recipe, but once you do it, it turns out a very easy recipe.

Do give it a try and find out how the experience turns out for you and your family. Enjoy!!!

Tips:

I used a pie dish to make the chicken pizza. Roll over the circular base to the pie dish and press the edges and bake.

Mushrooms, broccoli, corn etc can also be added to the vegetable pizza, the choice is endless.

Whole wheat flour could also be used along with refined flour, but the taste is little different.

Brown Sesame Chicken, a bitter sweet experience.

The fondness for greens once made me incorporate fresh fenugreek leaves into the chicken gravy and the taste lingered on. Since then I started making use of fresh leaves in some of my non vegetarian dishes. This particular recipe is a favourite at home and something that I loved creating the first time round. Whenever a dry chicken dish is desired, this is one of the recipes the kids too love. The fenugreek leaves impart the dish a light bitter taste, and the onions give it the sweet taste, hence a bitter sweet experience.

Brown Sesame Chicken:

Adding sesame to the dish lends it the desired nutty taste, as well as the crunch. It acts as a source of fibre too. Sprinkling dry roasted sesame on the dish, as garnish, gives it a more appealing and desirable look. Food that is appealing to the eye results in tingling the taste buds. Eating home cooked food that is made using the fresh herbs is always a satisfying experience. Go ahead, try making this recipe and find out if it holds true for you too!

Lets get cooking my Brown Sesame Chicken recipe:

Ingredients:                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Chicken- 800 g (washed and coated with little turmeric)                                                                                          

Onion- 2-3 medium sized

Fresh coconut- 1/2 grated (approximately 50 g)

Garlic- 5-6 cloves

Dry Kashmir chilli- 2 (It imparts a nice red colour.)

Red Chilli powder- 1 tbsp.

Garam masala (ground whole spices) – 1 tsp.

Salt- as per taste

Oil- 2 tbsp.

Fresh fenugreek leaves- 1 bowl (50 g)

Sesame – 50 g (Dry roasted)

Fresh green Coriander- finely chopped for garnish

Method:

The onions are chopped roughly and sautéed in pan with 1 tsp. oil till they are almost brownish in colour. The chilli should also be sautéed along with the onions in the pan. The fresh coconut too is cooked in pan till it is almost brownish in colour, taking care not to burn it.

These ingredients- coconut, garlic, red chilli and onion should be ground to a fine paste, little water can be used to get the fine paste.

 Heat oil in pan on medium flame, add half the quantity of roasted sesame seeds, and then the finely ground masala paste. Cook it for 5-7 min on slow flame, add the red chilli powder and salt, and keep for 1 more minute. The oil should leave the ends of the fried masala, then add the cleaned washed chicken to which turmeric was coated. Mix all the ingredients and let the chicken cook on slow flame, no water should be added. When the chicken is almost done, add the finely chopped fresh fenugreek leaves and mix so that it gets nicely coated with the chicken and the masala. The leaves need to cooked only till the raw taste is gone, hence should not be cooked for too long. They should be visible, as well as green in appearance. Put off the gas flame, then sprinkle the garam masala on the cooked chicken and mix.

Garnish it with freshly chopped green coriander leaves and sprinkle the left over dry roasted sesame on top of the cooked chicken.

Enjoy!

Tandoori Chicken

I take this opportunity for wishing you all a very Happy New Year 2014. This is the first blog of 2014, so it had to be written on a special day. Today is a very special day for me as two awesome people, my elder sister and brother-in-law, are celebrating their 25^th wedding anniversary. In this journey of my life, they are among the list of people who have always mattered most; their presence, association has contributed a lot, enriched this journey, and I definitely feel blessed to be related to them.

As every celebration calls for good food, hence I took the occasion to cook Tandoori chicken (grilled chicken) to celebrate this momentous event. This dish is a perfect blend of different spices, hung yogurt, and lemon, and the chicken needs to be well marinated to enjoy flavor of the spices with every bite.

I purchased the whole dressed chicken( 900 gm), a day in advance, coated the clean chicken with a mix of: 1 Tbsp Oil and some salt and garam masala.

Method: 

1. In a bowl make a marinade by mixing 3 tbsp of Tandoori chicken masala + 2 tbsp of hung yogurt + salt to taste + 1 tsp of red chilli powder + half lemon juice.
2. This mix is then coated over the chicken that has now been cut into 4 pieces, with the chicken legs and breast pieces deeply slit so that the marinade can be rubbed into each piece till it reaches the bone. Coat all the pieces with the marinade thoroughly.
3. Leave it to marinate for 5-6 hours or as I left it in the refrigerator overnight for best result/taste.
4. Heat the oven grill to 180 °C. Prepare tray by covering it with aluminium foil, brush the chicken with oil and arrange on the tray.
5. Grill the chicken for 30-40 min, depending upon the desired grill effect. After the first 15 min of grilling, check the tray and turn the chicken pieces over so the other side gets done evenly. Remove tray from grill when chicken is completely done.

Serving Option:  This can be served with sliced onion and tomatoes dashed with lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste or with yogurt mixed with ground fresh mint and salt to taste.

Enjoy.

ashu 🙂

ZhatPat rice-My dinner recipe

As the name itself suggests, yes, this is a rice preparation that can be cooked within no time, and without much efforts. After a long day, with the fridge vegetable basket empty, the tummy craving for a yummy meal, but with no inclination for spending much time in the Kitchen, this is the perfect dinner menu for that day. Today I am going to be sharing recipes for the Zhatpat boiled egg rice as well as the Chicken rice that I cook on those days.

Boiled egg rice: 

Ingredients:  Onions, garam masala, salt, and oil of choice for cooking.

Method: Heat a pot on the stove and add oil according to ones cooking requirement, then add sliced onions and fry till they are almost dark brown in color.  For cooking one bowl of rice, I use 1 large onion for frying.  Add the washed rice to the dark browned onion, 1 ½ tbsp of garam masala, salt to taste, and required quantity of water, and cook till rice is half done, then add shelled boiled eggs to the rice and cook till it is completely done.

Cooking the rice along with the browned onions and spices gives the egg rice a good flavour, and the desired brown color. This can be served with a salan or curd raita of choice. Instead of boiled eggs one can try making it using soya chunks.

Zhatpat Chicken Rice:  

Ingredients: Rice, shredded or small chunks of chicken, mint and coriander leaves, garam masala, salt, oil to cook.

Method: Cook the rice with some salt added to it. In a pan heat some oil and add the shredded chicken pieces and sauté adding salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala (ground spices) to it. When the chicken is almost cooked, add chopped mint and coriander leaves.  Add the cooked boiled rice to the chicken and mix it properly so that the herbs and spices are evenly mixed with rice.

The fresh herbs added give a distinct flavor and minty taste, and the green color adds a nice appealing look to the rice. It can be served hot with papad and curd raita of choice.

As you can see, both these preparations do not need longer cooking time or any elaborate preparations, are very simple to cook and yet wholesome, nutritious, and healthy. Try them out and find out for yourself if you like the recipe.

ashu 🙂