Chicken 65

I have lots of fond memories about this dish. Growing up, I remember my dad used to take us out for Company picnics and one of his colleague's wife used to make this dish and get it for us to have it our way in the train. She used to make this dish so well. I have been thinking of making this dish for a long time now but always thought that it would take a lot of effort and hence simply kept forgetting about it. But, once I visited a party here in Canada, and one of the guest had made this dish. She told me a very simple way of making it and curious that I am, I immediately wanted to try it out. So, I decided to start by making a small quantity for my family and it was an instant hit. From then on, I have made this dish for several parties and have received a lot of compliments for it.

Chicken 65 is a Hyderabadi dish. It is basically a dry dish which is prepared with lots of curry leaves and lemon juice.

Preparation Time : 30 minutes + Marination time

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

500 gms. boneless skinless Chicken breasts

3 green chillies finely cut

3 tbsp hot and sweet tomato ketchup

2 tbsp oil

For the marination:

3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

11/2 tsp salt

1 tsp red chilly powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

a few drops of orange food colour

For tempering:

3 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 dried red chillies

6-8 curry leaves

Method:

• Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.
• In a mixing bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients together.
• Coat the chicken with the marinade. There should be plenty of lemon juice to coat all the chicken pieces.
• Mix it well and cover and let this rest for about 4 hours or overnight in the fridge.
• Grease a baking tray with a little oil and transfer the chicken pieces to the baking dish. Put this in the oven at 400 degree F for about 15 minutes in the middle rack.
• Remove it and drain and discard all the fluid - keep only the semi cooked chicken aside.
• For the tempering, in a small frying pan, heat oil.
• When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter.
• To this add 2 dried red chillies and fry for a minute.
• Turn the heat to low and add the curry leaves and cover the pan again.
• Allow the curry leaves to splutter.
• Once the leaves are well fried and almost dry, remove from the heat and keep the tempering aside.
• In a separate pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil and the semi cooked chicken pieces to it. Shallow fry for about 5 minutes.
• When the chicken is almost done, add the finely cut green chillies to the pan and continue frying for about a minute or so.
• Now, add the ketchup to the pan directly over the chicken and allow it to coat all the pieces well.
• Add the tempering from the other pan to the main pan and mix it well
• Do not overcook the chicken.
• Serve hot either as an appetizer or with some vegetable pulao and raita.
  
  

Chilli Garlic Mushrooms

I had made fried rice one day and had some mushrooms lying in the fridge. I was wondering how to make a Chinese preparation with these mushrooms. So, I started browsing some of my friend's blogs and saw this interesting and quick recipe called Chilli Garlic Mushrooms on Sumi's blog. I had all the ingredients for it at home and hence, decided to give it a try. I must say it turned out really good and my daughter who hates mushrooms simply relished this dish.

For all who are interested, here is the link to Sumi's kitchen: Chilli Garlic Mushrooms

Sex in a Pan

My friend had invited us to her place for her daughter's first holy communion. And one of the guests there had prepared this interesting dessert called "Sex in a Pan". For a moment, I thought to myself what a funny name for a dessert but when I digged in to it, I just couldn't stop eating and thought to myself that the name rightly suits the dessert.

I went home and was very curious to try it out. I didn't ask her how she prepared it so, I had to Google the web for "Sex in a Pan" dessert and saw a no. of links all showing me the same ingredients for preparing this dish.

"Sex in a Pan" is basically a 4 layered dessert with a rich nutty crust at the bottom, topped with cream cheese, 2 different types of pudding and finally a whipped cream layer. It is so smooth, rich and creamy that you simply can't stop eating it.

Last week, I was having a small family lunch at my place and prepared this dessert and I must say it turned out to be the icing on the cake. It turned out really well for my first attempt.

Although, you guys can Google this recipe up on the net ....I will still write it down for easy reference.

Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Makes 16 servings

Ingredients:

11/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup butter melted

1 cup chopped pecans

1 packet (8 0z.) cream cheese softened

4 cups of whipped topping, prepared (cool whip, divided)

3 0z. (1 pkt) of instant chocolate pudding mix

3 oz. (1 pkt) of instant vanilla pudding mix

3 cups milk

1 oz. of unsweetened chocolate (1 square) shavings

1 cup icing sugar

Method :

• Mix the melted butter with the graham cracker crumbs and chopped pecans and pat into a 9x13 inch (22x33 cm) pan. Bake this at 350 degree F (180 degree C) till lightly brown for about 20 minutes. Let this cool off completely.
• In a bowl, beat together, cream cheese and icing sugar to form a smooth texture. Carefully, fold in 1 cup of cool whip. Spoon this out onto the cooled baked layer.
• Mix both the pudding mixes with milk and beat as per the package directions. Let this pudding thicken and then pour it on the second layer.
• Finally, put the remainder of the cool whip on top of the pudding and swirl the melted chocolate throughout the topping.
• Cover this with a cling wrap tightly and refrigerate it overnight.
• Cut into rectangle slices and eat it up.

Note: Instead of graham cracker crumbs, you can also use all purpose flour and instead of pecans, you could use walnuts if you like.

Butter Chicken Rolls

I was having a party at my house last Saturday and one of the dishes I made was butter chicken. While making this dish, I had a lot of chicken which I had grilled and so decided to keep some apart. Then I thought to myself, why not try making butter chicken rolls with them. That's how I got the idea of making butter chicken rolls and I came out with this recipe...

Makes: 4-5 rolls

Ingredients:

200 gms boneless chicken breasts cut into small pieces

half of ice-berg lettuce sliced

1 small onion chopped

salt to taste

green chilli sauce

Butter

4-5 Hot dog bread rolls

for the chicken marinade:
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup plain yoghurt beaten well
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Method:

• Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl and combine it with the chicken pieces. Leave this in the refrigerator overnight or for about 5 hours
• Preheat the oven to 400 degree F and broil the chicken in a baking tray till the chicken is cooked and you see nice charcoal marks on the chicken.
• Let it cool for a while and then shred the chicken pieces. Add a little salt to taste
• Take one hot dog bread and cut it into half. Butter it on both sides.
• Place some lettuce and chopped onions in the centre of the roll and on top of it place some of the grilled shredded chicken. Add a tbsp of green chilli sauce on it.
• Carefully, close it and and warm the roll in the preheated oven for about 3 minutes
• Cut it into half and eat it immediately.