Chicken Fry ( KFC style )

This is  one  of recipes i got  from my friend and neighbour   from chennai , But the  same  recipe  is also posted by vah chef. Its almost the same  with a little a difference  in the  first  step. But  both taste  great .Its  simple  to make but  people  who  hate il will stay  away from it  as it requires deep  frying.

Item : Chicken fry ( KFC Style)
Source:  My friend Sameera and  Vah chef

Ingredients:

To  marinate ;

•   1 lb of  chicken  ( washed  cleaned and  if  pieces are big then  you have a  make  tiny slits  on them )
•  1tsp Chilli powder
•  1 tsp Ginger garlic  paste
•  Lemon juice ( from one lemon  medium sized)
•  Salt

 To Coat:

• 1 egg
• 1/2tsp of  Ginger garlic  paste 
• salt 
• 1/2 tsp of  chilli powder
• Curry leaves
• Cilantro/ coriander leaves
• 1cup maida
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• food  colour 
• Oil for  frying 

How  i did  it  :

  Take water and add ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, salt , and lemon juice  now add the chicken pieces to it. Should immerse completely,  the  water  level should  be above the  chicken pieces . Soak it for 4-5 hrs.  I prefer to leave it in the fridge overnight. If u are in a  a  hurry  u  can  do the whole process  using  warm  water and  leaving  it for  1  hr .

Drain  the  water and  take  the  pieces in a dry  plate . 

In  another  bowl  add 1 egg, add  chilli powder, salt ( add a  little  as u have added it  n marination too), ginger garlic paste  and  curry leaves and  cilantro. mix  well.

In another  plate  take  your  all purpose flour, mix  bread crumbs , add a  pinch  of  food  colour and  salt and chilli powder( adjust the  amount of  chilli powder  and  salt in all the three steps  so that  u  do  end  up adding more.)

Take the  chicken pieces  dip it in the  egg mix, roll  in to the  dry  flour  and  then  deep fry it in  oil  at  medium  flame .

Hyderabadi chicken biryani

This one is  not  from my moms  diary  but  its  from my aunts , thats is  my  moms  sister (Sheela)  I call her Maa. .She is  an expert in cooking biryani and   i am one  of  her countless fan  her biryani has. Maa dose it  with  so ease and that makes  me  thinks that  preparing biryani shouldnt be tough and that is  what made me  try this .Intially i was not very good  at  it  but now  i love  cooking  and serving biryani .Thanks  to maa  who constantly encourages me to cook specially biryani. Thanks Maa.
Comming to  biryani  there  are  numerous variation and  all the  variety differs  and  i  think  king of biryani is hyderabadi biryani. The  way  the aroma , rice and the meat  gets blended is real wonderfull. All those who have tasted hyderabadi biryani will surely vouch for  it , its  very royal  and very aromatic. There are two types of biryani , first being the kachi (raw)dum (slow cooked in the steam )biryani , and  the other one being the paccki  (cooked)biryani . The  first  where in the meat (chicken or lamb) is  raw and  gets cooked in the process, the second one per say is  where we used boiled or cooked meat.The  Kacchi  or raw biryani  is very  famous  but  both taste good.
Todays  menu is kacchi (raw) chicken biryani  with raitha .

Item Chicken Biryani
source : Maa (my aunt)
Time : 1hrs 30min.

Ingredients ::

• 2 cups Baskmati rice 
• 1lb chicken de-skined

 Step 1:   frying onions :

• 3-4  big onions  sliced finely and  deep fried  to  brown in colour.
• oil

  Step 2 : Marination  of chicken

• 500gms of chicken
• 2 cups  curd 
• 4 -5 tsp of freshly ground ginger garlic paste
• whole garam masala ( 1inch cinnamaon stick, 4-5 cardamon,1 big black cardamon, 5-7 cloves, bay  leaf . shahi-jeera, aniseed )
•  1-1/12 tsp garam masala powder
• 1tsp of coriander powder,
• 1tsp of chilli powder,
• Salt 
• Turmeric
• 1 medium sized tomato
• 1 bunch of mint leaves ( 8-12 strands )
• 1 bunch of cilantro (coriander leaves)
• 7-10 green chillies 
• lime  juice  from  3-4  medium sized limes 
• Saffron colour 
•  Fried onions. ( half  of from the step 1 )
• oil . (can use the same oil used for  frying)

 Take the chicken in a  big vessel (the vessel u  want to cook biryani) and add all the above ingredients and mix well. Crush  the fried onions and  add  it to the marinate. Cool the oil  that wass used to fry onions and add about 50-100 ml of it .  keep it marinated  for 30-40 mins.

 Step 3 : Preparing the Rice 

• 2 cups  basmati rice (soked for 30 mins prior use )
•  1-1/12 cup  water  ( chicken stock can be  used , or coconut  milk can  be  used instead of water )
•  salt 
•  whole garam masala 
• Mint leaves 
• coriander leaves 
• saffron color
• 3-4 spoon of oil

  Wash and  Soak the  basmati  rice  30 mins  prior to the use in a  pressure cooker ( u can opt for not using the cooker and  cook in a  regular vessel  but   cooked in a tradional way , where u have  to keep monitoring for the rice  to be cooked  upto 60-70% , we  donot want the rice to be completely cooked )  cooking in a  pressure  cooker makes the process easy and  fast. To the  rice  add 1-1 1/2 cup of water or chicken stock . T;o  it add the whole garam masala , mint leaves coriander leaves and salt . add a pinch of saffron colour. Keep it on medium flame with out the pressure weight .Allow the  rice to  cook only 70%. Put the flame off when the steam starts gushing out wait for couple of minutes and then open the cooker.

Step 4 : Layering the rice.

• Saffron colour  diluted in  about 4-5 spoon ful of water or  milk.
• lime juice from 2-3  lime
• 50 ml of oil
• mint and criander leaves 
• Fried onions.

 Once the rice is  ready , carefully layer it on the marinated chicken. Top it  with saffron colour , lime juice . mint and coriander leaves,  oil  and fried onions  . Close the vessel with the tight glass lid so that the steam dose not escape if u dont have a  vessel with  glass lid the  u can use regular lid but u have seal the lid with chapathi dough so  that the steam dosent escape and Keep the biryani on medium flame .

Step 5 : Cooking the biryani

This is the most important step . Here is when the glass lid comes in handy , when the biryani get  cooked on medium heat , u can see the vapour droplets  forming on the glass lid (which will take  around 15-20 mins)  leave  it  in the same  stage for  another  5-10 mins  and then  reduce the flame  now keep a  griddle  underneath  your  biryani vessel ( i forgot  to take the pic will update it  soon )  and leave it to be slowly cooked  for another 20-30 mins . If  u  dont have the the glass lid then  what u can  do all the checking  manually , check after 20- 30 mins  and  then  keep the griddle  under the  biryani vessel. The  time  will differ with the quantity of biryani.. Once its done its ready to be served .

Enjoy the royal aromatic delicious biryani with raitha.

Chicken Stew

 Haaaa   this  one is   favourite no 1, This  has been cooked  by  my  mom for  almost all my birthdays and  for every Christmas ,  how can i  not  write or post about  it . My friends  who  have tasted  it  will really vouch  for it  and   many have  requested  for this  recepi and  i  will not hold  back  it any   longer. All my  family  members love this  dish  and this  has  been in my family for almost from the  time of  my great  grandfather Sure  gonna  be  tasty.........

Ps: All vegetarians  u can  make this  without the non  veg part in  it  and  all the  nonvegis it  taste  good  with mutton.

Item: Chicken Stew
Source : MOM

Ingredients

• 1lb of  chicken or meat 
• 2 big potatoes
• 2 big  carrots 
• 12-15 cauliflower florets
• 100gms of peas
• 100 gms of beans 
• 1 big tomatoes
• 1 bif turnip 
• 2 inch ginger
• 5-6 green chillies
•  Mint leaves (Pudina)
•  1 large onions
• Garam masala   powder
• 1-2 inch of cinnamon 
• 5-6  cloves 
• 5-6 green cardamom 
•  50 gms Shredded dry coconut . Grind it along with some garam masala ( piece of cinamon. 4-5 cloves) make it  to  a  fine  paste  with  water 
•  2 cups of fresh coconut  milk (store bought also will do)
• Oil 
• Salt

How i Made it 

Step  1 

• Clean and wash  the  chicken (ur  style ) , i like it de-skinned  and  medium cut pieces.
• Take it  in a  big vessel and  add a little  water  and  keep it on meium flame  till its  soft and boiled  
• Cut all the  veggies into medium sized pieces
• Finely chop the  ginger
• Slice the onions 
• Slit the green chillies

Step 2

•  Take a big and thick bottom vessel  , keep it on a  medium flame , add  oil, when hot add 1inch cinnamon stick , 4-5 cloves and 3-4 cardamom
•  Add chopped ginger  and  let them fry   and then add sliced onions and slit  green chillies and fresh mint leaves ,  fry them till they  are   slightly  brown .
• Now  add in ur tomatoes and  when they are soft add in  all the veggies , fry them  in the  oil and  now 
•  Add the shredded  coconut garam masala paste and  mix  well , 
•  Add the  boiled  chicken  along with  stock (water remain after boiling)
•  let  it cook  on a  low  flame  till the  veggies are  80% cooked , now  add the  coconut milk.
• Allow  it  to   cook on  low  flame  till the  veggies are  cooked  completely  and oil seperates,
• Now  garnish then  with  finely chopped  mint  leaves and  cover  it  till served.

I love this   with  chappathi, dosa , and  specailly aappam . try this  i am sure  you  will remember me  for this  recipe.