Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken

Remember how I am loving grilling things this summer? When I came across this Indian recipe in my Savoring the Seasons from Our Best Bites I had to try it! I am not sure how authentic this recipe really is, but it sure tasted great to us!

Preparation Time: 10 minutes (plus 8-24 hours marinading time)
Grilling Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

8-10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts and cut them up)
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 lemon, zested and then juiced
4 cloves chopped garlic
1/3 cup chopped white onion
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric

Instructions:

Place chicken in a large, heavy-duty ziplock bag.

Place all remaining ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Pour the mixture into the bag with the chicken and toss to coat all the chicken pieces.




Place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 8 hours.

When ready to grill, preheat the grill to medium-high heat. Lightly oil grill grates to avoid sticking. Remove the chicken pieces from the bag and allow excess marinade to drip off. Place the chicken on the grill and close the lid. Let it cook 4-6 minutes before flipping chicken over. Then cook an additional 4-6 minutes on the other side. If you use a thermometer (like I do, allow the chicken to reach a temperature of 165*F (74*C).

Eat with some rice and/or naan bread and enjoy :)

Arroz con Pollo (Dominican Style)

One of my best friends is Dominican. She was my roommate in college and I loved it when she made her Arroz con pollo. I have been wanting to make it for quite some time now, but she is one of the people who is naturally a great cook. She just adds spices, tastes it, etc... so it was hard to get a recipe for this. She sent me this link and said that it's similar to how she makes it. I thought I would try it. The chicken was so good! The rice was alright, so I made a few changes.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes plus at least 1 hour marinating time
Cook Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:

4 lbs Chicken (I used 10 chicken legs)
2 cups long grain rice
3 cups water
1 green bell pepper (capsicum)
1 red bell pepper (capsicum)
1 onion
3 cloves of Garlic
1/2 cup fresh cilantro (coriander)
2 limes
2 Tbsp Spanish Olives
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Salt (for marinade)
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Oregano
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup Vinegar
2 Tbsp Sugar

Instructions:

First you want to soak the chicken while you prepare the marinade. Put it in some water and 1/2 cup vinegar.

 Prepare the marinade by chopping up your ingredients and combining all the ingredients (peppers, onion, garlic, cilantro,  lime juice, Spanish Olives, Worcestershire Sauce, Salt, Pepper, Oregano, and chicken) in a Ziplock bag. Let it marinade for at least an hour. I ended up letting mine marinade for 2 nights because we got invited to dinner the night I was going to cook this.

When you're ready to cook. Heat the oil and sugar in a pot.

When it starts to caramelize and gets dark add just the chicken to the pot (Don't discard the marinade!)

 Cook the chicken for 10 minutes, then turn over to the other side and let cook until the juices have reduced down. You might have to gently stir every once in a while so the chicken doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once your chicken is brown and cooked through (about 20-30 minutes), add the marinade to the pot. Lightly cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot and add 3 cups of water, 2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Let it come to a boil and add the rice. Once the rice has absorbed most of the water, cover and let it continue to cook on medium/low for 20-30 minutes.

The rice should be fluffy when you return to the pot. Return the chicken to the pot (on top of the rice), cover, and let it heat through for 5-10 minutes, then serve.

Chicken & Mango Curry

I didn't grow up eating curry. For one, there weren't too many places to get it where I am from and for two, I just thought it was super hot sauce with lots of stuff that I didn't like in it. The first time I had curry was at college when my roommate made it (I then requested it for my birthday dinner meal I liked it so much!). I realize now that there are so many different kinds of curries! There's Indian curry, Chinese curry, Thai curry, Japanese curry, dry curries, wet curries, the list goes on. I saw this recipe in a magazine in Australia and wanted to try it out, so I ripped it out of the magazine and brought it home with me. I don't know what country you would classify this curry under, so we will just not complicate things by categorizing it this time.

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 lb (750g) chicken cut into bite size pieces*
1 (200g) brown onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder*
1/2 teaspoon ground chilies*
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon chicken stock powder*
1/2 cup (125 ml) boiling water
1/2 cup (125 ml) coconut milk
1 small mango chopped*
roasted unsalted cashew, to serve
cilantro leaves (coriander leaves), to serve
steamed rice, to serve

* Wow! Lots of asterisks on this one. First the chicken: Sometimes, I use less meat than it calls for and I just grabbed 3 pieces of chicken out of a bag (I am guessing it was 3/4-1 lb). Second, the curry powder: I totally got messed up and put in 1 1/2 Tablespoons instead of teaspoons, you'll notice that in the pictures. Just thought I should let you know. Third, the chilies: I didn't use them. I wasn't feeling like a spicy curry. Forth, the chicken stock powder: I couldn't find it, so I substituted 1 chicken bullion cube for the stock powder (I didn't look too hard though, so if you know where to get it, let me know please). Finally the mango: We LOVE mangos, so I used 2 medium sized ones :)

Instructions:

Start your rice so it can be done when your curry gets done. Sometimes I like coconut rice, so that's what I made for this curry.

Heat oil in large frying pan over high heat, then cook the chicken until it is browned. When it's done, remove from the pan.

Reduce heat to medium, add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook, stirring until softened. Stir in the curry powder, chili, turmeric, and cinnamon. Cook and stir for 2 minutes.

Notice how there is heaps of curry powder...

Dissolve the stock powder (bullion cube) in the boiling water; add to the pan along with the coconut milk. Stir mixture until boiling.

Return the chicken to the pan and simmer over low heat for 3 minutes.

Serve the curry over rice and top with mango, cashews, and cilantro leaves.

We'll definitely make this again! Fast, simple, and Delicious!!!

Chicken Fried Rice

Michael and I have a really good Asian friend. We played basketball with him this semester and our team ended up winning the championship! We were so excited we decided to have a "Super Asian Basketball Champion Party" with our team. I volunteered to make some fried rice. Cheng, our Asian friend, approved of it, so I decided it was good enough to put up on the blog :)

This rice was super fast and easy to make. Mostly because I used leftovers (rice and chicken). I don't like when people say add this and that and boom, your meal is done. I hate to admit that when I made this, that is exactly what I did, but I tried my best to guesstimate with the measurements.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil

4 cups cooked white rice

3 eggs

1/2 chopped onion

1 tsp garlic powder

1 package of peas

1-2 cups chicken

salt to taste

soy sauce (optional)

Instructions:

If you don't have rice and chicken already, I would suggest cooking that first. 

Heat oil in a pan and add onion and garlic powder to it. 

When the onion is softened add peas and eggs to pan. Add some salt, too.

When you have scrambled the eggs, add the chicken and rice. 

Cook until everything is warm add salt to taste and serve with soy sauce. 

After eating this I was "chi-bo-la"... That's Mandarin for "I'm full." Hope you enjoy!