Tandoori Chicken

     "Tandoori Chicken" - Being not a big fan of non veg dishes. I was keep on postponing to try my hands in this dish, at the same time i was thought this is a big cumbersome process. During my visit to friend's place, she decided to prepare this dish. I was helping her in marinating process, by thinking its going to take hell lot of time. But to my surprise, she just done her cleaning and marinating part within few minutes. Even cooking process took hardly 45 mins. From then on, i was eagerly waiting for my day to try it. Final THE DAY came and tried. Here comes....

ALL YOU NEED:

Chicken leg pieces	4 Nos.
Turmeric Powder	Pinch
Red Chilly Powder	1 1/4 sp.
Coriander Powder	2 spoon
Cumin Powder	1 spoon
Garam Masala	1 spoon
Red Food Color	Pinch
Hung Curd	1 cup
Salt	To Taste
Oil	1 tbsp

To Marinate:
     Clean and wash chicken leg pieces. Make a slit and let it sit down for a while. Now take a wide bowl. Add red chilly powder, corainder powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, red food color(optional) and required salt, mix well. Now add hung curd (strain the curd in strainer to get thick hung curd) and a tbsp of oil. Mix well. Make sure the masala should not be watery. Once done, add all the chicken pieces, mix well until the masala coats the pieces evenly. Refrigerate it for 5 to 6 hours. Usually i allow it to sit for overnight and will prepare the next day.

To Prepare:
     Preheat over for 350 F. Meantime, take a grill plate, and place it over the oven tray covered with foil. Line up the marinated chicken (shaking off the excess masala) with some gap in-between. Just spray some oil on top of each pieces. Now place it in the middle rack. Close the oven. Strictly NO PEEKING, in-between (Bcos i will do this :) ). Let it cook for 20 mins. Now open the oven and toss the pieces to the other side and spray or grease some oil. Close the over, again some-more 20 mins to cook. Once done finally, turn the settings to "Broil" mode. Let it be in for 5 mins and again toss it to the other side and keep it for another 5 mins. Put off the oven. Let it be in the heat for 10 mins.

     Take out the oven tray and serve hot with mint chutney garnished with lemon and sliced onions.

Note: You can mariante chicken just with storebought tandoori chicken masala (I prefer Everest Brand) with hung curd, by skipping all those dry powders.

♬ Sangeetha♡Nambi ♬

Paneer Tikka

     During my early cooking days, i thought this can only be prepared in hotel. But now, being a food bloggers and started checking my co bloggers space, concluded like this can be EASILY prepared at home that using in-house ingredients. Actually am not paneer lover, i literally want to try it using chicken. Since its my first try, used paneer and it came out very well.

ALL YOU NEED:

Paneer Cubes	6 Nos.
Diced de-seeded Tomato	6 Nos.
Diced Onion	6 Nos.
Ginger Garlic Paste	1/4 spoon
Coriander Powder	1 spoon
Red Chilly Powder	1 spoon
Cardamom Powder	1/2 spoon
Diced Capsicum	6 Nos.
Tomato Ketchup	1 spoon
Garam Masala	1 spoon
Lemon Juice	1 spoon
Food Color	Pinch
Hung Curd	1/2 cup
Skewers	1 No.
Salt	To Taste

METHOD:
     Take a wide bowl, add paneer cubes, diced tomato, diced onion, diced capsicum. Now add all powders/masala, food color, tomato ketchup, ginger garlic paste, salt, lemon juice and hung curd. Mix well by NOT adding water. Refrigerate it for 2 to 3 hours. Meantime,since i used wooden skewers soak it in water just to avoid burning. After 2 or 3 hours, take it out, stack it one by one in the skewers. While stacking it, preheat oven at 350 F. Once staking, take a tray, cover it with aluminium foil, place the skewers and let it be in oven for 25 mins. Toss the skewers on every 10 mins. Temperature may varies so once the sides of paneer started turns golden brown take it out and squeeze some lemon juice and enjoy.

♬ Sangeetha♡Nambi ♬