Heart warming Chicken Sandwich with Sweet Corn Soup

While going to pick up the car from the service station, we saw two men selling ears of corn from the backside of a truck. He kept shouting "4 for 20 rupees". I told him I wanted just two and got some home. I wanted to make my sweet corn soup once more. This time I also got celery from the local store. Chopped pieces of celery leaves as well stalk when added to the soup make me go back in time to when I used to have this soup at home. This soup used to be made quite often at home. It is filling as well as good in the cold of Ooty. When tasting the soup with the celery added, I remembered that we used to have this with chicken sandwiches. It brought back one particular memory from the past.

Power cuts were quite common in Ooty when it rained. A tree would fall somewhere and there would not be power for days at end. On one such night, we were singing songs, a favorite time pass on a powerless evening, and munching these yummy chicken sandwiches along with the soup. My granny was around too and she would each time try to pry away the bollywood numbers from our minds and try to sing some songs in praise of god. Some of my most cherished memories and delectable combos.

Ingredients for 2 sandwiches :

1. 4 slices of brown bread
2. Butter
3. 1 leg of chicken
4. Salt to taste
5. 1/4 tsp vinegar
6. Pepper to taste

How I made it :

1. Boil the chicken with salt, vinegar in water. I pressure cooked it for 2 whistles on high and 1 whistle on low. The vinegar makes the chicken stay white and cook faster. Retain water/stock for use in soups, curries for enhanced flavour.
2. Shred the chicken into small pieces.
3. Heat the tava. Place the slices of bread on the warm tava. The idea is to warm the slices through.
4. Generously butter all slices of bread on 1 side each.
5. Mix pepper into the chicken. 
6. Take two slices of bread. Place them down with buttered side facing up. Spread chicken on the bread. Cover each with the other slice of bread with buttered side down.
7. Serve hot with any soup of your choice. 

We had this with sweet corn soup and it was a whole lot things for me. A hearty meal indeed.

4

Chicken Biryani

I had some pieces of chicken leftover from the barbecue experiment which was very successful. While walking past the neighbours house after picking up veggies, we took in the aromas of biryani. Our neighbours are muslims and needless to say we were immediately temped. I immediately jumped at the idea of making chicken biryani. So without much adieu, here is how I made it.

Ingredients :
250 gms chicken boneless
2 potatoes - quartered(optional)
1 cup basmati rice - wash and soak in 1.5 cups of water
3 medium onions
1/2 medium tomato
5 tbsp oil
4 cloves
1 inch stick of cinnamon
1 star anise
1 piece of mace
2 green cardamom
1/2 tsp garam masala

For the marinade :
1 tbsp curd
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 handful of coriander leaves
1/2 handful of pudina/mint leaves
2 green chillies
3 inch piece of ginger
8 cloves of garlic

Garnish :
Fried onions
Fried cashews
Fresh chopped coriander leaves

How I made it :
1. Grind the coriander, mint, green chillies, ginger and garlic. Add this with the remaining items of the marinade. Mix in the chicken and potatoes and leave aside.
2. Heat the oil and fry the onions till they turn a dark golden brown. Take out half this quantity.
3. Add the cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, mace and star anise. Fry for a minute till fragrant.
4. Now add the chicken along with the marinade and potatoes.
5. Fry for about 5 minutes, taking care not to break the pieces.
6. Add the tomatoes and fry till cooked.
7. Now add the rice. Fry for a minute.
8. Add the water. Adjust salt.
9. Add 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala. Optional.
10. Cover and cook on low till rice is cooked to your liking. I had to sprinkle some warm water in between too.
11. Garnish with the fried onions which were taken out in step 2. You could add some fried cashews and fresh coriander leaves.
12. I served it with a fresh dill raita.

0

Grilled Chicken in Peach Barbeque Sauce

I have been eyeing this recipe ever since I kept aside a few peaches whilst making the peach upside down cake. Also, with the advent of the masterchef series, I feel like exploring various cuisines more than ever. We had a similar dish with Mango at the new restaurant Mangrove in Kalyan Nagar but the icing on the cake is when your husband tells you that your version is much better than the one at the restaurant.

Recipe adapted from http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/06/grilled-chicken-with-peach-bbq-sauce.

Ingredients for 2:
2 chicken breasts
For the sauce :
1/2 tsp soya sauce
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup tomato ketchup
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 peach halves leftover from the can
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
For the glazed carrots :
2 carrots - sliced lengthwise into thin strips
1tbsp butter
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

How I made it :
Preparing the chicken breasts :
Apply salt and pepper on the chicken breasts and leave aside.

Sauce :
Heat the ingredients for the sauce in a pan. Bring to boil and simmer for about 10 minutes till the peaches are melting away or the ladle easily passes through them. Cool and grind to a smooth paste.

Glazed Carrots :
Buzz the carrot strips with salt in the microwave for 2.5 minutes on high. Heat butter in a skillet and add the carrots. Stir till the carrots are well covered. Season with pepper

Grilling Chicken :

Once the sauce is ready, smear 1/2 of it over the breasts. Leave this aside for about 20 minutes.
Then comes the task of grilling for which I used our electric sandwich toaster/griller. Turn it on till the plate gets warm. Place the chicken breast, drizzle a bit of oil and close. Cook for about 2 minutes and then turn it. Apply some more sauce and cook for about 5 minutes and give it another turn once you start seeing tiny bits of brown.


Serve with herbed rice and/or mashed potatoes with the extra sauce at hand.

I did have a little hard time cleaning up the sandwich toaster/griller but it was well worth it. Do try and let me know :) 

1