We are a hard core Non vegetarian family. But, as much as people see our love for non vegetarian food, we equally love vegetarian as well, which kind of goes unnoticed. I don’t blame anyone, since with the huge variety of Biryanis and kebabs that we make, people believe that we can never go complete vegetarian.
Anyways, so I tried this recipe not just to test my veggie cooking skills but also because most of my close friends are vegetarians and that I think is the first reason why I tried a chicken dish with cauliflower.
This dish is as delicious as the chicken one. The good thing is that being vegetarian, it keeps your belly feeling lighter and less bloated. It can be served with plain boiled rice on the side or just by itself. Makes a great side dish or an appetizer.
This dish is a gift of my husband, Mr. Parveez. On days when I am confused and find it hard to decide on what should be cooked, he would come up with his innovative ideas and suggest on something new he would like me to try, unless he makes his way to the kitchen and treat me something super fatabulous.
Anyways, one day I was all confused and he suggested making this chicken dish. The dish uses 4 kinds of chilies so spice factor is a little high and if you aren’t daring enough, I would ask you to cut down on the spice level. This dish makes a great side dish with dal chawal.
As a kid, Delhi was like second home to me. I hail from Rajasthan and having my maternal family from U.K., we always were either travelling or having family over and Delhi had the closest international airport. Even besides that, there were numerous reasons for visiting Delhi.
Now, if you have ever been to Delhi, you know its a food heaven and if you want to taste delicious non vegetarian food, Jama Masjid is the place. Wonderful restaurants with hot steaming food, kebabs, curries and Biryanis served with pillow soft naans.
The funny part is that many of those restaurants have opened their chains in New Delhi or other areas but the food tastes best when you visit Jama Masjid. I think its my love for the crowd and those hustling markets and the sound of Rickshaw driver yelling that connects to my childhood and memories of going to Jama Masjid with my father and enjoying the food at those restaurants, makes me relive those days and therefore, I still prefer going to puraani Dilli or Old Delhi.
This recipe is one of my favorite kebabs from Jama Masjid. I could never get the recipe of the original kebabs but through experimenting with flavors, I cracked the recipe and remembered my childhood flavor. A recipe worth trying.
Mr. Parveez hails from Bangalore / Bengaluru. Now, if you ever want to eat good non vegetarian food in Bangalore, the right place is a Muslim wedding. There is no restaurant that can cook that much variety and that too with so much flavor.
I tried these Harabhara kebabs first time on our Valima, the after wedding party which is a celebration from your in laws and is as grand as the wedding. So, we were served with at least 25 varieties of foods that comprised of lip smacking Biryani, yummilicious curries, delicious sides and breads, awesome sweets and scrumptious kebabs and these kebabs were one of them. It was love at first sight and since then, my Father in law [God bless his soul] made sure these were always part of the menu for all the family weddings or parties.
Now, as much as I loved these kebabs, I could never get my hands on the recipe. The caterer was always sweet enough to say “Bhabhiji, we will cook it for you whenever you desire them”, which indirectly means “We ain’t sharing it, its our own”.
Eating these awesome kebabs every trip to India, I had to come up with my version of it. I tried and these are very close to the actual dish. They are pretty easy to make therefore, if you happen to be a new cook, this is an awesome recipe to impress your family or guests. If you make it with boneless chicken, these could make great filling for rolls too.
Chicken sizzler is just such a super amazingly happy dish. I feel your hunger just grows by a 200% , seeing that sauce sizzle on that hot iron plate and the sizzling sound is so very pleasing.
Sizzler is best with boneless chicken or fish served with boiled rice and your choice of vegetables. I love the sizzlers in India, the spicy, smoky flavors at our favorite joint is just like a dream come true for people like us, who are so far away and that we don’t get halal sizzlers in USA, or at least not around us. So, for people like us, we invent our own.
So, there is a very sweet story to share as well. Mr. Parveez saw me longing for sizzler and bought me these wonderful iron sizzler pans and they were lying in my pantry closet waiting to be inaugurated. So, finally one day, while kids were at school and Mr. Parveez was working from home and I decided to test my gift. Usually, I always prefer making new things in my own time and keeping it a surprise and once I was done making it, the look on Mr. Parveez’s face is hard to express in words. I do have a picture of him but, he would not allow me to post it here …LOLzzz. It will always be treasured in my personal collection.
I lived in Jordan for 2 years. One of the dishes that I loved the most was Shwarema. Now, Shwarema is popular in the whole middle east or middle eastern restaurants but there is a huge difference between Shawaremas from different countries are very different from each other. Where Shwarema from Dubai or Saudi is filled in pita, Shwarema from Jordan is filled in a thin roti kind of bread.
The best part was that the Shwarema had some garlic sauce in between and was served with pickled olives and cucumbers. It would be soft, juicy, mildly spicy and flavorful….so tried making what I liked. It tastes very close to the original Jordanian Shwarema and if you are like me and want more flavor from the chicken then the bread, this dish is for you.
This is great for kids, the flavor isn’t too strong that they can’t handle. Makes a great wrap for school/office lunch, or a picnic roll. It tastes great even when it has cooled off so you don’t have to worry about it not tasting too good when eaten later.
These chicken seekh kebabs are fast track and guilt free. I made them one day when I was running short of time and I wanted something not too fancy, or heavy but something nice. I am sure we all go through one of those days when we want to eat something nice but then time is short and we don’t want to consume that makes us feel bloated.
And the fact is that Mr. Parveez always prefers his lunch to be something nice, yet light. You might be confused thinking that being husband to a wife who could spend her life time in the kitchen, how does he manage to think this way. Well, let me tell you, Mr. Parveez is a food loving guy but he is also a Man of self control. He has his days, with Biryani and gulab Jamuns to name a few, but, he never goes over board with rest things. He would make sure he eats within limits. And to make sure nothing tempts him, he always asks me to come up with less oil/ no oil/no carbs versions of food and I take them as a challenge and invent the best to my capability.
So, it was one of those days and I managed to come up with this recipe. Its great for on the go lunch, lunch boxes, light dinner and kid play dates. Its a great dish if you are carb conscious or a health freak.
This one is different from the regular Manchurian, which is partially dry. This one on the contrary has enough gravy to be served with boiled Rice. I substituted Bell pepper with Big green chili or Badi Mirch to change and experiment with flavor, or if I use the right term, I did that to to make the taste different from the regular dry Manchurian.
Isn’t it funny how playing with flavors id so exciting and yet so easy, even then most of the time people refrain themselves from trying out something new or do not make an attempt to alter the taste that they have inculcated with time. But, the fact is that basic flavor of all food is the same. The difference is only with the timing of when that flavor is introduced to the dish or which member of that family you pick. Like choosing bell pepper, Green chili or ghost pepper, same family, different members and each one holds the capability of changing the taste of your dish completely.
Now, at times, people use ingredients as a substitute and new flavors are invented. I, personally do not agree to substitute ingredients unless you willingly accept to experiment with the flavor. I am against using tamarind in place of lemon. Oh! yes I know people who would do that and even then disagree that they knowingly messed up a dish.
Cooking is an art and we all know that, and the one who masters this art becomes a very respectable artist/ chef and we all wish to be in that group and that’s the reason I created this website and the same reason why you are here. So, my suggestion is stick to the rules of nature. Switch flavors that you can imagine with your taste buds. Introduce new flavors little at a time because then you always have time to improvise. Making mistakes is acceptable but try to not ruin a dish to an extent where it isn’t edible.
This dish is an awesome option for school/ office lunch box. My boys look forward to Manchurian in their lunch box and it goes well with boiled rice.
I always had a soft corner for Chinese cuisine. Despite of all the horror stories about how unhealthy it can be at times, due to high contents of sodium in soya sauce and restaurants using MSG and more. The only thing was that my love for Chinese food was restricted to seafood only since most Chinese restaurants in USA do not serve halal food and if you are a meat eater, you do understand that sometimes, you just want your meat and though, fish is wonderful in taste but, doesn’t give you that satisfaction of meat. So, we got down to trying our own chicken version and when its Chinese and chicken, what can be better than making chicken Manchurian.
Its funny but the first time I tried Chicken Manchurian, I measured the ingredients tsp by tsp, and now I am so pro at it that i can cook this dish with my eyes closed, I mean it. Its a family favorite and the flavors are sweet and sour with a dash of spice and easily impresses anyone.
This version of Manchurian is dry, so its best served as a side dish or an appetizer. You cook serve it with strips of Butter naan [recipe in Bread] if you are looking to make it more fancier.
I have never met a kid or a person who enjoys chicken and does not go crazy over chicken lollipops. I, myself go overboard and hate to admit, but I go overboard when it comes to these little round juicy, crunchy creeps. After all, no one eats one chicken lollipop, NO, NEVER. In my books, if you don’t indulge and go crazy with them, you are committing a sin, BIG TIME.
This dish is meant to be enjoyed with friends/family and made enough so, everyone can enjoy to the max. I am posting a video as well that teaches you the easiest way to make lollipops out of your wings. The video isn’t just easy to follow but its the safest way to not cut your fingers. So, if you wish to try making these, please do watch the video and follow.
So, coming back to the lollipops. My boys love chicken wings and I would serve those on play dates/ game nights/ get together. The chicken wings I made gained so much popularity between our friends that I believe a lot of people went out of their way to be at our every party only to devour the juicy wings…LOLzzz. So once in Bangalore, my boys tried chicken lollipops and the dish just earned themselves a new fan. That’s when the mommy had to try her skills to make a new dish. Now, I make 4 different flavors of chicken lollipop but I still have not tried making something close to what my boys had tried but, I came up with my own recipes and they all are lip smacking delicious.
So if you are a fan of chicken lollipops like us, this recipe is a must try. Just like other recipes with chicken wings these will surely impress you and your loved ones.
