Honey Lemon Chicken Wings

Chicken wings are an all-time favorite for almost everyone I know. Strangely enough, I had never tried them before moving to the USA. Back home in India, our cuisine doesn’t really include kebabs or appetizers made with chicken wings.

At first, chicken wings were something we only ate when dining out. It’s not that I never thought of making them myself—it’s just that Mr. Parveez and I liked them, but we weren’t exactly obsessed. There used to be a halal restaurant nearby that made the most delicious green masala chicken wings, and every once in a while, we’d stop by to enjoy them. Then, a few years later, the restaurant shut down—and with it went those amazing wings we’d come to love.

But honestly, that still didn’t inspire me to start making my own chicken wings. A few months later, we discovered another great halal gyro place that served hot, saucy chicken wings. They were fantastic for a while, but over time, something changed. The flavors started to fade, and the food just didn’t taste the same anymore. I’m guessing the management changed and brought in a new chef who couldn’t quite recreate the old magic.

That’s when it hit me—if I really wanted to enjoy good chicken wings again, I’d have to make them myself.

The first chicken wings I ever made were classic Buffalo wings. The kids loved them, and they quickly became a go-to appetizer for brunches and playdates. After making them for a few years—and watching my little fan club grow—I started experimenting with new flavors.

That’s how my Green Chicken Wings came about, followed by Haala’s Special Hot Saucy Wings, and finally, these. The main idea behind this recipe was to create something that balances sweet and spicy flavors—perfect for those who enjoy a little kick but can’t handle too much heat. It’s that ideal middle ground: flavorful, comforting, and a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Why Wings?

Chicken wings are best cooked with the skin on. When pan-fried or deep-fried, the skin turns beautifully crisp, giving that perfect crunch. And honestly, any saucy flavor tastes even better when paired with that crispy texture—it’s what makes wings so irresistible.

Why use honey and not sugar?

Honey blends much better with spices than sugar. Sugar often tends to crystallize or make the sauce watery, while honey gives it body and balance. It adds just the right amount of sweetness without overpowering the flavors—making it the perfect choice for sauces and glazes.

These wings strike the perfect balance—lightly sweet, lightly spicy, and absolutely irresistible. The flavors play a little game of hide and seek on your taste buds, keeping every bite exciting. Sweet and spicy together are already a winning combo, but when paired with crispy chicken wings, the result goes beyond just delicious. If you love chicken wings, this is one recipe you’ll definitely want to try.

Korean Chicken Bites

Asian cuisine is incredibly diverse—Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Malaysian, Korean—each with its own distinct flavors, yet somehow connected through similar ingredients and cooking styles. We’ve tried dishes from all of them, though only with seafood.

Being Muslim, it can sometimes be challenging to stick to the basics of eating only halal food, especially when so many amazing dishes are off-limits otherwise. I do have friends who are comfortable eating non-halal chicken or meat, but for us, that’s not an option. I truly believe that when there are ways and choices available for us to stay true to our beliefs, we should hold on to them.

But that doesn’t stop us from trying the dishes we love. That’s the beauty of having curious taste buds and a passion for cooking—you can always find a way to make something your own.

So here I am with another mouthwatering recipe, inspired by a dish I once tried with scallops and absolutely loved. I made a few tweaks, of course. The original version wasn’t marinated or batter-fried, which left the scallops a bit bland, with all the flavor coming only from the sauce. The sauce itself was good—mild, with just the right kick—but I wanted more depth.

When I decided to recreate the dish using chicken, I added some crunch and extra flavor. I marinated the chicken first, because chicken on its own doesn’t have much taste—it takes on whatever you give it. A little spice, a touch of seasoning, even just a bit of salt can make all the difference. Whether you’re adding chicken to noodles or tossing it in a sauce, never skip that first layer of flavor.

For the chicken, I marinated it in a mix of buttermilk, chili flakes, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, white pepper, oregano, and salt. Let it sit for at least an hour—longer if you can—for the flavors to really soak in. After marination, roll the chicken pieces in a mixture of flour, salt, and cornstarch, then fry them until golden and crisp.

The sauce is what ties everything together. It’s made with crushed garlic and ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, gochujang (a sweet and spicy Korean sauce that’s easy to find in most Asian stores), honey, brown sugar, vegetable oil, and red chili flakes. Once the sauce thickens, toss in the fried chicken pieces until well coated.

For garnish, I like using scallions and sesame seeds. You can add the scallions directly to the sauce, but I prefer sprinkling them on top—they stay crisp and give a nice contrast in texture.

Substitute for Buttermilk?

To make buttermilk at home, take the same quantity of milk as the buttermilk required and add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to it. Mix well and let it rest for a few minutes before adding the chicken.

The flavor of this chicken is a perfect balance of sweet and spicy, making it an excellent choice for all taste buds—kids and adults alike—unless someone prefers completely mild food. I find this dish a great hit for playdates, family gatherings, or small get-together parties.

Cooking in advance

You can fry the chicken bites and keep them in the oven. The oven needs to be preheated. Keep it on warm or at 200°F. Anything above it would overcook the chicken, making it chewy or burning it.

Sweet Cinnamon Kachori

This is a fusion dish. I had some dough left from the kachoris I made a couple of days before. Being a Marwari, I love the mix of Onions, potatoes and loads of chilies, but that’s not the case with my family who has more of a sweet tooth and as much as they would try and appreciate everything I make, but they make it clear that gulping one down their throat is enough to prove their love for me, and anything more would come under third-degree torture… LOLzzz

So, when I had the dough left, I knew I cannot make something that I crave. I could have made Maawe ki Kachori but I was making something for evening coffee and I needed it to be different and that’s when I thought of making a mix of cinnamon, brown sugar, honey, nutmeg, and mace. So, this was when I thought of making this little scrumptious, crunchy, and buttery kachoris.

Now the sugar I used is soft brown sugar but you can use any kind you want to. White sugar is fine as well, but just remember to either use granulated sugar or just grind the sugar a little. Adding cinnamon, nutmeg and mace was a wonderful addition to the flavor. Somehow, the combination reminded me of this “cheeni ka parantha” that’s a huge hit between kids in most Indian homes and cinnamon rolls put together.

Though I made these with leftover dough, I am sharing the recipe for the dough in this recipe. The dough can be used for any Kachoris that you’d like.

Though, I don’t think adding nuts to something like this is a good idea but, you can always try crushed nuts as an addition. Any variations or creation of taste buds added to a dish is what cooking is all about. Enjoy!!!

Chicken Tikka Masala Curry

One dish that Indians hold steady fast too, specially when we are far from home is Chicken Tikka Masala. Be it Paneer Tikka masala or Chicken Tikka Masala, it never fails to satisfy our taste buds. And, I think that’s why they are a part of every party buffet.

This recipe is very close to the restaurant style Chciken Tikka masala that you’d find at restaurants and you can always substitute the chicken with paneer and follow the rest of the recipe as is to get the perfect restaurant dish.

This recipe is one of the Best Chicken Tikka Masala Recipe that you can cook with ease. The flavor is smoky and making this dish at home also gives you the benefit of eating clean and fresh. At present my reasons to try this dish is because its the quarantine period and as much as I enjoy cooking, I leave some dishes to the restaurant to enjoy some favorites outside the house. But since we hit the Covid-19 Quarantine period, I had to start cooking at home and with the high spiked taste buds of my kids, I got down to making an at home Chicken Tikka Masala curry.

Ingredients to make Chicken Tikka Masala Curry Recipe, we would require Yogurt, I prefer the thick greek yogurt but you can always use the regular yogurt and hang it for 30 minutes to an hour. The thick yogurt helps adding a lot of creaminess to the curry. Boneless Chicken thighs work best for the recipe. A lot of times I have been asked why I prefer Boneless thighs over Boneless chicken breast and my answer is simple, that chicken breast tends to get dry quickly and specially with gravy dishes, Chicken breast fails to absorb the juices from the gravy.

The chicken needs to be marinated in ginger garlic paste, lemon juice, salt, vegetable oil and tikka masala spice mix to marinate the chicken. You’d require onions, whole spices, tomatoes [chopped and pure’ed] , chilies, ginger garlic paste and the regular spices as red chili powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder and tikka masala powder, along with honey, kasuri methi and cream.

Salmon New Orleans

Being Muslims we adhere to eating only seafood when other meat options are not halal. Salmon New Orleans was one of those dishes that we tried at one of our favorite restaurant and were immediately in love with. The only problem is only that the restaurant is pretty far away and as much as we would love to be there every weekend, we cannot.

So one beautiful Sunday, when Mr. Parveez happened to be working on a weekend project, my boys craved Salmon New Orleans and there was no other option than me trying to make it at home. Following the flavors I could remember, this is the closest I can get to the dish, but considering that variations are acceptable in every dish, this dish came out fabulous. The boys couldn’t make out any difference except for what we made tasted more fresh. I guess fresh seafood and mixing of spices at the time does always help. And, this doesn’t mean I am advocating you to stop exploring restaurants, but while sharing this recipe at the time of pandemic Covid-19, I feel this is the best option to try out your restaurant favorite foods at home, as there ain’t any other option anyways.

If I was told before I started making this meal, that it will be done, finish to start in around 30 minutes and that too using just one pan, I would not really believe it, but honestly its true. I seasoned the Salmon with salt and pepper. Make sure you don’t add too much salt, because Salmon usually absorbs salt very quickly, so you might wanna hold your hand a little.

There are always different ways you serve your fish. I like mine with some veggies, preferably carrots, spinach, avocados, broccoli or asparagus. Here I used Spinach and avocados. I first cooked the spinach with garlic, saute’ed it lightly so the flavors blend in nicely without overcooking the spinach and making it lose its color. The light garlic tasting spinach adds that perfect flavor with the sweet salmon and shrimp medley. Another side of avocado slices with a little drizzle of lemon goes in so perfectly. If you like, you can always serve with a buttermilk biscuit like me or with anything you like. A little rice or mashed potato. The side should be a little mellow in taste to compliment the flavor of the fish.

Later we need to melt the butter and whisk a little honey. That’s where the slight sweetness of honey cooked with butter creates caramelization that our salmon will be cooked and come out with awesomely delicious results. I like my Salmon fillets to be thin. I feel that makes them juicer and crunchier. If you prefer them thick, then you can always take a fillet that weighs between 6-8 oz or else you can get thinner fillets that are around 3-4 oz each.

I made my cajun seasoning at home. You can always use store bought, but in case you want to make it at home, its pretty simple with ingredients easily available in your pantry. A little garlic powder, Onion powder, black pepper powder, white pepper powder, salt, red chili powder, red chili flakes and dry parsley. I believe the actual cajun spice might have a little more spice added to it, but with my caliber this is all I could guess and trust me doing this at home, the results would amaze you.

After this saute your shrimp in the same pan you used for the salmon, along with some more butter and that cajun seasoning. Top your salmon with a few shrimp and drizzle the cajun butter sauce from the pan right over the top. Garnish with a little chopped cilantro or parsley if you like and you’re done.

That’s it. So simple to make but believe me, you will be amazed with the results. This is Restaurant-quality at home with no-fuss. Isn’t that what we all desire?

Hope you try this recipe and enjoy it as much as we did.

Stir Fried Chicken

Indian Chinese dishes are pretty popular with people. I experimented this dish which c is made with crispy chicken chunks. Its lightly tossed in a spicy chili sauce.

You will like this dish if you like the Indo Chinese fusion dishes. Its wonderfully delicious and the technique in various dishes where the flavors are combined always makes the dishes scrumptious.

If you have never had this dish before then definitely try it out. If you enjoy takeout dishes like sweet and sour chicken, then you will probably enjoy this dish as well. It uses the Chinese takeout technique of ‘deep frying and tossing it in a thick sauce to coat it’ that most of us are very familiar with but uses a dark spicy chili sauce instead of the usual sweeter sauces.

This recipe is a dry chili chicken version, however if you prefer the gravy version of chili chicken then just double up the sauce recipe to make it more saucy. The type of peppers you use in this dish will be your preference, depending on how spicy you like your food. Though my kids are pretty good with taking spice, I used bell pepper and dry Red chilies to flavor it up.

I personally LOVE crispy foods, but find it slightly irritating when it when it is 60% batter and 40% chicken. This dish is lightly coated and therefore has a very light crispy exterior. This makes for a less greasy end product as well.

Korean Barbecue Chicken

We love chicken, Biryani, Kebabs, curries, soup. Its easy to cook and loved by all. I am always on a lookout for new recipes, specially recipes that can be eaten by kids from all cultural backgrounds. Indian foods offer large variety of kebabs, but sometimes kids just want a different flavor altogether, and I am always trying to experiment with different flavors.

We once went to this wonderful Korean BBQ Restaurant. We could only stick to the seafood since the chicken or meat wasn’t halal. The live BBQ was awesomely set up on our table and though they do serve with different salads and Rice bowls with sauces, but the there was nothing that we enjoyed more than the seafood. The amazing part was that the seafood they got was not marinated, and they carried marination sauce bowls that they would brush on the seafood and this was the first time I ever came across a marination that can be put directly while the food is being cooked. That’s when I felt I had to try this at home with Chicken or meat, and that trying turn finally came after almost a year.

I marinated the chicken slightly with salt and vinegar. The Indian me wanted to add a little ting to it before I started cooking it. It was lovely making the sauce, I tried to make it as close as I could to what I had tasted. the kids loved it and it can be made with ease and in when you have little time in hand. There are some modifications to make it look pretty, you may or may not. Enjoy!!!

Baklava

My love for Baklava began in 2003. I was working for a University in Amman, Jordan. Trying out different foods and adapting myself to new culture and people is when I first time tried Baklava. Now, Baklava tastes very different in all middle east countries. I might sound bias but there is nothing like the Jordanian baklava. Its crunchy, nutty, crispy with just perfectly sweet. Its hard to decide how much sugar will be perfect for your baklava but constant practice made me come up with the perfect measure.

Like most of my other recipes, this recipe too is not that tough. Just be precise with your measurements and oven heat and time. Make sure the nuts you use are fresh and enjoy the flavor of a wonderful Baklava. It can be made a day before for your guests and is a great dish for potluck parties too. The shelf life is a week and can be extended to two weeks if you refrigerate it. Though it should be thawed before serving.

Mango Banana Smoothie

Have you ever had problems feeding your kids enough fruits? Well, I do. I love the fruit and vegetable servings designed by the food pyramid. If you pay attention to the food pyramid, you might realize that your kids aren’t consuming enough.

We do make loads of shakes at home, but most of the shakes would have sugar, milk and fruit and there wouldn’t be anything too fancy. Most of the shakes were just Mango or banana. Then one day, we ventured out the world of smoothies that became a huge trend in early 2000. I felt it was an excellent way to serve your kids everything they wouldn’t consume if they saw…LOLzzz.

With all this came in my reasons to start making my own smoothies. The boys love it since its the best thing they can have on the go. Smoothie makes an easy, fast, filling and super healthy breakfast.

Mix in your choice of flax seeds and hemp seeds and it would not just make it more delicious but also a super healthy breakfast. For a great smoothie, you have to make sure the milk is chilled. You can always put the milk in the freezer for 15-20 minutes, and it would make your  smoothie much better than normal.

 

Mango Cream

Like most Marwaris, I also grew up eating Fruit cream as a fast and go to dessert. As much as its an easy and impressive dessert to impress your guests and loved ones, its not everyone who can make it the authentic way. Now, every time I use the word authentic for “Fruit cream”, people usually give me a very confused look. But what they fail to understand is its not just mixing in fruits, sugar and cream.

A fruit cream is best when the cream is whipped with sugar making those stiff peaks and making it fluffy at the same time. Your fruits should always be fresh and the additional sugar should be based on the fruits you are using and how sweet they are. Small little things and make big changes to your dish.

But here, we aren’t making fruit cream, I am making Mango cream and that too with a little twist. My first time trying to make Mango cream was whipping the cream and mixing in a few mango pieces. I wouldn’t say it wasn’t nice but it was definitely not satisfying as a chef.  Instead of making the whole serving with just mango flavor, I divided into half vanilla and half Mango.

The recipe below might remind you of Mango Panacotta, though similar but its very different. Panacotta requires a little more effort and cooking time where as this is you to go recipe and can easily be made in a rush with almost no prep time.