This sandwich is a popular Italian-American fast food. Its not one of those signature Italian dishes like a bowl of pasta, but more of the Americanized Italian dish, which is basically a combination of fried chicken with spiced up marinara sauce, cheesed up between a Hot dog bun or sliced baguette. Adding a few sliced onions is always great, but its a personal preference.
Now, we cannot eat chicken outside and every time I went for a Hero Sandwich, it was always with shrimp and I was always curious of how amazing the chicken one would taste. So, when I thought I hacked the taste and could make my own, I decided to try them with chicken.
Marinating the chicken with eggs and milk, make it stay moist and adds a little tangy flavor because of the lemon. That ways when you coat the chicken and fry it, the chicken inside isn’t bland, tasteless and dry.
The chicken after frying can be mixed in with the marinara to make it juicy and increase the flavor. Chicken once cooked this way can also be served with pasta, but since I am a big fan of sandwich and its always easier for my kids to eat a sandwich, I usually prefer it this way.
Making of Marinara sauce at home is pretty simple too. Being from India, I tend to make my marinara sauce a little spicier, but you can always turn it down if you are following my recipe for making marinara sauce at home. Secondly, a store bought marinara sauce is equally good, all you need to do is add a little onion powder and garlic powder to it, and if daring enough, a few chili flakes.
This recipe is great for kids lunch boxes and makes a great weekend lunch/brunch too. Hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I do.
When you live in a country far away from home, you tend to
dry more of different cuisines in order to blend in. Ohh yes! You read that
right. We as Indians try our level best to try and blend in sending our
wonderful taste buds on a toss. See, believe it or not, Indian cuisine is one
of the most wonderful cuisines you can come across. So many varieties of food
offered by one country where the food palette from one state to another differs
as much as countries in Europe.
Now, I don’t mean to look down upon other cuisines but I do
feel very proud of my ethnicity. Having tried so many different spices, oils,
vegetables is an experience of its own. So, coming back to living in America,
we tend to please people around us and not or taste buds. Indian food with spices
is actually a very healthy option for guilt free food. Leaving that we indulge
in butter and cheese based cuisines coz that satisfies the masses and we want
to be one of those. But for those of us, who yearn for meals with similar
taste, Italian and Mexican food come the closest.
Being a Muslim and eating only halal, our best bet for food
is either vegetarian or seafood. Also, not trying food made by people who do
not stick to the rules of a cuisine and make it in a fusion way is not my cup
of tea. So, people like me, who want try that authentic Mexican chicken rice
bowl from their favorite Mexican restaurant, eat fish and try to cook same
flavors with chicken at home. I tried my level best to stick to Mexican flavors
to get the authentic taste. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
KFC in India introduced their masala wings and people like us became crazy as fans, swearing by those spicy wings that there would nothing else ordered or eaten as religiously as them when any KFC is passed by.
Now, living all the way in USA, we aren’t that privileged to enjoy them here, and the craving is hard to suppress, so I tried to crack the recipe for the masala and trust me, its super close or almost the same. So, if you are like us and like that spice kick on your fried chicken, this recipe is for you.
This spice can be kept in an airtight container for up to one month.
Buffalo Chicken Wings can easily come under one of the most favorite chicken dishes in America. Fried and crunchy wings, dipped in hot sauce is not just finger licking good but amazingly satisfying and juicy. This amazing dish is mandatory on game nights. And, if you happen to be an Indian family like us, and have men [my hubby and 2 boys] who happen to be fans of almost all sports, you need to learn this dish.
Chicken wings make it to our living room during cricket matches, Basket ball, Soccer and even wrestling. Yupp, we watch them all and if possible, sometimes over movies as well.
A few years ago, we discovered a halal restaurant that served Chicken Wings. That’s when we started bringing them in every game time. But with time we lost interest, since the fried wings with sauce would become soggy by the time we would bring them home and serve. So, Mr. Parveez gave up on eating wings altogether and our sports days were “wingless”..LOLzzz.
One fine day, while picking up my regular halal meat, I happened to ask the butcher if he sells wings separately. As much as the question sounds silly today, you have to understand that it was coming from a woman who has never bought them in her life. So, I got some chicken wings and hot sauce and came up with this recipe. It might be a little different from your regular chicken wings, slightly more spicier but trust me, its better. You could always reduce the spice level if you prefer.
So, since then, there was no looking back. These chicken wings are loved by our friends, friends of my kids. In fact, my son once told me that his friend was telling the whole class about the amazing wings he had on his last play date at our house, which of course made my son very happy and proud.
A wonderful recipe to win hearts.
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.
One day, Mr. Parveez was gone in a meeting, and I was frantically trying to get lunch on the table in time. Looking at the uncooked chicken breast on my kitchen island, confused what to do with it, I asked my boys what they would like. The answer was “Can you make tacos”. I decided, tacos as fate would have it, with two kids hanging on my legs whining about how they were nearing starvation [not to forget the kids are 11 and 7]. And then, I realized I didn’t have any tortillas…. which makes for a pretty crummy taco lunch…. So now I had 2 choices. I could try to pack both of my starving children into the car for one package of tortillas, or I could try to come up with something using what I already had.
Dreading the prospect of trying to wrangle the rug rats into the car, I chose to figure something else out, which is when I came across this amazing recipe for homemade flour tortillas and I owe my undying gratitude to that website [which I forgot to save…ggggrrrr] because not only were these homemade flour tortillas deliciously amazing, it also saved me from dragging my lovely, but kind of crazy, children to the grocery store in pursuit of the store-bought kind of tortillas.
The recipe is delightfully simple. The hardest part for me was trying to roast them which has to be done on super low flame and should be rotated non stop. I found it was easiest to flatten the dough with my hands as much as possible before using the rolling pin. And even if you’re not like me and aren’t used to making chapattis and most of your tortillas come out kind of oblong or misshapen, that’s okay. The shape takes away nothing from the deliciousness.
You don’t have to be disheartened if you don’t have a stand mixer. Though, the directions call for one with the dough hook attached. And If you have a hand mixer you probably have dough hooks too! This recipe works for hand mixers too! And if you don’t have any, making dough with your hand isn’t that difficult either.
Making chicken is fairly easy and doesn’t require any marination or too much prep either. Treat yourself to something delicious and easy….
We attended a kid’s birthday party and they ordered this wonderful looking Pizza with chicken dipped in hot sauce all over it…Sounds incredibly delicious, right??? Well, it looked super scrumptious too, except that I couldn’t take a slice or even a bite…Why??? coz the chicken wasn’t Halal…Yupp!!! a food loving Muslim family juggling to stay positive and eat what the religion allows…You think its tough? Not really, its isn’t as bad as it used to be 13 years ago. You find loads of Muslim joints and food trucks now and I am sure it will increase with time. But, Meanwhile, for all these yummy looking dishes, there are people like me, all set to cook and share recipes.
So, if you are like me who would love to have their taste buds enjoy the juices of these wonderful flavors, you are on the right path.
