Chicken Rotisserie with Veggies

I have always loved Chicken Rotisserie. Looking at the chicken in those glass ovens with whole chicken turning around seem amazingly delicious and I always thought they taste this perfect only at restaurants, since I tried making it at home in the oven, but unfortunately, the oven does not give you the same result as the restaurant, because there is no way for you to rotate it and make it crispy and cook it evenly.

But, the problem grows more when you are a foodie and the crave to cook something is just too hard to let go. Your creativity needs that platform and you need rush out all the ideas and serve t on a platter. And little do people understand that similar to people getting upset when they aren’t able to take their favorite vacation, the home based or a restaurant based chefs happen to be the same. Till you are not authorized or left to decide and serve things as what you heart desires, you go a little crazy.

Since I was going nuts over cooking the Rotisserie, we came up with the idea of grilling the chicken. Same marination, little less oil, just sparingly brushing it around every few minutes, working hard with gas grill and charcoal grill, different times. Both were great, smoky flavor, taste of fresh cooked on fire, crunchy but not the Rotisserie, the flavor we were looking for was still very much missing. And, Finally Mr. Parveez bought me a Rotisserie maker. Can you imagine the excitement ? It was beyond what can be expressed in words.

Another thing, we aren’t a fan of Turkey. As much as we have always tried fitting ourselves in the traditional American “Thanksgiving” holiday, we still could not get ourselves to eat Turkey with ease. I always found the bird to be a little dry and it failed to absorb the flavors of the marinade that I used, hence it stayed bland and made gulping it down my throat even more difficult.

Finally with my Rotisserie maker, I was ready to roll. The chicken if marinated overnight or for at least 6-8 hours, makes the chicken absorb the flavors well. Make sure you make slits at the right places as shown in the pictures below. Also, the marinade needs to be rubbed in well, specially in the cuts and slits made. I always prefer using the whole chicken with skin. The fat from the skin adds a lot flavor to the chicken and it tastes incredibly delicious as well. The chicken should be tied from the legs and wings to be able to hold properly while being turned around. Mine was crispy and done in around an hour. This is must try if you are a Rotisserie fan like me. It surely does add a lot of glamour to your dinner table and is always a very fancy addition to the menu.

Tikka Masala Powder

To make the most authentic Chicken Tikka Masala I always tried a store bought ready made masala but then I decided that I should try and make it at home, since I started feeling that I smelt something weird in the mix. No, I don’t judge people who use it, it’s completely cool but then once I decided that making the masala at home, I felt it was so easy so, I decided to share it with everyone.

Gathering spices from your pantry would be easy to make this super delicious masala that can be kept in a cool dry place for up to 2 months. So within minutes, I gathered up all the spices for making this masala that could be used whenever you feel like making any Tikka with or without gravy. Tikka Masala Spice Mix is a fine motley of aromatic and strong spices that end up granting the quintessential flavor to any delicacy for which it is used!

The masala is prepared using the fine mix of Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Cloves, Cinnamon stick, Green cardamom, dry Kashmiri red chilli & whole black pepper. After dry roasting the whole spices, add Turmeric Powder, Red chili Powder and Tandoori Powder. Mixing everything together Tikka Masala Powder creates a royal treat of flavors for your palate without a doubt.

Kaleji Fry

Kaleji/ Liver of Lamb is a pretty popular dish in India, mostly served in Indian Muslim restaurants. Kaleji, Bheja, Paaya, Haleem, Nahari and a few others, are all staple Muslim non vegetarian dishes. With Muslim specialty dishes I mean that you will never find any high class Non vegetarian restaurant serving these. I mean forget high class, you won’t find any non vegetarian restaurant except for that belonging to a Muslim serving authentic Muslim dishes. Now, I never understood the reason behind it. I feel if you can make Biryani, curries, Kebabs then why not Kaleji, but with time I realized that these dishes have to be made a certain way and if you miss the trick, you lose the taste. So, I believe because our community sees our moms and grandmothers cooking them at home, we have the knack to cook it. Besides that, most people would not be very found of trying authentic dishes.

I always tell Mr. Parveez that I enjoy Chinese food more in India than USA. His reply is that Chinese or for that matter even Italian food served in any country beside China or Italy is nowhere close to authentic, which is very true. The indianised Chinese food is so good that I feel if a Chinese tries it someday will definitely settle down in India. Or if the Italians ever tried our wonderful Paneer tikka Pizza or the Tandoori chicken Pizza…LOLzzz.

Coming back to my Kaleji Fry, if you are a Muslim, you know it and if you aren’t and you happen to have Muslim friends, you would know this too. Kaleji Fry is one of the most awaited dishes in our homes, specially on Eid. I mean I can have it all year round except the high cholesterol part scares me and I pretty happy having it 4-5 times every year.

Kaleji/ Liver is served in the west too with some restaurants serving it in sandwiches. I have never tried those so I don’t really have an idea of how good they are but I believe if they are not cooked with spice, I might not be able to enjoy them much. The texture and the flavor would enhance with spice and without it, the Liver itself has a very strong flavor which will overcome all other things you put along with it.

Kaleji fry made on Eid brings me happy memories of back home, sharing food with my cousins and looking forward to getting money on Eid and then making plans on how to spend it. Kaleji was one dish that we all looked forward to and no matter where we were, would always be present to be on the table at lunch because our favorite Kaleji would be served.

The dish is pretty easy and makes an excellent Suhoor or Iftaar dish for Ramadan as well. And of course, it has to be one of the side dishes for Eid, thats mandatory. The Kaleji should be not overcooked so it doesn’t become rubbery, just a few minutes after it changes color, you kind of know its cooked. Always try and get fresh kaleji from the meat store if you are buying it. It goes great with Pita bread or phulkas.

Chicken Kalmi Kebab

The origin of Kalmi Kebab is from the Mughal era, of course, I mean where else will Kebabs so delicious can come from except for the Mughals. The Mughals introduced Kebabs to the Indian cuisine and when their Kebab making skills were fused with the spices of India to give super delicious and scrumptious dishes. This dish now is very popular in Hyderabad and is very prodly an addition to the Nizam cuisine, which of course is greatly influenced from the Mughals.

Tangdi Kebab are everyone’s favorite. Tandoori kebabs are pretty popular amongst people and mostly when we think of Tangdi kebab, the first kebabs that come to mind are the red tandoori kebabs.

With the huge variety that Chicken offers in the “World of Kebabs”, these happen to be one of the easy ones and definitely something beginners can easily cook to impress. The kebabs need marination time, overnight is not needed, 3 hours are enough. If you are running out of time, marinate and wrap them up with cellophane or a tight lid and leave them in the freezer for 15 – 30 minutes. Not any longer or the chicken pieces would freeze.

The chicken can be cooked in the oven as well, but going through the traditional way for cooking Kalmi Kebab, I decided to pan fry them. With pan frying, the besan cooks properly adding crunch to the chicken, which otherwise in the oven to take longer. Again, you might prefer the oven and if you do, its 350F/180C for 20 minutes each side.

As I said before, the dish is great for beginners and super easy to make. If you are a great cook, this dish makes an excellent side dish to your party and the flavors show great efforts. Hope you enjoy making it as much as I did.

Butter Chicken

Never met anyone who doesn’t like Butter Chicken. Simple, flavorful and so divine. But most of time people never try and make it at home and Butter Chicken becomes an eat out special. Many times I have read where people tried the recipe following a famous chef, but the dish still does not come out as good as the ones at restaurant.

The recipe below and simple to make and the closest you can get to the authentic Butter Chicken flavor.

Burrah Kebab

My dad took a lot of trips to Delhi for work. Even we as a family, would be visiting the capital of India quiet often since back in the 80’s and 90’s, we didn’t have the concept of direct trains from one city to another. So, we would take a train to Delhi and then another one to the destination. Since, My maternal family lived in U.K., dropping someone off to Delhi or picking them up from Delhi or we visiting our maternal home was always a trip through Delhi.

Now, being a non vegetarian, purani delhi is the place to be. Despite the crowd, the pollution and uncountable hygiene issues, every non veg lover at some point visited “jama masjid area” to satisfy their cravings. We did that on almost every trip and my father tried it at least twice each time, if not more. Some very popular restaurants serve awesome and delicious kebabs and curries with sheermaal, roomali roti and finger licking biryani.

Amongst the various variety of kebabs, Burrah kebabs stole my heart. Made from lamb marinated for a few hours, these kebabs are juicy, crunchy and full of beautiful flavors. So I had to search for the recipe. Though the recipe that I found wasn’t close to what my taste buds witnessed as a kid but being a home chef I knew how to add and deduct things and come out with the exact taste.

This is a must try for people who love lamb kebabs. Pretty easy to make and can be stored too.

Boti Kebab

These are one of the first mutton kebabs I made of for Mr. Parveez and since then they are a family favorite. The kebabs are spicy in flavor, crunchy from outside and soft from inside. These kebabs are steamed before pan frying.

The good thing about steaming is that if there is any extra fat in the meat, it gets drained which kind of makes the kebab a little healthy. To eat these on diet, you will have to pan fry them with as little oil as possible or you could also use those oil sprays. Steaming is different from boiling. Boiling the kebabs might take away the flavor and spice, where as steaming cooks the spice and the meat is completely tender. So, when you pan fry, it only takes a few minutes for the meat to get crunchy and its ready to eat.

A super fab recipe to serve guests as a side dish. Easy to make and easy to please.

Laal Surmai fry

This is a recipe from Bangalore. All Bangalorean Muslims love to cook varieties of Non vegetarian food and one of the commonly made food includes, Surmai / King Fish Fry. As much as its a part of all da’awat or get together, it is made quiet often at homes, since it makes a perfect side dish with Dal Chawal.

I was introduced to this kind of fish after becoming an official member of The Parveezes. My father in law was a real foodie. May his soul rest in peace, he would travel an hour or two to get the best fish fry for the family. My husband, Mr. Parveez has loads of fond memories of various restaurants and places he went with his father as a kid and my boys are always happy listening to his childhood stories.

My Father in law was a friendly guy and he would make a little more effort with people who served good food, to get a hint of what all ingredients they use… its funny but I think that’s how all us foodies are. a close by market to that restaurant sold some masala in a packet that my Father in law started buying since it was recommended by the cook of the restaurant. Since then every time he went to buy the fish, he would get loads of packets of those masala so, we could mix up some lemon juice and ginger garlic paste with fish and fry them. The fish would be very similar in taste to that from the restaurant.

For the first few years after we got married, I would bring those masala packets from Bangalore and every now and then use them on special occasions only, since India trip was only once a year. Then one fine day, I thought of giving up using the masala packet and make my own, so we could enjoy the yummy fish more often. I wouldn’t say it was exactly same as to what we get from the restaurant, but very close and close enough for us to not crave the fish when we visited Bangalore.

Not just that, my late Father in law loved the fried fish I made with homemade masala and since then, there was no looking  back. This masala makes your King fish taste even better. Its an easy marination and makes a quick fish side dish that goes great with Sambhar and boiled Rice.

KFC Masala

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.

Chicken Frontier

Chicken Frontier is a simple kebab made with spices and Ginger garlic paste. I believe the recipe is originated somewhere from Punjab. During the time of wars, when supplies would be limited is probably when this recipe came into existence. With time, improvements were made and the recipe I share is my improvised version of this lip smacking delicious kebabs.