Spicy Chicken/Prawns – Chicken and Prawns cooked with/in aromatic spices.

Ever since I started cooking regularly, I have not only begun to enjoy the process of cooking but also I have started experimenting and trying out new recipes. Recently I decided to experiment with aromatic spices. I cooked chicken with these spices and realized that this base gravy would go with almost anything. So when I laid my hands on some good quality prawns, I decided to cook it in this gravy. It was yum!

Vegetarians can cook paneer (cottage cheese) in this gravy. I think potatoes too would taste wonderful if cooked in this gravy.

The video of the dishes has been embedded below and here is the YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8g6f_1UALI . For the detailed recipe see below.





Spicy Chicken

Ingredients:

• 100-150 gms boiled chicken
• About a cup of chicken stock
• One bay leaf
• Half onion chopped into small pieces
• Half tomato chopped into small pieces.
• A teaspoon of ginger paste.
• Half teaspoon garlic paste
• A little turmeric powder
• Kashmiri chili powder 
• 2 teaspoons coriander and cumin seeds mix powder
• Salt to taste

  

Ingredients for the fried garam masala:

• One teaspoon coriander seeds
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
• One teaspoon black pepper
• One dried Kashmiri chilli (deseeded)
• A little chopped coriander leaves
• One green cardamom
• 2 cloves
• A small piece of cinnamon
• Half onion finely chopped
• Required quantity of cooking oil of your choice.

Fried garam masala paste

Method:

Heat a little oil  (about a tablespoon of oil) in a pan and shallow fry the ingredients listed above for the fried garam masala.
Cook till the onion pieces have softened and have turned slightly brown.
After frying allow the masala to cool and then grind it to a paste. Keep aside.
Heat some oil in a vessel of your choice. As the quantity of chicken I had was little, I took about 2 tablespoons of oil.
After heating the oil add the bay leaf and the finely chopped half onion pieces and fry.
Add a little salt to help soften the onions.
Add the chopped tomato
Cover and cook and allow the tomato to soften.
After the onion has turned brown and the tomato has softened add the ginger-garlic paste.
Add about a quarter teaspoon turmeric powder and chilli powder. The chilli powder has to be according to your taste.
Add approximately 2 teaspoons of coriander and cumin seeds mix powder.
Stir fry well, that is, until you see a bit of oil being released from the fried mixture.
You can add the fried garam masala paste at this stage or you can add it after adding the chicken with the chicken stock.
If required add a little water.
Cover and cook for some time. Allow the gravy to thicken.
Adjust the salt after tasting it.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot with steamed rice or roomali rotis.

Spicy Prawns

Ingredients:

• 250 grams prawns.
• The other ingredients remain the same as above.

Method:
Shell and devein the prawns.
Add a little turmeric powder and salt to the prawns and stir fry them.
Cook the gravy in the same way as given above and then add the prawns
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

As I have already mentioned above vegetarians can replace chicken and prawns with paneer or potatoes.