Chicken Tikka Kebabs--The Power Outage Improvisation

Chicken Tikka is my favorite grilled chicken dish. I like it because of the Indian spices, which add a lot of flavor, and the yogurt, which makes it always very moist. I usually buy a ready made tikka paste in the Indian spice store, add yogurt and marinate chicken breasts in it. It has a very intensive red color.

I was planning on buying a new jar for the rest of the grilling season but during the recent power outage, when my refrigerator was thawing, I had to improvise and make the marinate myself, desperate to save the most vulnerable chicken breasts.

I remembered the recipe from one of the magazines that I constantly browse. It was a simple recipe using traditional Indian spices but what made it particularly interesting was the generous use of whole cumin seeds.

Chicken Tikka Kebabs

Ingredients:
2 lb chicken breasts, boneless,
1/2 cup natural yogurt,
2 onions,
2 garlic cloves, minced,
3 tbsp lemon juice,
3 tbsp oil,
2 inches of a fresh ginger root, peeled and grated,
1 tsp red chili pepper,
1 tsp red paprika,
1 tbsp cumin seeds,
1 tsp cardamon powder,
1/2 tsp salt,
1/4 tsp pepper.

Preparation:
1. Cut chicken breasts into medium cubes.
2. Mix yogurt, 2 tbsp oil, lemon juice, grated ginger, minced garlic, and all the dry spices. Mix well and let it marinate for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight.
3. Peel off onions and cut in quarters. Stick chicken cubes on the grill skewers alternating with slices of onion. Drizzle with the remaining tbsp of oil.

4. Preheat the grill to 350 F. Place Tikka kebab on a grill and grill for about 10-15 minutes turning frequently and brushing kebabs with the remaining marinate.

Serve with the Naan bread or rice and salads.

Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons--A Bit of Moroccan Flavor

There are three dishes that are most often made with preserved lemons: chicken, fish, and lamb. Lamb and chicken are usually made tagine style, that is slowly cooked in a special dish with a shallow bottom and a conical cover. So far I have tried chicken and have been making it from time to time. It is the most classical dish coming from the Moroccan cuisine tradition.

Before I made for the first time, I had been looking everywhere for a most complex and interesting recipe. All of them called for the same ingredients--chicken, preserved lemons, olives and spices. But when I read different reviews not everyone who tried this dish liked it. Most complaints concerned the sourness of it that overshadowed its other subtle tastes, particularly, when the dish was made with green olives, which seems to be the most popular recipe. And it seems that even the mildness of couscous that the chicken is served with did not help diminish its acidity. Many people who tried out this dish would never make it again.

I decided then to make this dish a bit differently. I added carrot and raisins, which I thought would help offset its sourness. Both ingredients are often used in the Moroccan cuisine and also sometimes in different type of tagine dishes. A typical tagine calls for a meat with bones, which gives out its flavor through long cooking, but I used chicken breast tenderloins. To make sure I get a maximum flavor from it I made sure the chicken was organic and free range. I cooked them much faster in a regular heavy bottom cookware, but I think the taste was similar to what it would be if I did it as a slowly cooked dish.

Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts with bones or 8-10 breast tenderloins,
1 red onion,
6 carrots, peeled and sliced,
1/2 cup raisins,
2 preserved lemons,
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp turmeric,
4 anise star fruits,
1/2 tsp ground ginger,
2 inch long stick of cinnamon,
1/2 cumin,
1 tsp paprika,
pinch of saffron powder,
1/4 tsp black pepper,
1/2 tsp salt,
chopped fresh coriander and parsley,
olive oil for frying.

Preparation:
1. Mix 3 tbsp of olive oil with garlic, salt, and pepper. Rub the chicken in it and let marinate for about an hour.
2. Preheat a frying pan and fry chicken breasts until gold. Add sliced onion and carrot, and fry for about two minutes stirring from time to time. Add to the pan all the spices: turmeric, paprika, ginger, saffron, cumin. Let the chicken parts coat in spices.
4. Cut preserved lemons alongside into thin slices. Add to the pan with chicken.

5. Let it cook covered for about 40 minutes (about 30 will do if you use tenderloins) until the meat is tender.
6. Add chopped parsley and cilantro on top of the dish.
Serve with couscous and salads.

Chicken to Impress--Mission Impossible

Part 1

Who serves chicken these days and can impress anyone with the result? Impossible.

Last year, during a visit to London, I had a luck to dine at a three Michelin star restaurant. I read that booking at such a highly recommended place should be made long in advance so I did not really hope to get a table there straight from the street especially on a Saturday night. Even though it was November and the rain was pouring even beyond British tolerance, streets were full of people going out (like me).

It was impossible to catch a taxi so I decided to walk. With some difficulty and guidance from several Indian vendors I found the renowned restaurant I had read about in the restaurant guide. It was located on a tiny one-way street. I walked in just out of sheer curiosity at least to see the interior.

The restaurant did not seem to be full, but in fact it was completely booked. Luckily, the girl who asked if I had the reservation happened to be Polish and, for once, the Polish connection worked for me--someone cancelled at the last moment and the waitress was sweet enough to offer me that place.

I have recently read on Delicious Days that, if we plan to review a restaurant, it is good to sleep over our thoughts, in order to be objective and to calm our emotions. I have slept on my impressions for almost ten months and I believe I am now ready to share them with the world.

I was offered a fixed menu that included a chicken as a main course. I was very happy about that as I have always been curious to find out how the world famous cooks are able to change something so ordinary into a culinary poetry.

Unfortunately, I am sorry to admit, the whole meal was very prosaic and not only for a restaurant rewarded with three Michelin stars but any reputable culinary place. The least interesting part was the chicken itself, or rather the hen. Even if this free-range bird was hand-massaged and volunteered to give up his life to be my dinner, it still was one of the most ordinary, dull, and fibrous poultry I had ever eaten. It had no taste and on top of that it was served with a very bland rice.

I left this restaurant truly disappointed. After this experience I concluded that it was impossible, even for a top culinary institution, to impress anyone by serving chicken for dinner. But...

Part 2

...there was a time in my life, when I first moved to DC, I was brave enough to serve chicken, even at dinner parties. I still think there are in my recipe book at least three chicken dishes that are able to impress many guests. In my opinion, chicken in basil sauce is certainly one of them. It used to be a dish that people asked me about the most. I got it from my friend in Geneva and I think that the recipe could come from England, where she had lived for a couple of years.

I hope it will deserve at least one star in your rating. The taste of this dish comes mainly from the basil sauce. Next time you decide to serve chicken, please try this one and judge for yourself if a humble chicken can impress anyone, or is this mission impossible.

Chicken Breasts in Basil Sauce

Ingredients:
6 chicken breast fillets or 8-10 breast tenderloins,
1/2 cup of fresh breadcrumbs,
1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese,
3 stripes of lean bacon cut into small pieces,
2 tbsp of soft butter,
2 garlic cloves finely chopped,
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce,
1 tsp mustard,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Heat the oven to 375F.
2. Mix butter, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, salt and pepper.
3. Rub breasts in that sauce and arrange in an oven proof dish.
4. Combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and bacon, and sprinkle them over the breasts.
5. Put the the dish in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, for breasts it could be slightly longer than for tenderloins

While meat is baking prepare the green sauce.

Basil Sauce:
1/3 cup olive oil,
1/4 white vinegar,
2 garlic cloves
1 cup fresh basil leaves,
1/3 cup extra heavy whipping cream,
salt pepper to taste.

1. Put all the ingredients in a food blender and puree until obtain a smooth sauce.
2. Transfer the sauce to the pan and heat carefully, until hot. Do not allow it to boil as the basil will change color from green to brownish.
3. Pour over baked breasts and serve.

This dish tastes excellent with roasted baby potatoes or cooked rice.