Saturday, April 30, 2016

General Tso's Chicken

General Raheel Sharif our very own Chief of Army Staff. Amazing man, loved by many people. He's loved so much that people even thank him if something randomly goes right in their lives.

Still we don't love him as much as the Chinese loved their General Tso Tsung-t'ang that they named a recipe after him called General Tso's Chicken. Though there is no record of this actually being his favorite recipe or not but it originated from his home town and now is one of the favorite American-Chinese dine-in/take-out recipes of all time.


Now to make this recipe you need to make a chili paste which is totally worth it and you can use it in many other recipes as well.

For this chili paste you need 50 dried chilis, 1 cup boiled water, 4 garlic cloves, 1 inch long ginger piece, 1 teaspoon salt, 4 tablespoons white vinegar and 4 tablespoons oil.


Soak the chilies in the water for 30 minutes. Drain the water out of the soaked chilies.


Grind them with 4 tablespoons of vinegar.

Grind garlic cloves and ginger as well.


Put grind chili paste, ground ginger and garlic in non stick pan.

Add 4 tablespoons of oil, salt and cook it on medium heat for 2 minutes.

Chili paste is done and you can store it in a jar.



Now the chili paste is made we can start the recipe.

Ingredients For Chicken Marinade:

500 grams boneless chicken cut into 1 inch bite sized cubes

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Ingredients For Chicken Batter:

1 egg

1/4 cup cornflour

Ingredients For Sauce:

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons of chili garlic sauce

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

3 tablespoons of vinegar

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of cornflour

Ingredients For Stir Fry:

4 cloves of garlic finely chopped

4-5 dried red chilies

2 tablespoons of chili paste

2 tablespoons of oil


First of we will marinade the chicken in salt, pepper, baking soda and sesame oil.

Set aside the chicken for 15-30 minutes.


Meanwhile the chicken is marinating we will make the sauce.

In a bowl add sugar, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, vinegar, chicken stock and cornflour.

Mix it properly.




Now its time to prepare the chicken batter.

For this we will add one egg in the chicken marinade and then add cornflour.

Mix it properly with preferably you clean beautiful hands.



Heat 1 inch deep oil in your non stick pan on medium low heat.

Start cooking the chicken in batches.

It took me two batches to done with my chicken.

Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side and take out the chicken on a paper-toweled plate.


If you want extra crisp on your chicken you need to let it cool down and then fry it in the heating oil once more for 1 to 2 minutes.


Time to prepare the sauce but before we need to stir fry chopped garlic, dried red chilies and chili paste you made for this beautiful recipe in 2 tablespoons of oil.

Stir fry them for 1 minutes and then add the sauce mix.

(before adding the sauce mix give it a good mix as the sugar and cornflour would be set below.

Cook the sauce for 1 to two minutes and add the chicken.

Stir in the chicken for 30 seconds and take it off the heat.

General Tso's chicken is ready to serve.




You can eat it with noodles but I always love stir fried meats in sauce with vegetable fried rice. So, I made myself some.


It's sweet and spicy at the same time blended together in a unique way. It's none other than General Tso's Chicken. Thank you Raheel Sharif for my cooking skills.


Don't forget to comment and tell me how much all of you love me.


Saturday, April 23, 2016

Chicken Malai Handi

Cooking in summers is directly proportional to living in hell. It's like the devil is standing there and laughing at you like he is waiting for your arrival in hell but hats off to the mothers, the sisters and the wives who do this every day. I KNOW YOUR PAIN and very deeply tbh.

With this thought and sentiment I would like to give you another installment of a very quick yet a very delicious recipe.


I have taken this recipe from a blog called The Spice Tales http://thespicetales.blogspot.com/ which is run by Urooba Malik one of the kindest people I have ever come across. Thank you Urooba for such a wonderful, easy and quick recipe.

This recipe is called 'Chicken Malai Handi' and is no doubt one of the best boneless chicken handis I have ever tasted. The original recipe link is - http://thespicetales.blogspot.com/2016/03/desi-all-way.html

Ingredients:

1 kg boneless chicken breast cut into 1-1.5 inch bite sized chunks

15 cashews

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1 tablespoon garlic paste

5 tablespoon cream

1 cup yogurt

50 grams butter

1/4 cup water



The process is very simple.

Need to prepare the marinade for the chicken.

For that we will grind the cashew nuts and sesame seeds in to a fine powder.


Now in a bowl add yogurt, cream, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt, black pepper and grounded sesame seeds + cashew nuts.

Mix it up until everything is properly infused in each other like two lovers become one. NO THERE IS NOTHING LIKE LOVE.




Add the chicken in it and marinate it for at least 2 hours.


After the chicken is marinated. Melt the butter in a non stick pan and add the chicken with all teh marinade in it along the water.


Let it cook on medium low heat for 10 minutes while covered.


Uncover it and cook it for 10 more minutes on medium heat.

Chicken Malai Handi is ready to serve.


Garnish it with chopped coriander and green chilies. Best with roghani na'an, roti or paratha, I even had it with a little mutton biryani I made yesterday and it was amazing.

Ladies and gentlemen take a dive with me in this creamy dish called Chicken Malai Handi.


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