Crusty Chicken with tossed salad and dry mushroom sauce

 

 

All of us like variety in our food and we get excited to walk into a plush restaurant and eat something exotic and different. But that is just a 'once in a blue moon' experience. I like creating exotic, gourmet dishes in my own kitchen and serving it in an appetizing way!

 

You will be surprised to see how you can whip up a good-looking dish, with just few ingredients in a jiffy!

 

 

There are recipes of crusted chicken wherein you dip the chicken in a batter, roll it in crushed cornflakes and deep fry it to perfection; this also gives us a feel of KFC at home. But, my crusty chicken is different- easy, light and quite healthy too.

 

 

 

Serves: Individual platters with 1 chicken fillet per person.

 

Ingredients:

 

For the chicken:

 

Chicken breast fillet (boneless and skinless)    1 fillet

Melted butter/margarine/olive oil                     1/2 cup

Garlic (paste/minced/grated)                             1 tbsp

Salt                                                                    to taste

Crushed black pepper                                        1/2 tsp

Oil                                                                   few tbsps

Readymade potato chips (unflavoured)        1 small packet  

Note- Yes, you read it correctly. This chicken recipe requires regular potato chips/wafers we buy in the supermarkets.

 

 

 

 

For the mushroom sauce:

Oil                                                             few drops

Fresh mushrooms                                      3-4 nos

Butter                                                        1 tsp

Lemon juice                                              1/4 tsp

Salt                                                           a pinch

Crushed black pepper                              a pinch  

 

For the tossed salad:

Lettuce leaves (any variety or mixed)    as required

Extra Virgin Olive oil                            3 tbsps

Lemon juice                                           1 tbsp

Salt                                                        half a pinch

 

 

Method:

• Crush the potato chips pretty finely. Use a food processor or open the packet of chips and bash the packet with a rolling pin. Two bashes and you will have finely powdered chips. (This is my 'stress-buster' method!)

• Wash the chicken fillet and pat it dry. If the fillet is too thick, flatten it using a mallet, kitchen hammer (also called meat tenderiser) or rolling pin. Be gentle.

• Using a sharp knife, very gently, make slits or incisions on the fillet. Season with salt and pepper. Keep in mind that the potato chips also contains salt. I did not add any salt to my chicken fillet. Alternatively, if you want to serve the chicken as an appetizer for a cocktail party, cut the fillet into cubes/chunks or even into strips.
• In a separate, flat bowl, take the melted butter and add the garlic to it. Mix it well.
• Next, immerse the chicken fillet into the melted butter so that the butter coats the chicken completely.

 

Note- If you are apprehensive with the idea of dunking your chicken into butter or face health restrictions, just omit the butter and use buttermilk instead. Buttermilk works wonderfully well with meats and chicken and it also keep it tender and moist, especially the breast piece of chicken which otherwise tends to get a bit dry after cooking. Alternatively, you can also use a combination of butter and buttermilk. Whatever you choose, do not forget the garlic.. lots of it!

• Next, coat this chicken with the crushed potato chips and make sure the fillet is well coated. Press the chips onto the fillet so it sticks well.

• In a pan, heat few tbsps of oil and fry the chicken fillet on low heat till you get a golden colour on the crust. Each side will take 4-5 minutes on low heat. Turn off gas and keep the chicken aside.

• In the meanwhile, take another pan and heat 1-2 tbsps of oil, saute the sliced mushrooms without covering the lid and without adding water. Do not overcrowd the pan otherwise the mushrooms will lose its shape and will shrink and become cranky.

• Once the mushrooms have cooked slightly and released some of its liquid, add the butter, salt and pepper. If you think it is dry and want it more saucy, add little water and cook it.

• Finish it with a light squeeze of lemon juice.

• For the salad- in a bowl, just toss in all the ingredients.

• To plate it up- place the chicken fillet onto the plate, slightly spoon the mushroom sauce on the side and serve with the salad. Alternatively, you can also cut the chicken into strips and serve.

 

 

 

 

Happy Cookin' & Keep it stylish!!

 

 

 

 





Mutton Cutlets- served with stir fried snow-peas and a shot of tambuli!

Before you get intimated by the name of this dish, relax! This dish is no rocket science, just my way of presenting a couple of simple dishes together as a gourmet platter and getting a little bit of style and variety onto your plates.

The day I put this dish together, my mom had prepared delicious 'tambuli' using 'sambrani leaves', plucked fresh from our tiny garden in the balcony. 'Tambuli' is basically like cocum or sol kadi and it is quite popular in Mangalore, Karnataka (that is where I come from).

Traditionally, 'tambuli' is supposed to be eaten with hot, steaming rice. But I like it more as a drink- it is refreshing, healthy and activates my taste buds. Now, coming back to the inception of this dish- mom had prepared tambuli and I do not prefer eating it with rice. Moreover, I was in mood for some light, yummy gourmet style food- the result of which, is this dish.

 

 

I served the tambuli in a shot glass, just to make it look elegant on the platter. It complimented my juicy mutton cutlets very well and some snow-peas on the side- adding greenery to the plate and healthy too!

 

Let us get to the recipe of each component now.

 

Serves: This platter is one portion. If you wish to serve it like I have, make the number of platters according to your guests. Individually served, this recipe serves 2-3 persons.

 

Ingredients for mutton cutlets:

 

Mutton mince                          1 cup

Onion (medium size)              1 nos.

Potato (medium size)              1 nos.

Bread slices (crust removed)  1-2 slices

Green chilli                             1-2 nos.

Ginger                                     1 inch piece

Garlic (big cloves)                  4-5 cloves

Coriander Leaves                    half a bunch

Salt                                          to taste

Crushed black pepper             1 tsp

Red chilli powder                   1/2 tsp

Cumin (jeera) powder            1/4 tsp

Oil                                          4 tbsps + for shallow frying

 

 

 

Method:

• Boil, peel and mash the potatoes. Keep aside in a mixing bowl.

• Finely chop the onions.

• Using a small grater/food processor, mince the ginger, garlic and green chillies to a fine paste.

• Heat 4 tbsps of oil in a pan or skillet and sauté the chopped onions until they turn pink (translucent/transparent).  

• Add the minced ginger-garlic-green chilli paste and fry for a minute.

• Add the (washed) mutton mince and stir on medium heat.

• The mince will start releasing its own water and juices. Add a bit of salt and keep stirring.

 

• In the meanwhile when the mutton mince is cooking and the water is drying up, take the mashed potatoes in the mixing bowl and add cruched black pepper and a pinch of salt to it.

• Next, take the bread slices (sides removed) and moisten it with little water. Squeeze all the water off by pressing the bread slices in between your palms and add this to the potato. The bread slices will help in binding the cutlets.

• Now, to the cooking mutton mince, add the red chilli and cumin powder and mix well. Make sure that the liquid is completely dried up before turning off the gas.

• Allow the cooked mince mixture to cool a bit. Add this mince to the potato and bread mixture.

• Add finely chopped coriander leaves.

Note- At this stage you can add one egg white to the mixture which will aid in binding. But I made these cutlets without the egg and it turned out perfect. Though I do make another version of cutlets with egg white in it also. But make sure you use only the egg white and not the yolk because that will make the oil in which you fry the cutlets foamy and will also give an eggy odour.

 

• Mix all this with a fork. Once the mixture has cooled, use your clean hands to mix it well and bring it all together.

 

• The mixture will come together like a ball.

• Now take a bit of mixture and shape it into round cutlets. You can even make it a bit oblong shaped or oval shaped.

• Form all the cutlets. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate it for atleast half an hour before frying. This will make the cutlets firm and easier to fry.

• Heat a little oil in a pan, enough for shallow fryng. Place the culets slowly into the oil in a single layer. Make sure you do not over-crowd the pan and fry the cutlets in batches.

• Once it has fried on one side, gently flip it over and fry for 2-3 minutes on the other side.

• Drain it on kitchen tissue.

 

For the tambuli you need:

 

Whole cumin seeds             3/4th tsp

Green chilli                         1 nos.

Sambrani leaves                  10-12 leaves

Grated fresh coconut           1/2 cup

Curd (thick)                         1/2 cup

Salt                                      to taste

 

For tempering the tambuli (tadka):

 

Oil                                       2-3 tbsps

Whole dry red chilli            1 nos.

Urad dal                               1/4 tsp

Mustard seeds                      1/4 tsp

Curry leaves                        7-8 leaves

• Dry roast (without oil) whole cumin seeds, green chilli. Add the sambrani leaves. When it starts leaving water, add grated coconut and roast everything together.

• Transfer this to a blender. Add curd and salt to taste and gring everything well to a smooth paste.

• Prepare the tadka by heating oil in a pan, crackle the mustard seeds. Add urad dal and dry red chilli and at the end add the curry leaves.

• Pour this tadka over the prepared tambuli.

• Serve hot, at room temperature or cold.

Alternatively, you can substitute the sambrani leaves with curry leaves. Just follow the same procedure as above, but use 1/2 cup of curry leaves instead of sambrani leaves while roasting.

 

For the stir fry snow-peas:

• Boil water in a vessel. Put some salt into the boiling water. Add the snow-peas and boil for only 1-2 minutes until tender.Drain the water and immediately immerse the snow-peas in cold water to retain the color. This technique is also called 'blanching.'

• In a pan, put only 2 drops of oil and once the pan is hot, take out the snow-peas from the water and toss it in the hot pan. Sprinkle a little salt and black pepper powder and toss it for another 2 minutes.

 

Tweaking Tips:

• You do not have to serve this platter as it is. Try out the individual recipes. The tambuli can be had with rice; the mutton cutlets as a starter or side dish and the stir fry vegetable as a bowl of greens by the side to add balance and flavour to your meal.

• If you do not have snow-peas or it isn't available, try the same stir fry using fresh brocolli, spinach, green beans or any vegetable of your choice that is full of flavour even if eaten on its own. Follow the procedure as above for any vegetable you choose.

• The tambuli can be substituted by serving a shot of rasam, cocum kadi or even a simple mint lassi by the side.

• Mutton mince can be substituted with chicken mince or even tinned tuna. For a vegetarian version, use some mashed paneer.

• If the mixture feels a little loose or wet, just break in one egg white (use only the white for binding as using the whole egg will make the cutlets eggy and will also make the oil in which you are frying foamy). If you do not want to add egg, use few tbsps of plain flour (maida).

 

 

Happy cookin' & keep it stylish!!