Kitchen Experiments:Arabic Chicken

I have taken over the kitchen from Ma this past week but today it was taken over from me by Dad. Today was the long-awaited day we were going to have one of the few dishes in Dad’s repertoire – Arabic Chicken!
Now, I doubt if the Arabs ever cooked chicken in this fashion, but this was the name given to the recipe by Sachin Pilgaonkar (a cinema and TV actor and producer) on a cookery show. More importantly, it was this recipe which spurred my Dad to not only the kitchen, but also to buy chicken and cook it at home. Mind you, till the fateful day Dad cooked this up the first time last year, we were STRICT vegetarians at home. For decades.
So this dish is doubly special – being both Dad’s baby AND the only non-vegetarian dish to be cooked in our kitchen in 30 years!
This is a quick and incredibly easy dish to make - and is fat-free too! Not to mention its fresh, zingy and tasty. So here is a sure-fire successful recipe for all new-and-bumbling cooks:

Arabic Chicken:
Ingredients:
250 gm boneless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes
250 gm onions,
A healthy-sized bunch of fresh (and I mean FRESH) coriander leaves (only the leaves and the tender part of the stems)
A smaller bunch of fresh mint leaves (say 5-6 sprigs)
Salt, pepper and lemon juice, to taste

For the marinade:
2 green chilies, chopped
¼ inch piece of ginger
1 tsp garlic paste or 3-4 cloves peeled garlic, chopped
3-4 sprigs coriander leaves (only the leaves and the tender part of the stems)
Salt to taste

Procedure:
Grind the ingredients of the marinade into a rough paste.
I used the mortar-and-pestle, since the quantity was too tiny to bring out the mixer. (Besides, it’s always fun to use the cool-looking stone M-and-P!)

Mortar and pestle
Rub the paste onto the chicken pieces. Cover and keep it in the fridge for 30 minutes.


Marinated Chicken
Wash and chop (medium-fine) the mint and coriander leaves. Peel and thinly slice the onions.


Take a steel/copper-bottomed saucepan. (About 6-8 inches deep) Line the bottom with a layer of onion slices.


Next, make a layer of half of the marinated chicken pieces.


Sprinkle half the mint over the chicken.


Make a layer of roughly half of the chopped coriander leaves. Sprinkle ¼ tsp of salt all over the leaves.


Repeat all the layers and use up all the chicken, onion and herbs.





Sprinkle the top with some salt and pepper.

Cover with lid and put the pan on the stove, on a low flame.
After 10-12 minutes, remove the lid. The coriander must have sunk a little and turned a darker green. Stir thoroughly. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Cover and cook for another 5-10 minutes (till the chicken is just-cooked)
Add a spritz of lemon, stir and serve piping hot with toast or steamed rice.


You can substitute the chicken with prawns/malai paneer/mushrooms/tofu/boiled potato.
The cooking time will vary according to the ingredient used.
Enjoy!!

P.S.: End the meal on a sweet note with a bite of chocolate. A personal favourite: Twix, with its triple wafer-chocolate-caramel treat! :)