“Pepper is small in quantity and great in virtue.” -Plato

It’s been a while since I put up a recipe, the last one and a half years seem to have kind of unconsciously brought in a lot of changes – some good, some not so good. Hoping this pandemic will be over soon and we will learn to live with COVID 19 peacefully, accept it as another flu and move on with our lives.

I spend my time in the mornings fulfilling all my orders and seeing that each one goes out perfect from my kitchen. It takes time but I love being busy. It’s upto me to strike a balance between all my activities and still keep time for myself. I’m getting there, slowly prioritising and above all keeping in mind that I have to enjoy whatever I do. That to me is most important.

Coming back to today’s dish, chicken is one protein all of us love. Easily available, easy to clean and so versatile. You can bake, roast, fry, make a curry, whatever.

Pepper chicken, as the name suggests has an overdose of pepper, the one Indian spice at the moment which people are adding to hot water, milk, along with turmeric to build immunity and keep the flu away. Otherwise too, I think it’s a spice visible in every Indian kitchen along with the other Indian spices.

I use this pepper chicken as a filling for a tortilla wrap. It makes a great meal along with some cucumber or onion relish and other accompaniments.

Happy to be sharing this wonderful easy recipe: Hope all of you will try it out and post your comments.

Ingredients:

• Chicken – 1kg
• Ginger garlic paste -1 tbsp
• Pepper powder- 3 tbsp
• Lime juice of 1 lime
• Sliced onion- 2
• Green chillies slit -4-5
• Ginger garlic paste -1 tbsp
• Coriander powder-1 tbsp
• Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
• Pepper powder -2-3 tbsp
• Tomato purée-2 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Any vegetable oil

Method:

• Wash and clean chicken thoroughly.
• Marinate chicken with ginger garlic paste, lime juice, pepper and salt for an hour.
• In a little oil, fry the marinated chicken for a couple of minutes, remove and keep aside.
• In the same oil, fry sliced onions and slit green chillies, add ginger garlic paste, all the spice powders except pepper powder, fry well.
• Add tomato purée. Mix well.
• Add lightly fried chicken and cook on a low flame without adding water.
• Roast till dry. A little oil can be added to prevent the chicken from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• Just before removing, sprinkle pepper powder and fried curry leaves ( fry curry leaves in hot oil till crisp).
• Serve with parathas.

Chefs tips:

• Chicken should not weigh more than a kilo.
• You can add pepper powder as per your taste.
• The chicken pieces should cook in their own juices and no water should be added.
• If you want the dish to be more moist you can add half a cup of hot water and bring it all together just before switching off the flame.
• You can follow this recipe for mutton too. Cook the marinated mutton in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes on sim after the first whistle and then continue with the recipe ( from the fourth step onwards).
• If serving it as a starter, use boneless chicken.
• Serves 6-8 adults.

Till my next post,

Cheers

Rose