Tandoori Chicken

I needed something Asian or Spicy to go with a couple bottles of Gewurztraminer wine.

My original thought was to make my Spicy Curried Potato Pockets. Then at the last minute I decided I wanted to invite friends over for wine tasting and make an Indian dinner.

That's when I thought of Tandoori Chicken.

Yay! I had a plan! Start with Spicy Curried Potato Pockets... then Tandoori Chicken. I also decided to make a Sweet Coconut Curried Rice to balance out some of the heat.

Until I made it, I'd never actually tried Tandoori Chicken.

I'm not totally sure if this tasted right but it was wicked good!

After looking at a bunch of recipes on line, I put this together based on my spice likes.



Tandoori Chicken
4# chicken breasts & thighs, boneless/skinless cut into serving sized pieces
1.5 C plain yogurt
1 medium onion diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBLS lemon juice
2 TBLS ginger root, grated
2 tsp garam masala
1 TBLS ground cumin
1 TBLS paprika (I used smoked, since I didn't plan to grill... but ended up grilling anyway)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp salt
several grinds of black pepper

Combine all ingredients other than chicken until mixed well... add chicken mix until all pieces are well coated.... refrigerate overnight (or at least several hours)

Grill over medium coals until chicken is cooked through.


Sweet Coconut Curry Rice
2 C jasmine rice
1 can light coconut milk
chicken stock (enough to make 4.5 cups when added to the coconut milk)
1.5 tsp sweet curry powder
a sprinkle of ground cardamom

Combine in rice cooker and cook according to rice cooker directions.

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The night before...

For the Tandoori Chicken, mix together everything except the chicken.


When that's well mixed, add chicken pieces.


Be sure that all pieces are well coated and refrigerate at least several hours, preferably closer to 24 hours.

I just used a plastic storage bag.


Fast forward to the next day... turns out no one could make it for dinner...

It was a last minute invitation, so that's ok. You'll see what I did with the leftovers further down!

I was originally going to do this in the oven, since I don't have a tandoor... but most recipes I looked at advised grilling over roasting.

It was a gorgeous 70 degree November day... so I asked Jon to fire up the grill for me!



Grill until chicken is cooked through.






Before I started grilling, I started the rice in the kitchen. I love using a rice cooker. Set it and you're done!



Add a nice scoop of rice and it's dinner time!!


This was perfect with the Gewurztraminer I picked for this month's wine tasting!

I'll be posting about the wine tasting tomorrow!

Dinner really was awesome. But we did have a lot of leftovers.

What to do with leftover chicken & rice?

Wraps of course!!

I mixed up a Spicy Curry Mayo...

Mix light mayo w/hot curry powder to taste (better if it can sit for 15 minutes for flavors to blend)



Nuke a flour tortilla for a few seconds to make it nice an pliable...


A good schmear of Curry Mayo...


Some shredded lettuce...


Some reheated Sweet Coconut Curry Rice...


Some reheated, sliced grilled Tandoori Chicken...


Then just roll it up and eat it!!


As awesome as this was for dinner the first night... as a leftover wrap it was totally AMAZING!!

I really LOVED it and would happily have spent $6 - $8 bucks on it from a Sandwich Shop.

So that's it!

Stay tuned for Wine Tasting!

Light Chicken Biryani & My Garden

Pretty much everyone at my house could stand to lighten up a bit.

I don't mind eating light. But I refuse to skimp on flavor!

While looking for flavorful, light recipes containing chicken breast, I stumbled across this recipe from Cooking Light. It's BURSTING with flavor! I couldn't wait to try it! I tweaked it a bit and came up with this.



Light Chicken Biryani
1 1/2 C jasmine rice, uncooked
2 1/4 C water
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp saffron, crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 1/2 pounds skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tsp salt (yup another one...)
1 TBLS olive oil
1 1/2 C onion, diced
4 tsp hot curry powder
1 tsp cardamom
1 1/2 tsp ginger root, grated
3 garlic cloves, grated
3 serrano chiles, seeded and minced
2 C plain yogurt (do not use non-fat)
1 C golden seedless raisins
1 C dry-roasted cashews, chopped
1/2 C fresh cilantro

In a rice cooker, combine jasmine rice, water, 1 tsp salt, saffron and cinnamon stick. Cook according to rice cooker directions.

Season chicken with 1/2 tsp salt and saute in olive oil. When lightly browned, remove from pan and keep warm.

Add onion, 1/2 tsp salt, hot curry powder, cardamom, ginger, garlic and serranos to pan and saute until tender.

Add yogurt and whisk until well combined. Add chicken and raisins. Cook until heated through.

Remove cinnamon stick from rice and discard. Stir rice into chicken mixture until well combined.

Sprinkle with cashews and cilantro.

Makes 8 hearty satisfying 1 cup servings.

Enjoy!

Per Serving:
Calories:447.1
Fat: 11.9g
Carbohydrates: 58.3g
Protein: 28.4g

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In a rice cooker, combine jasmine rice, water, 1 tsp salt, saffron and cinnamon stick. Cook according to rice cooker directions.


Season chicken with 1/2 tsp salt and saute in olive oil.
When lightly browned, remove from pan and keep warm.


Add onion, 1/2 tsp salt, hot curry powder, cardamom, ginger, garlic and serranos to pan and saute until tender.


Stand back! The fumes of the chiles are very strong!


Add yogurt and whisk until well combined.


If you look closely you can see that my yogurt broke down.


I used low-fat yogurt. And the dish tasted fine.

But next time, I think I'll use full fat yogurt.
It should be creamy with full fat... and there aren't a ton of calories in yogurt, so this would still totally be a low fat dinner.

Definitely don't use NON fat yogurt.

Ok... back to cooking!

Add the chicken & raisins to the sauce.




Remove the cinnamon stick from your rice.
(the rice smelled amazing while it was cooking!!)


Stir the rice into the pan with the chicken.

I didn't use a big enough skillet, so I had to move everything to a pot.


Garnish with chopped cashews & cilantro leaves and enjoy!!




Now I've never tasted Chicken Biryani, so I don't know how this stands up to the full fat, baked, made with ghee version.

But it was really good and I will be making it again.

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And for a garden update!

Just for a refresher...

Here's the previous picture of my Grape Tomato Plants.


This is them this morning.


They've been moved to their summer home (against my house, instead of the back wall)

Oh yeah...

My snack bar is getting ready to open!


Very few Grape Tomatoes actually make it into the house.

I just eat them every time I walk by!

Along the back wall, I had originally intended to just put pots of something cheap and green. Well... green stuff isn't necessarily cheap.

I ended up putting alternating pots of Celosia and Petaluna.


I'm not super thrilled with it. Maybe once they start blooming I'll like it better.
I'll just have to wait and see.

To the left of the Celosia & Petaluna, I planted some seeds.
Mustard in the round one and Cilantro in the long one.


Back row is:
Grape Tomato, Poblano Chile, Jalapeno Chile, Habanero Chile, Thai Chile.

Front row is:
Dahlias, Begonias, Petunias, Celosia, Petunias

Two pots of Jasmine in the back.

In the front: Melampodium (Butter Daisy... I had to look up Melampodium), Begonias, Celosia & Petunias

My herb garden pic has a weird sun angle and is hard to see... I'll post a better pic next time.


Another funky sun pic... Caladium


I've never grown it, but when Jon pointed it out... I LOVED it!

Gerber Daisies


Little Yellow Roses (I've never grown these either)


Looking toward the door.


Looking toward the street.


We melted a hole in Lil Pete's pot!! He got too close to the grill! Oops!

Well... that's it for today!

Thanks for stopping by!!