Returned home after having a great holiday only to discover that my laptop had developed some snag, resulting in delay in writing my next post. Here I am, back, with a simple yet delicious peppery fried chicken.
After being on a diet of a variety of cheese, bread, chicken salami & sausages and pizzas (which actually was fun initially), during our holiday to Europe, our Indian palate was screaming for some thing more flavoursome and definitely something spicy!! In fact, my daughter was craving for a simple plate of rice and dal J…poor thing! I thought of complimenting the rice and dal with a dry preparation of chicken. Though, as a habit, I normally marinate the chicken before I cook it so as to tenderise it and also to infuse those flavours deep within. But this dish is an exception. Here I just clean, wash and pat dry the chicken before I fry it. Since it is fried so I do not make this chicken very often though I must admit that its peppery flavours are somewhat addictive J
I serve the chicken with a cooling salad of cucumber and onions. For the salad, I sprinkled some salt and lemon juice over the cucumber and onions and let them rest for 10-15 minutes before serving. Though you can omit onions but we Indians love our onions especially with the non-vegetarian dishes. They help perk up the flavours of the non-veg dishes besides the fact that they are ideal to be consumed during the hot Indian summers as they apparently help prevent sun stroke! The crunchy and cool cucumber provides a perfect balance against the peppery chicken. This can be served as a starter or as a side dish.
Although ingredients are very few, the procedure is simple yet the end result is interestingly amazing J
I emphatically recommend it…a must try!!
850 grams / 1 medium sized Chicken (cut in small to medium sized pieces)
2 tbsp Butter
3 – 4 tbsp Oil
2 tsp Pepper, coarsely ground (adjust the amount to suit your taste)
3/4 C cups Water
Salt to taste
Wash the chicken and remove excess fat.
Drain the chicken to remove excess water and then pat it dry.
Heat the oil and butter in a wok.
Reduce the heat to medium and carefully add a few chicken pieces.
Cover the wok with the lid and fry the chicken turning the pieces once a while to prevent them from burning. (I have suggested covering the wok because the chicken will splatter hot oil while frying)
Fry till the chicken is cooked and turns golden brown.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the fried chicken on an absorbent sheet or kitchen towel.
Fry the entire chicken in batches in similar manner.
Once done, remove the oil from the wok. Place the wok again on heat and add water, salt and pepper. Bring the water to a boil and immediately add the chicken pieces to it.
Cook the chicken till the water reduces and the chicken is coated well with pepper.
Serve hot! Enjoy!
Note: Keep just a wee bit of liquid in the chicken so that it remains moist/ juicy. Note: If at any point you feel that the oil is not sufficient, add a few tablespoons to fry the chicken. Note: The chicken can be fried ahead and all you need to do is cook it in water before you intend to serve.
Serves 4 – 6
