Homemade Fried Chicken inspired by KFC

I never really wrote for myself. Though i loved writing prose from as long as i can remember. Writing a good piece made me happy, but it was never enough. I needed the high from someone else telling me how good it was. And so i never wrote without an audience in mind. Now i sit in front of the computer to update my blog and find that i have lost my audience. (understandably of course, because who waits a year and more to find out what you are up to and what eats interest you) And i realize it really is time for me to write for myself. To get lost in my words, so that they may make me happier than what i am. To find paths through my mind that will excite me, as i walk the same old roads everyday in the physical world. To accept that it's alright to not always have to be proclaimed as the best, just to be the best within your unchangeable circumstances without giving in to despair. I need to put these into written words to believe them, to read again when that despair starts to creep up.

Chicken Burger with minced chicken

I have been a lover of junk food, for as long as I can remember. When instant noodles first came into the market, I had to pester my parents to buy me some. I loved the street side samosas and mirchi bajji in my hometown so much that when I came home from my college hostel during my engineering days, dad would oblige me by bringing these street snacks on his way home from office. And on such days, I would be allowed to have my fill of such deep fried ‘nothing good for you in it’ junk food to the extent of skipping home-made dinner. I haven’t changed.

Indian Chicken curry

When I call this Indian chicken curry, i mean it as opposed to Caribbean or African or Thai etc, because we now know that there is curry in so many different parts of the world. I refrain from giving a region specific name within India, like calling it Andhra Chicken curry, because i am not cooking this from any recipe and would be reluctant to pass it off as an authentic local item just because i hail from there. This rather is the curry i spoke about here, the one i learnt from my husband and the only variety of chicken curry he seems to prefer.

Tandoori spiced chicken legs

My go-to chocolate cake is in the oven as i begin to write this. I needed to do some baking so i could coax myself back to cooking. Back from the short holiday, i have become a reluctant cook. Suddenly i want to be served hot food without having to cook it. Not that i had to start cooking as soon as we came back. I wasn't even asked to cook the day we returned. We went out for lunch and the husband generously bought me my favourite biryani even though it wasn't his favourite. Or maybe it was (t)his pampering that turned me into the reluctant cook. To see how much more pampering i could get away with! Didn't have to wait long to find out. I had to cook lunch yesterday and today but we have plans for Sunday. (We finally booked our tickets to watch the Harry Potter finale in 3D on the largest screen in Hyderabad. I can't wait!) So to get me through the rest of today and tomorrow, i am baking. Somehow baking has always felt like fun. Unlike cooking that can sometimes be a chore, especially when cooking the same curries for lunch repeatedly week after week. And it is not the repetition that i am complaining about, because i can bake the same chocolate cake every week and not get tired of it. Any thoughts on why that is?

I was digressing. Anyway, about the whole reluctant cook thing, last night the husband surprisingly understood my predicament and said he would cook the tandoori chicken legs by himself for dinner, the chef didn't even want a helper. And i think for the first time in two years, i accepted the leave granted and sat in the living room watching the new season of Masterchef Australia.

Since i didn't go into the kitchen, i don't have clicks of the husband's masterpiece from last night, though he repeatedly told me what delicious juicy chicken he had prepared. The pictures you see here are from a few weeks ago. And i was so hungry at that time, i could not bring myself to get an extra clean plate for the final pic. Excuse the laziness, please.

Lemon and Herb Grilled Chicken Breasts

Chicken happens to be our favourite non vegetarian item. Lamb, fish, shrimp and squid are only occasional boredom busters. Most Indians i know (at least those living in India) only cook chicken into different curries to be eaten as a side dish with rice or rotis. Almost never as the main dish to be eaten with a side salad or vegetables. I was like that too until a year ago. But because we like chicken so much, we are always looking for new ways to cook it. Our current favourite is the soy grilled variety, that's how most of the chicken breasts that gets into our fridge finally end up on the table these days.

One day i was watching the food programme Gourmet Central on ndtv goodtimes channel where the chef Vicky Ratnani made a herb marinade. All i remembered about it later was that it was green, and had coriander, mint and lemon it. Then i made up my version in a week to experiment on chicken. And you get to see my recipe here. Oh, i forgot to tell you that i really enjoyed the chicken, although if i have to be honest, soy grilled might still be the favourite.

Chicken fajita with grilled bell peppers

I had lived outside India in the developed countries of the world for more than two years during those single and carefree days and probably cooked chicken 5 times or even less. And once married i found out that my husband cooked chicken 500 times or something - more often than any other food cooked during his bachelor years in America. This meant that he considered himself a better cook than me - definitely for cooking his favourite chicken curry - and insisted on teaching me. 

The shy bride and ever humble student that i was, i meekly complied. What this means today is that i have totally unlearnt my way of cooking chicken curry (i faintly remember there used to be a yogurt based marinade) and have learned his way (with no diary based products in any cooking. But, of course we eat cheese. Who doesn't eat cheese!?). By the time i had mastered 'his chicken curry', - and was going to get all smug about it - he had come up with suggestions for experimenting with more chicken recipes - different kinds of marinades, and different cuts of chicken and the types of veggies that go well with chicken. This turned out to be one of those successful dinner ideas.

As promised in my previous post, here's another chicken dish that is now a regular in my home. We have it once a week or definitely once within a fortnight. Give it a try with your own variations and find out what works for you.

Spicy Baked Chicken Wings

As a kid all the home-made chicken i ate was in curry form, mixed with rice - once a week on Sunday. Never chicken as a snack. Growing up, we weren't allowed to eat outside food. Anything i craved for, mom wood come up with a home-made version! Anything that couldn't be made at home in our small Indian city at that time wasn't really good for you anyway - that was how our requests were turned down for pizza, burgers, fried chicken and the likes. 

 Would you believe that the first restaurant meal we had as a family, parents and kid sister, was after i got my first job and my family came to visit me in the new city i had relocated to. We went to this restaurant and had an expensive meal and i was so happy i brought them there. You 'd probably guess what mom's reaction was at the end of it. "I could have made that at home - better". Of course i wouldn't argue with that, she really was an excellent cook. She raised two kids on home food for 20 years and that's no easy task.

And then i married a man who loves chicken in all forms and cannot live without it for more than a day (being a traditional Hindu family, we become vegetarians on festival days). You can only eat the same chicken curry regularly for so long and you can only eat out so many times a week without hurting the pocket. So began our experiments in the kitchen for spicy chicken wings (and other kinds of chicken i will talk about in later posts).

You can fry the chicken wings in oil or bake them with equally good results. The taste comes from the sauce, which we have now perfected after many trials and errors. We like it on the spicy side and we bake the wings to reduce the amount of oil required. So here's our recipe for spicy baked chicken wings.