Our experiments with the Kitchen: August 2014

This is a kabab that children will love since they are not very spicy and has a mild flavor. Made the right way, they will be soft and succulent with the mild flavours of nutmeg, cardamom, cheese and cream. Green chilly paste, pepper powder gives it a bit of spicy bite. I made it in two batches today. Once for lunch and once again for dinner. The above two pictures are from the lunch and the bottom pictures from the dinner.

Ingredients for the first marinade

500 gm boneless chicken pieces cut into bite sized pieces which are not thicker than ½ cm. Use chicken breasts since they are easily available. If you are using breast pieces make sure not to overcook them since they tend to become quite hard and non-moist if you overcook them. By experience you will know how long to cook them.
A pinch (¼ teaspoon) of nutmeg powder
Salt as per taste
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp of green chilly paste (reduce/increase the quantity depending on how spice you want this to be)
1 tsp of white pepper powder (use black pepper powder if you do not have white pepper powder and also adjust the quantity as per your taste)

Ingredients for the second marinade

1 cup of grated processed white cheese (you can use cubes of Amul processed cheese). You can use any other cheese if you like something else. But use something that has a more or less neutral or mild flavour
¾ cup of fresh thick cream
2 tbsp of corn flour
A pinch of green cardamom powder (use the powder of 3-4 green cardamoms)

Method

Marinate the chicken pieces using the first marinade for about 20 minutes.
After this mix together all the ingredients of the second marinade and marinate the chicken pieces for 3-4 hours in the refrigerator
Preheat the oven for 10 min at 200 degree Celsius
Put the chicken pieces on to skewers. If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in water for about 30 min before using them
Place the skewers on a greased (use a bit of oil for this) baking tray and bake them for about 15 min at 180 – 200 degree Celsius. Check for the pieces once in a while. Depending on the size and thickness of the chicken pieces they may get cooked faster or could take more time.
You can baste the chicken pieces with the leftover marinade occasionally while you are cooking them.
Serve hot with green coriander/curd chutney and a salad of thinly sliced onions dressed with lime juice.

If you have access to a coal barbecue set, use that and you will get an even better flavor and look with slightly browned or singed edges and it will also cook much faster. While using an oven, you may not get the browned or singed edges and do not keep cooking until you get them since that will overcook the kababs and they will no longer be tender or juicy.