Methi Chicken - Winter Special

First, I have an important announcement. Lately, I got pretty caught up in some professional and personal affairs. Even though I have been cooking regularly in this period, I could not find time to keep up with the posts. Hence the long break.

To avoid such a thing in the future, I had to come up with a strategy and make some ego-less decisions. So what I have decided - at least for the time being - is to cut-short my immediate ambitions and bring my efforts in terms of time spent on the posts to the minimum, without compromising on the value of communicating the main idea about the cooks.

My typical process of coming up with a cook is to first refer to 2-3 popular recipes about what I wish to cook and then either mix and match according to what would make sense in my head or take one of those recipes and apply some modifications to it. Sometimes I do both of these things - mix and match and also do some of my own modifications.

So, moving forward, instead of writing long recipes with all ingredients and measurements - most of which are taken from the referred recipes anyway, I will only share the main idea of what I did differently from the recipes that I referred to. I will also be sharing links/info/credits about these references so that you can see the ingredients and get an idea about measurements. I don't see the point of re-writing what is already written by many other accomplished cooks.

Also, I think it is more beneficial and time saving for cooks who already know the basics of cooking and are looking to do experimentation and come up with something new.

With that said, let us bring our focus to today's cook and the Idea there-off.

Methi Chicken - Winter Special

The Idea in brief:

I referred to two different recipes for this cook. Both are from the very famous YouTube channel called Get Curried. The first recipe was from Chef Smita Deo and the other from Chef Varun Inamdar. Look them up on YouTube, and you will find them very easily. Both are quite popular videos. I have also shared the links to the videos below.

It was interesting to me how these two recipes were quite different from each other in terms of when and how to add the hero ingredient - Methi. While I liked the simplicity of Chef Varun Inamdar's version, the idea of pre-frying Methi, before adding it to the pot appealed to me from Chef Smita Deo's. So in my version, I decided to adopt these two recipes accordingly. However, as is often customary for me, I did a few modifications of my own. 1. I marinated my chicken in a mix of curd and powdered spices (Chilli powder, Haldi, Garam Masala, Salt, and some Dhaniya Powder - The usual suspects). 2. I added 1/3rd cup of Red Wine (I used Zinfandel) to add acidity and some complexity.

So, here is how it goes:

Fry Methi until it is deep green (almost black but not quite). Keep it aside for later.

Start making Chicken curry like a typical curry. Add Jira, fry Onions until golden brown, add Bay Leaf, add Whole Red Chillies, add Ginger, add Garlic and cook for a little bit.

Then, add Tomatoes, add Green Chillies, and Salt (be mindful of the fact that your marination also has Salt). Cook until everything comes nicely together and the Oil has separated. Pretty standard stuff so far.

Now add the pre-fried Methi. Mix in well. Add Chicken. Cook it by continuously tossing around in the Methi Masala mix until it changes color to white.

Optional step - Add 1/3rd cup of Red Wine. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add water.

Cook covered for 20-25 minutes on the lowest heat setting.

At the end of 20 minutes, if the consistency of the curry is not to your liking, then remove the Chicken out from the pot and adjust the curry by adding more water if it is too thick and reducing it down if it is too thin. In my experience, if you cook Chicken for any longer than 10 minutes of initial roasting (the color-changing phase) and 20-25 minutes of braising (the slow simmering stage), it will overcook, and won't taste as tender and succulent as it should. That is why it is important to take the Chicken out if your curry consistency needs adjusting beyond standard cooking time.

This came out really good. Happy Cooking, guys!

Recipe 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA27nubeY1A

Recipe 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKZwOZde_Uc

Methi Chicken - Winter Special