Chicken wings and rice with basil, thyme and honey

Ingredients:

1. Chicken breast quarters : 2 (~500 g)
2. Vinegar : 4 tblsp
3. Pepper corns: 6-10 (finely crushed)
4. Dry basil: 1 tbsp
5. Dry thyme: 1 tbsp
6. Honey: 2 tbsp
7. Oil/fat: 2 tbsp
8. Rice: 100 g

Procedure:

1. Boil a mixture of water and salt in a deep pot. Put the chicken into the boiling water so that it is entirely submerged. Take it off heat and let cool down for 10 minutes.
2. Drain the water. Marinate the chicken with the vinegar, pepper corns, basil and thyme for 10 minutes or longer.
3. Heat oil in a pan. Put the chicken (keeping the marinade with the juices aside) into it and cover. Cook for 1-2 minutes at high heat. Flip it and cook for another 1-2 minutes. 
4. Reduce heat to below boiling point (~90 degrees Celsius), add two cups of water and cook for at low until chicken is done (~20 minutes). Flip the chicken pieces midway.
5. Remove the chicken pieces and season them with honey and then pour a few tablespoonfuls of the juices over them. Now rinse the marinade with 1/2 cup water and add it to leftover juices in the pot. Add the rice. Add more water if necessary and bring to boil. Cook until rice is done.
6. Serve the chicken with the rice. 

Boiled chicken with mashed potatoes

This was another accidental creation. I was in the middle of boiling some potatoes when a power-cut made me abandon them for the time. Later in an attempt to use those half-cooked potatoes I bought some chicken and made up the following:

Ingredients:

Chicken: 1/2 kg (with bones) cut into large (~3"x3"x1") pieces.
Coriander leaves with stem: 50 g
Cumin seeds: 3/4 tsp
Salt: 3/4 tbsp or according to taste
Potatoes: 3 medium sized
Butter/ghee: 2 tbsp


Procedure:

1. Clean the coriander leaves and separate the leaves from the stem.
2. Peel and chop the potatoes into thin pieces (the thinner they are, the faster they get cooked)
3. Add 1 tbsp butter/ghee and 3/4 tbsp salt to the chicken and mix well.
4. Add 5 cups of water and cook in low heat with lid on for 1/2 an hour (until the chicken is cooked). I used the "soup" mode of my induction cooker. Add the coriander stems and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds halfway through the cooking.
5. Remove the chicken pieces and add the potatoes and keep boiling at low heat until soft. The stock should have almost dried up by now
6. Heat up 1 tbsp butter and add the rest of the cumin seeds. 
7. Add the boiled potatoes along with the stock and mash them up with a ladle. 
8. When it dries up, crush the coriander leaves and mix them with the potatoes (you may want to use a small fraction of the leaves to avoid too strong a smell). You can also add some chopped green chili.

PS: I expect you won't have half-cooked potatoes, so I guess you can cook them entirely in the stock.

Murg malaikari (chicken curry with coconut milk)

This dish can be called "niraamish"[1] in a sense because it is cooked without onions or garlic.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken - 1 kg
2. Potatoes - 250 g 
3. Coconut milk - 1 cup
4. Ginger - 2" stick (made into paste)
5. Green chili - 4 (slit into two halves)
6. Dried red chili - 2
7. Bay leaves - 4
8. Cinnamon - 2" stick
9. Cardamom - 3-4
10. Cloves - 3-4
11. Pepper corn - 1/2 tsp
12. Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
13. Coriander powder - 2 tsp
14. Cumin powder -  2 tsp
15. Coriander/parsley leaves (chopped)
16. Sugar - 1/2 tsp
17. Oil - 1/2 cup
18. Salt - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Clean the chicken and drain out any water. Add 2 tbsp oil, 1" of cinnamon stick (crushed), 1 tbsp salt,  1 tsp each of coriander powder, cumin powder and turmeric powder. Mix well and keep aside.
2. Peel and quarter the potatoes and add 1/2 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and marinate for 10 minutes.
3. Heat oil and fry the potatoes until they start getting a red tinge.
4. After taking the potatoes out, add half the bay leaves, the red chilies and the sugar.
5. Add the green chilies, 1/2 of the ginger paste and keep stirring.
6. As the chilies and the bay leaves get darker, add the chicken and mix.
7. Cook at medium heat and stir occasionally. The meat will release a lot of water. When the water starts to reduce, add two cups of water and let it cook with the lid on.
8. When the water starts boiling again, add the rest of the coriander, cumin and turmeric powder, put the lid again and cook until almost done (use your judgment here, checking the chicken occasionally).
9. Add the potatoes and cook with lid on until both the chicken and the potatoes are cooked. If you add the potatoes too early, they will get overcooked by the time the chicken is done. If you put them too late, the chicken will be overcooked by the time the potatoes are cooked. 
10. Now crush the pepper corns, rest of the cinnamon stick, the cardamoms and the cloves and add. Crush the rest of the bay leaves in your hand and add. Squeeze out the juice from the rest of the ginger paste into the chicken. Add the coconut milk. Mix well and let it cook for another couple of minutes.
11. Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and the dish is ready.

Footnote

Chicken barbecue with tandoori masala and garlic-coriander sauce

This was another impromptu creation due to lack of experience and ingredients. I was faced with the problem of barbecuing chicken for a gang of fifteen men. It was a friends bachelor party and everybody wanted to have a barbecue but none of them seemed to have much idea about cooking. I, too, had never barbecued on my own but assisted others in putting the meat pieces on the skewers.

So I embarked on this green horn project with the hope that after plenty of alcohol nobody will realize what they are eating. I am not sure everybody praised it due to the pleasant effect of alcohol, so I will leave it to you to "taste" it.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken (I wanted boneless breast pieces but ended up with regular chicken with bones cut into medium sized pieces) - 3 kg

2. Tandoori chicken masala - 50 g.

This is available in packets in India, but the ingredients are Coriander seeds, cumin, red chilies, dried mango powder, Kachri [no clue what this is], fenugreek leaves, salt, black pepper, dried garlic, dried onion, dried ginger, cassia, large cardamom seeds, nutmeg - all powdered together. Many of the items seem rather exotic or hard to make. But from the smell of the powder, I believe coriander powder, cumin powder, black pepper dominate the flavour. Some chili powder, cardamom seeds and dried mango powder and dried ginger (shunth) powder if possible, will enrich the base.

3. Lemon/ lime - 2

4. Turmeric powder - 1 tbsp

5. Butter - 100 g

6. Coriander leaves - 1 small bundle

7. Garlic cloves - 20

8. Ginger - 1" stick

9. Salt - 3 tbsp (or according to taste)

Procedure:

1. Clean the chicken. Separate out any fat and bony pieces like neck. Keep these aside for the sauce.

2. Add the tandoori chicken masala,  turmeric powder and 2 tbsp butter to the chicken. Squeeze out the juice from the lemons into it, mix thoroughly and keep aside.

3. Smash the garlic cloves and the ginger stick.

4. Heat the rest of the butter in a small deep pan and add the smashed garlic and ginger into it. Add the fat and bony pieces/bones. Keep it simmering at lowest heat without turning the fire off. If it gets too thick, you may add one or two cups of water.

5. We made the fire after this. That took about two hours.
    Thus, even if your fire is ready, I'll suggest that you marinate the chicken and simmer the sauce for at least an hour.

6. Chop the coriander leaves and add them to the simmering sauce. Keep simmering for another five minutes and the sauce is ready.

7. Put the chicken pieces on skewers piercing length-wise and pressing the pieces together. Make it as compact as possible. It should be of even diameter on all sides. Otherwise some parts of the meat will burn while some will remain undercooked.

8. Put the skewers on charcoal fire (over a grill) and cook. Turn the skewers once in a while so that all sides get cooked. Take a brush/ stick with a piece of cloth tied to its tip and keep dabbing some of the sauce on the meat.

9. Once the chicken turns dark brown and starts blackening at places, check if it is cooked by poking with a fork. Take it off the skewer and serve while hot. You may sprinkle a last dose of sauce before serving.

Murgi-r maangso (Chicken curry)

Same ingredients and process as mutton curry. Only use chicken meat in stead of goat. This takes much less time to cook. So change timings accordingly.
Also, chicken meat has a much milder taste and flavour than mutton. So you may want to tone down the spices a bit.