Vegetable Hakka Noodles with Tandoori Chicken Broiled/Baked in Oven

On our recent visit to the Asian grocery store, we purchased authentic Chinese noodles which is inexpensive and worth buying as you get a lot for $1. Me and V love Maggi noodles, but compared to these Chinese noodles, they turn out to be more costly. We had purchased these before too, and I had found out a very tasty way to utilize these noodles, ie, by making Vegetable Hakka Noodles. The Hakka noodles I am referring to here is Indo-Chinese. I like Indo-Chinese food and my favorites are Gobi Manchurian, and Sweet Corn soup.


 The Veg Hakka Noodles I am going to write here about is a very simple recipe, and can be made fast. I hope you try it sometime :)  I have eyeballed the serving of ingredients, hence I haven't mentioned the same.

 Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

•  Noodles 
• Water to cook the noodles
• Onion chopped finely
• Vegetables : Thinly sliced cabbage, carrot, green beans, corn, peas. You may partially cook them and set aside to reduce the cooking time later.
• Green chilly slit and cut into julienne
• Ginger-Garlic paste/crushed
• Sauces : Tomato ketchup, Soy sauce/Worcestershire sauce, Green chilly sauce (available in Indian grocery store), Fish sauce (optional, I use it when I want a Thai flavor, but it can be completely omitted) 
•  Spices : Red chilly powder, White/Black Pepper powder
•  Lemon juice/Citric acid crystals
• Salt 
• Oil ( I used sesame oil)

Method:

• Lightly crush the noodles if you are like me and V whole like the noodles slightly crushed in dishes. Else don't bother
• Cook the noodles in boiling water with a teaspoon of oil, as per the instruction on the packet or until it is soft to touch. Strain the noodles and keep them aside

• Keep a frying pan on medium high heat and add 3 tablespoons of oil. 
• When the oil is hot, add Green Chilly and Ginger-Garlic Paste and saute for a minute. 
• Add Onion, and the rest of the vegetables. Add some salt. Increase the heat to high
• Stir well and stir quiet fast, until the veggies are almost cooked, but still crunchy. 
•  Add the spices and again stir well to combine.
•  Reduce the heat to medium. Add the drained noodles, Sauces, and Lemon juice/citric acid crystals in the same order. 
• Turn up the heat to medium high and stir well, and fast to combine everything for about two minutes. 
•  Check for salt. 
• Serve with tomato ketchup/tandoori chicken baked in oven (recipe follows) ;-)

Tandoori Chicken made in oven
We sometimes buy Halal Chicken during our grocery shopping. It has been a while since I posted about any non-vegetarian dish. I thought this was a good opportunity to post about it. Though I didn't have the Tandoori masala, I made my own by combining whatever spices I had in my pantry. We both thoroughly enjoyed the outcome of this dish. Here goes the recipe which I partially referred from here :

Note: It is best if you have enough time (at least 3 hours, to make it easier,you may marinate it overnight if you wish to prepare it ahead of time) to make this because here the marination of chicken is very important to get the full flavor.

Ingredients:

•  1 whole Chicken cut into small pieces (we had bought Halal chicken which we told the butcher to cut into small pieces). Making big slits in bigger pieces helps set the marinade inside.
• Baking tray coated with oil (best to use a non-stick baking tray instead of lining the tray with foil as the chicken would stick to the foil and make a mess while trying to turn over
• Marinade : 

1. Yoghurt : 1/2 cup
2. Tandoori Masala powder: 1 tspn each of red chilly powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder, amchoor powder (dry mango powder (optional))
3. Finely chopped Mint leaves                                      

• Salt

Method: 

•  Marinate the Chicken in the above Marinade along with salt for atleast 3 hours or even overnight
• Preheat  oven to 450 degree F and set your oven to the Bake mode (my toaster oven has a Bake mode, Broil mode, Toast mode, and a Keep warm mode).
•  Once preheated, transfer the marinated Chicken pieces to the oiled Baking tray and keep it in the oven.
•  Close the door of the oven and let it initially bake for 15 minutes. 
• After 15 minutes, turn to the Broil mode and Broil for 10 minutes.
• After this, take out the baking tray out of the oven, and drain any oil/liquid that oozed out of the Chicken on to the tray. 
•  Turn over the Chicken pieces to cook the other side
•  Turn the oven to Bake mode and bake for 10 minutes. 
• After that, turn oven to broil mode and broil for 5 minutes.
• By now the Chicken pieces would have changed to a nice tandoori color. To make it further brighten, take the tray out and drain any liquid/oil from the tray and turn over the chicken pieces.
• Transfer back to the oven and broil for another 5 minutes. 
• Tandoori Chicken baked/broiled in oven is now ready to be served.