RM2- Day 4- Chicken Drummettes Lollipop

When you say the name of this dish aloud, it sounded to me like those toys of little soldiers with drums and sticks singing their song:) ..........maybe its because of the word Drummettes and Lollipop :) .... Drummettes are the mini drumsticks you get from the wing part of the chicken.

This is my Day 4 entry for Recipe Marathon 2. I made these for a potluck recently and the plate on which it was served was emptied within an hour of serving it !
This was also the first time I used the broil setting in my gas oven. I have to say, its only when you try something new , will you know what you were missing all this time. And that was what I realised when I used the broil setting. Not much mess to clean, less oil used , so healthier than the deep fried version, and food gets cooked fast, and the most important, I loved the look of the Chicken drummettes after they were fully done. Especially the well done look when you do it on charcoal , the ones you get when you order tandoori chicken in restaurants. I was proud to accomplish that in my kitchen and should I say how much glad V was , when he was the first one to taste (as always, lol) my new ventures in kitchen :)

This is how I made Chicken Drummettes Lollipop:

Ingredients:

Chicken Drummettes (I did not get drummettes in a package, so I bought the entire packet of chicken wings and cut the drummettes from the wings) - 10 drummettes

Aluminium foil : To use as a baking foil on top of the grill plate. I cut small portions of these foil after I broiled the chicken on them to cover the exposed bone area of the chicken drummettes to give a nice finish to the chicken drummettes :) Its worth the effort to do that if you want to impress other people :) Also less mess on hands while eating these lollipops :)

Marinade :

3 whole tablespoons yogurt
Grind to a paste- a few bunches of coriander leaves, mint leaves, ginger, garlic, green chillies
Onion powder - 1 tablespoon
Garlic powder - 1 teaspoon
Tandoori masala paste - 2 teaspoons
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (or more if you want them extra spicy)
Oil - 2 tablespoons
Salt - to taste
Freshly ground pepper - 1 teaspoon
Fennel powder - 1 teaspoon

The above picture is the left over wing portion that I marinated along with the drummettes. It was a good difference from the regular Buffalo wing flavor this time.

Method:

a)Preparing the drummettes for lollipop:

Hold the small end of the drummette, and then cut a small incision and insert knife in that incision to further widen the cut and pull the meat away from the bone a bit, also , scrape and push meat down along the bone towards the thick end. Pull skin and meat over the end of the bone to look like a lollipop. Or in other words, cut, pull, scrape the meat from the thinner part of the drummet towards the chunky part until the bone area around the thinner area is exposed so that the drummette resembles a lollipop. When all the drummettes are prepared this way, they look like lollipops :)

b) Marinate the drummettes in a mixture of the marinade, overnight in the refrigerator.

c) Take the drummettes out of the refrigerator at least 1/2 hour before broiling. Line the broiling tray with aluminium foil. Spray some oil on the sheet to prevent sticking of food at the end. Set the oven to broil mode or according to the instruction on your oven manual.

d) Arrange the drummettes on the aluminium foil, a little space between each drummette. Spray a little oil on each drummette before they go into the oven. Broil them on one side until they change color to the well formed black areas on the surface, be sure not to burn them altogether. Turn them over and again broil them until all sides cook evenly. For me it took approximately 30 minutes to finish cooking the drummettes in two batches (I had also marinated the left over wing portion of the drummettes along with the lollipops).

c) Preparing the lollipop : (The aluminium foil can be changed while broiling in batches if they are too messy.) But don't yet discard the not-so-messy parts of the aluminium foil used for broiling. Cut them in small squares and wrap them around the stick part of the lollipop as I have done in the pictures here.

d) If you are preparing it ahead of time like I did, store it preferably in a aluminium tray (the ones you get for cheap in market), cover with aluminium, prick some holes with a knife and keep it in warm oven. Before serving, remove the aluminum cover and broil the chicken until you hear the sizzling sounds coming from the oven. Maybe it will take around 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle some lemon juice and serve :)


I hope you will also enjoy this when you prepare.

Don't forget to check out what my Marathon buddies are up to in their kitchen on Day 4 of Recipe Marathon :-)

1) DK

2) Siri

3) Srivalli

5)PJ

6)Curry Leaf

7)Medha

8)Priya

9)Bhawna

10)Raaji

11)Ruchii

12)Anu

13)Kamala

14)Ranji

15)Divya Kudua

16)Rekha

17)Divya M

18)Lakshmi

19)Raaga

20)Lakshmi Venkatesh

RM2- Day 3-Kadai Chilli Chicken with deglazed gravy

You must have guessed by now that Chilli chicken is my favourite among chicken dishes. Yes I admit it:) this is the third time I am posting about it:) ...But this time I am using some different spices and adding a different method of cooking towards the end. This is my third dish for RM 2

We had purchased a Calphalon Infused Anodised skillet and its become one of my favourite kitchen utensils. initially I was not aware how to use it the proper way. I was so fed up with food sticking to the skillet and potatoes not getting cooked in dry curries and stuff. To add to it, we could not even return it back to the Calphalon store from where we purchased. That irked me and V so much that we promised we would never buy from the factory outlet store of Calphalon. To conclude, we spend a fortune and were stuck with it. What really surprised us was there was not even one bad review about this product anywhere on Internet. It was considered a premium brand. So that got us thinking and I started experimenting cooking in the skillet. Slowly I learned the way to get food cooked in the skillet. I have to say I learned the hard way as I was not familiar with the term deglazing until I started cooking with this skillet. In few words, Deglazing according to Wikipedia, allows the cook to scrape the dark spots from the bottom of the pan, and dissolve them creating a rich sauce.


Kadai Chilli Chicken is something that came out very tasty when cooked in this skillet. In fact I did a bit of deglazing towards the end to avoid wastage of spicy and tasty gravy :) Here is how I made it:

Ingredients

Chicken (I used thigh pieces) - 3 chicken thighs cut in bite size cubes
Onion - 1 onion cut in small cubes
Whole peeled tomatoes - 1
Garlic cloves - 3 big cloves cut in thin slices
Green chilli - 3 to 4 slit in the middle
Asafoetida- a pinch
Oil - 4 tablespoons for sauteing

Marinade:

1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons Tandoori masala (I used the paste)
1 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
Garlic powder- 1 teaspoon
Onion powder - 1 tablespoon
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
Salt
Oil- 2 tablespoons

Garnish:
Few coriander leaves
Few pudina leaves chopped finely
1 teaspoon fennel powder
1/2 teaspoon Garam masala powder

Method:

Wash and prepare the chicken thighs using the marinade ingredients. Marinate the chicken for at least an hour in refrigerator.

In a preheated skillet, on medium flame, add oil. Once the oil is preheated, add asafoetida and immediately add the green chillies and garlic. Saute for 5 seconds and add the chicken pieces and onion.

Saute for 10 seconds to mix everything. Then cover the skillet and let it cook at medium heat for 2 minutes. Reduce the fire to medium-low, stir well. Increase flame to medium and cover again and let it cook for 2-3 minutes until the water content in the skillet reduces allowing the chicken to turn brown. The chicken would have started to turn brown now. The onions we added initially along with the chicken would have cooked well and that's how I make it with chilli chicken. Add the tomatoes now, Mix well, reduce flame to medium-low. Cover and let it cook for another 2 minutes. Uncover, add the chopped coriander, pudina leaves. Stir lightly. Then sprinkle and fennel powder and garam masala powder. Cover the skillet and turn heat to low. Allow the flavor of the garnish to spread inside the dish and then turn off the flame and keep it covered for 2 minutes.

How I deglazed the chilli chicken:

After I transferred the chicken to a serving plate, I switched on the flame under the skillet at medium-low and added less than 1/4 cup of water and increased flame to high and when the water started boiling, I started scraping the remains of the chilli chicken from the bottom and sides of the skillet, after I scraped it clean, I added a a pinch of cornstarch and a pinch of salt and switched off the flame and allowed the deglazed gravy to thicken. Then I added it to the chicken on the serving plate.


I had this with Kanji and pickle. I loved every bit of it, so did V who took it for lunch that day. I hope you too would like it.

Day 3 Recipe Marathon dishes of my buddies:

1) DK

2) Siri

3) Srivalli

5)PJ

6)Curry Leaf

7)Medha

8)Priya

9)Bhawna

10)Raaji

11)Ruchii

12)Anu

13)Kamala

14)Ranji

15)Divya Kudua

16)Rekha

17)Divya M

18)Lakshmi

19)Raaga

20)Lakshmi Venkatesh

RM2- Chicken Puffs

This will be second dish for Recipe Marathon. Its very handy when you have some store bought Puff Pastry. You can prepare a variety of dishes with it. I always loved the Egg Puffs, Veg Puffs, and Chicken Puffs which were sold in a bakery near our school in Elamakkara, Kerala. After a tiring day at school, sometimes I used to purposely skip the school bus so that I could stop over at this bakery and have these crunchy, munchy snacks along with cool Lemon juice,mmm...those were the days I miss now. I should say I miss my school days more than college days , maybe because school was closer to my home and after a tiring day, it was good to have good home-made food from my mother's kitchen than from the college hostel canteen.

I was glad after I made the chicken puffs as they tasted too good and I could relish it and make it anytime I wanted to as its really simple to make. The only work needed is to make the filling in advance. I precooked the chicken in advance, but that's optional, as you can shred it and cook it later too.



Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

Shredded cooked (skinless,boneless) chicken thighs - 3 chicken thighs
Coriander (cilantro) leaves- a small bunch
Onion chopped finely- 1 small onion
Ginger-garlic paste- 1 teaspoon
Tomato paste - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Garam masala- 1 teaspoon
Green chilli thinly sliced- 4 nos
Oil- 1 tablespoon
Salt - as per taste

For making Puffs:
Frozen Puff pastry sheet (I used Pepperidge Farm brand)


Method:

To make the filling:

Keep a wok on the fire and add 1 tablespoon oil. When the oil is hot, add Asafoetida and green chillies and saute for 10-15 seconds. Then add onion, ginger garlic paste and chicken and saute until chicken pieces start browning, turn fire to medium and add garam masala and tomato paste and cook for another 5 minutes. Meanwhile allow the puff Pastry sheets to thaw according to Package instructions. Check for salt and let it cook another 2 minutes and then remove from fire.

To make puffs:

This you may cut it according to your choice. I cut it square shape and then tried my best to make all the puffs look the same shape, though I know they don't look much. Bake according to instructions on Package. It took around 17 minutes to make these puffs in the oven. They came out flaky and tasty :)



My other marathon buddies have been cooking up a feast, check their blogs:

1) DK

2) Siri

3) Srivalli

4) Ranji

5) PJ

6) Curry Leaf

7) Medha

8) Priya

9) Bhawna

10) Raaji

11) Ruchii

12) Arundathi

13) Kamala

14) Divya Kudua

15) Rekha

16) Divya M

17) Lakshmi