#EasyRecpe : Baked Chicken Caprese Salad

During the day time I am almost excluded from my kitchen by the cook. She loves to reign over the kitchen and gets disappointed even I peep in. She breezes around the kitechen with a constant jingle sound of her bangles and the utensils. I always try to avoid the musical concord and retreat to not interfere. The only interaction regarding food we have once in a day - my instruction what to cook and if something special then how to cook that. So I can own my kitchen only in the next half of the day when I prefer to cook the dinner. I always try to avoid an elaborate dinner. I prefer to keep it simple and healthy. Even the man after a tiring day loves to have something delicious, tasty but overall healthy and light. He wants to avoid rice so as my daughter. So most of the time it is something baked or grilled. /the other day I made Baked Chicken Caprese Salad and served with some boiled vegetables and baked cheese spinach.  It came out tasty, light and got cooked in few minutes. 
                                                               Once a visit to The Corner Courtyard during a review program Chef Chanchal offers a special dish Grilled Italian Chicken Patties with salad caprese and parsley garlic aioli to us. And I was so impressed and inspired by the dish that I decided to try it at home. Now Caprese Salad is one of the most simple salads in the Italian cuisine. It calls for sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, some seasoning with salt, and olive oil. During the time of the creation of this salad, it was kept in mind to made a resemblance to the colors of the Italian flag: red, white, and green. (Info from Wiki) Baked or Grilled chicken/ meat can be used to give it an extra volume to the taste.When I made the dish I baked the chicken. If you want you can grill it too. Just keep in mind while grilling, don't forget to braise it with some oil, preferably olive oil.

Ingredients:

(Yields 6 to 8 patties depending on the size)

Minced Chicken -200grm

Blanched chopped spinach - 2 tbspn (All the water must be completely squeezed out)

Chopped parsley: 1 tbspn

Chilli Flakes: 1 tspn (more or less)

Italian seasoning - 1/2 tspn

Lemon juice - 1 tbspn

Salt and Balck pepper as per taste

Mozzarella Cheese - Cut in thin slice in a shape of square (Depends on how many patties are there)

Tomato slices (Depends on how many patties are there)

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients nicely.

2. Grease your hand with oil and take a small portion and give the portion a shape of a patty.

3. Take an ovenproof tray. Cover it with aluminum foil (See note #1) and grease the surface.

4. Place the patties on the tray and bake for 15 + 10 minutes turning each side at 200 degree Centigrade.

5. Take a serving plate. Place a slice of tomato, top it with mozzarella cheese and then on the top place the Chicken Patty. Relish it with boiled or stir fried vegetables and bread. I had with some baked spinach topped with cheese, boiled vegetables, salads and Bread. (See note how to eat it #3)

Note:

1. Whenever I bake some savoury dishes on a tray I always cover it with an aluminium foil. It helps to save a lot of time in behind of cleaning the burning stains.

2. If you want to avoid the cheese then simply have it with boiled vegetables and bread. 

3. To enjoy the taste, you must have a bite of  the Tomato, the cheese and the chicken patty altogether. That will give you the exact taste of the dish and to enjoy the every bit of it.

Chicken & Vegetable Arborio topped with Stir Fried Chicken

My fellow blogger Archita when shared her Chicken & Mushroom Risotto recipe, I couldn't resist myself to recreate the dish at my kitchen soon. I grabbed a pack of Arborio, one of the verities of Risotto and made this healthy filling dish the Chicken & Vegetable Arborio topped with Stir Fried Chicken for dinner. The recipe Archita shared is very nice but I wanted to try it in my own way. The specialty to cook this Italian dish is to use butter and cream. Usually however you cook the dish it will always give you a creamy texture feel because of the high starch contain. And to put more creaminess to it more cheese, cream and butter are always welcome to the Italian kitchen. But now we are too much health and calorie conscious and try to avoid more these kind of high calorie oriented foods in our daily food intake. Though I cooked it in my way how I felt my family would love it, I was a bit worried whether my daughter would love it or not. But she enlighten  by showing her complete satisfaction after tasting the dish. P too passed me a pleasing smile after tasting it. If you ask my opinion I liked it most as I had the side of the stir fried chicken. Both paired so nicely that the combined flavour  did leave a  complete satisfaction.

A varity of the Risotto family,  this slightly oval-shaped, short and fat  Arborio rice looks pearly and white in exterior. This short-grained rice  used primarily in the classical preparation of Risotto which originally  cultivated in Italy and then spread to USA. Because of its high starch contain the cooked rice leaves a creamy starchy texture to the dish.

"Arborio rice is an Italian short-grain rice. It is named after the town of Arborio, in the Po Valley, where it is grown. When cooked, the rounded grains are firm, creamy, and chewy, due to its higher amylopectin starch content;thus, it has a starchy taste but blends well with other flavours. It is used to make risotto, although Carnaroli, Maratelli and Vialone Nano are sometimes used to prepare the dish. Arborio rice is also used for rice pudding."(Source: HERE)

Ingredients:

To Marinate:

Boneless Chicken Breast: 200gms

Wine Vinegar: 3 tbspn

Red Chilli Sauce:  2 tspns (More or less)

Light Soy Sauce: 1 tbspn

Salt & Sugar : As per taste.

For the Arborio:

Arborio: 1 cup (Yields  2 Adults and 1 kids in moderate amount)

Corn Kernels: 1/4 cup

Baby Corn: 4 cobs (Sliced lengthwise)

Mushroom: 5-6 (Sliced)

French Beans: 1/4 cup chopped

Tomato: 1 medium (Sliced)

Garlic: 1 tbspn Chopped

Olive Oil: 2 tbspns

Water: 3 cups+ more

For the Stir-fry:

Olive oil- 3tbspn

Capsicum: 1 small (sliced lengthwise)

Dark Soy Sauce: 1 tbspn

Method: 

Cooking the Arborio:

1. Make the chicken two halves. Slice one half lengthwise  and the other half in small cubes. Marinate all with the ingredients given below the Marinate head In the same bowl just keep of cut sized chicken separately. Keep for 10-15mnts.
2. Add oil in the pan. Let it gets hot. Add the chopped garlic. Fry them till they turn brown.
3. Add the chicken cubes, tomato and saute for a while. Add all the vegetables. Add salt and sugar. Keep on frying for 3-4 mnts.
4. Add the Arborio and saute for couple of minutes. Add 3 cups of water. Take a spoon and pls taste if you need some extra salt or sugar.
5. Cover it with a lid and then cook till the Arborio gets nicely cooked. Pls keep on checking if it needs some extra water or not and keep on stirring in between too as it tends to stick to the bottom. If needed then keep on adding  very small amount. When done serve hot.

Cooking the Stir Fried Chicken:

1. Add oil in Kodai/Pan. Let the oil gets hot. Add the remaining lengthwise cut chicken along with the juice left from it.
2. Cook it in high flame. Keep on constantly stirring. When it will get cooked add Soy Sauce and Capsicum. Fry for sometime. Then serve them along with the Arborio.

Note:

1. It is always better if you do not wash any risotto rice. As the starch contain of gets away after washing. But you are too skeptical about hygiene et al then just light wash once.
2. It tastes much much better tasty if you cook it in Chicken/Vegetable stock rather than cooking in plain water.
3. The vegetable version will be same just you have to omit the chicken.

This one is the last post of the Blogging Marathon Event which we thoroughly enjoyed of Kolkata Food Bloggers. The Bloggers participating in it:

1. Amrita - Vishal @ http://amritavishal127.blogspot.in/

2. Archita @ http://architashomecooking.blogspot.in/

3. Indrani @ http://riappyayan.blogspot.in/ 

4. Sayantani @ ahomemakersdiary.com

Balsamic Herb Roasted Chicken

After a lot of discussions and debates I determined to get proved myself whether OTG (Oven, Toaster, and Griller) is better or convection Micro Oven.  So I bought one OTG. During my USA stay I was first introduced to the baking world. And never thought that after coming to India I had to scratch my head and tax my brain so much to choose the right oven. I was so satisfied with the conventional oven in USA that I decided to by the same one after returning back to India. But after coming here the picture was totally different. Conventional oven was not that much famous here. For the buildup ovens the space was the biggest problem. Then came so many different issues that forced me to drop the plan and go for a Convection Micro Oven- All in one. Till date I was totally satisfied with that one when one of my readers asked me that she heard baking cake in OTG was better than the convection MW. I was not able answer her as I didn't have any experience with it. So I shared this question with my foodie friends and foodie groups. And there I found most were recommending for an OTG.  So I did not shuffle my brain too much and bought one OTG. OTG is quite inexpensive and very light weighted.  You alone can carry the machine form this room to that room. And that I found was the best part of it.

The first dish I cooked is this Balsamic Herb Whole Chicken. I was a bit scared when the dish started to get cooking. I hardly move that 1 hour from my kitchen. The outcome was truly very much satisfactory. The chicken was so juicy and didn't have that dryness what we usually got in the convection MW. It was perfectly roasted and tasted awesome. My man and my daughter they relishes the dish till the last bite. Overall from my first experience I was very much satisfied and contended. This is dish is a part of the Italian Cuisine. Once I have seen this kind of recipe where the chicken gets roasted with loads of herbs and lemon basted and baked. So here is my version.

Ingredients:

Whole Chicken-  800 gms to1 kg (I bought a skinned one)

Balsamic Vinegar- 1/2 cup

Dry Herbs (Rosemerry, Thyme, Parseley, Basil, Tarragon)- 1/2 tea spoon each (Herb collection from Urban Flaborz)

Dry lemon Grass- few sprigs

Chicken garlic seasoning- 1/2 teaspoon

Honey- 2 table spoon

Green Chilli Sauce- 1 tea spoon

Sugar- 1/2 teaspoon

Salt - As per taste

Olive oil- 1/2 tea spoon

Sweet red chilli sauce

Whole Garlic  cloves- 4-5

Method:

1. Take the whole chicken and make some  cuts on the body with a knife. Marinate the whole chicken with all the ingredients except the olive oil, garlic  and sweet red chilli sauce for minimum 6hrs. Over night marinating is suggested for best result.
2. Power on the OTG. Set the temperature at 240C degree. Put the Chicken on the rotisserie and bake for 60mnts. Don't discard the juice, reserve.
3. In a pan heat the olive oil and add the garlic. Let it turn slight brown and the add the juice out of the marinated chicken. Add sweet chili sauce and keep on stirring till it gets thicken.
4. Take out the chicken from the rotisserie and then brush the sauce all over it and serve hot with bread/ pasta/ salads or any thing of your choice.
5. I served with pasta stirred in Amul cream.

Note:

1. Whenever you will grill or roast something don't forget to put a tray below it. Other wise the juice dropping from the stuff will mess the bottom of the OTG and it will be very difficult to clean.

2. It is always recommended to glaze roasted chicken/ fish with some sauce for better taste.