Oven Fried Chicken

Today I am going to make simple  chicken recipe without any deep frying. I made healthy alteration to the original recipe and came up this new recipe. This chicken was so tender and moist inside and crunchy outside.

 I served this with Butterscotch and Black Pepper Baby Carrots and Fennel with Sweet lime and Orange wedges. (you can click on the link to see the recipe for Caramel Carrots with Fennel).

I used honey mustard for the chicken which I made for Anush and spiced up our chicken with a combination on Chipotle mustard and Dijon mustard.

Ingredients:

-------------

Panko Bread Crumbs

Whole Wheat Bread Crumbs

2 cups Panko Bread Crumbs (I used whole wheat bread crumbs)

1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
4 tablespoons Olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons freshly minced Thyme leaves
Kosher Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup Dijon Mustard (you can use any kind of mustard or your choice)
2 tablespoons Water (I used Apple Cider Vinegar)2 1/2 pounds boneless skinless Chicken Breasts, pounded to 1/4 -inch thickness

How to pound a chicken video

Method:

------------

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Place a cooling rack over pan and spray rack with nonstick cooking spray.

3. In a shallow dish, combine bread crumbs, cheese, 2 tablespoons olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper, to taste.

4. In a separate shallow dish, combine mustard, water, salt and pepper, to taste, and remaining olive oil.

5. Coat each chicken breast with mustard mixture;dredge each in bread crumb mixture. Place on prepared rack in pan.

6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown. Serve immediately.

Vegetable Sambar (Pappu Charu)

Shoj and myself love vegetables and anything which involves vegetables. I always make this sambar or pappu charu (called in Telugu), but today it turned out so good that I thought of sharing it to you guys through my blog. 

This is another way to make kids eat vegetables.

This wonderful aromatic sambar can be served with steamed rice and papad.

Ingredients:

-------------

3/4 cup Toor Dal washed

3 medium sized Carrots peeled and cubed to 1 inch thick pieces

1/4 lb fresh Green Beans de-stemmed and cut into 1 inch long pieces

1 big Chayote (chow-chow or seema/bengaluru vankaya) peeled and cubed

1 small Potato peeled and cubed

2 medium size Tomatoes cubed

2 medium size yellow Onions cubed

1 sprig Curry leaves

4 dry Red Chili's

Salt to taste

1 tsp Turmeric powder

2 tbsp Sambar powder

2 tsp Tamarind paste

2 pods of garlic

Oil for seasoning

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds

1/2 tsp Asafoetida

1/4 cup Cilantro chopped

Method:

---------

1. In a pressure cooker add the toor dal and enough water so that the dal is completely soaked in water and all vegetables excpet onions and tomatoes and pressure cook on medium high heat for two whistles and off the flame and let it come to room temperature before opening the cooker.

2. In a heavy bottom pan add oil and when it's hot add mustard seeds and when they start to sputter add curry leaves, asafoetida, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds.

3. Now add the garlic and onions and saute them until onions turn transparent.

4. Now reduce the flame to low add turmeric powder, tomatoes and sambar powder and saute it until the tomatoes become tender and the raw smell of the sambar powder is gone.

5. Add enough water to the seasoning and bring it to boil.

6. Now open the cooker, add enough salt, tamarind juice and the seasoned water and bring it to 1 or 2 boil and garnish with cilantro leaves. 

7. Serve this Sambar with steamed rice and papad.


(Note: you can add your choice of vegetables there is no rule in adding vegetables. some suggestions are Okra, Eggplant (these should be sauted and cooked in the seasoning and not to be precooked as they tend to get mushy or overcooked in pressure cooker), raw banana etc., can be added to sambar).

Chutney Dal/Roasted Gram Spiced Rice - Day 5 Blogging Marathon

Wishing all you Lovely Ladies, a Very Happy Women's Day. Roasted Gram/Chutney Dal Rice, it just came as i was cooking. I kept adding ingredients that came on to my mind, the result was a Tasty, Spicy Mixed Rice. Served this to my hubby for Dinner, he was super satisfied to have a bowl of this after a Tiring Day.


Ingredients

1 Cup Rice, Cooked ( i have used Basmati Rice)
2 tbsp Roasted Gram/Chutney Dal
1 tbsp Peanuts, Skinned
4-5 nos Red Chillies
2 cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp Dessicated Coconut
4-5 Curry leaves
1 tsp Oil
Salt to taste


Seasoning
1 tsp Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
hing a pinch
4-5 Curry leaves 
2 tbsp Chopped Almonds

Method

Heat a tsp of oil in a Pan, add Roasted Gram and Red Chillies. Warm it up a little. Add Peanuts and Garlic and Keep Roasting. Once the Peanuts change color a bit, add Dessicated Coconut and Curry leaves. Roast it  for few more seconds. Put off the flame. Let it cool. Grind this to a fine powder.

Heat oil in the same pan, Splutter mustard seeds, add hing and curry leaves.
Add Almonds and fry them. Once the almonds are roasted, add Rice and Sauté for a minute, add the Grounded Dal Powder, Salt and Mix well with Rice. If the Rice Mix is Dry, add some more Oil/Ghee. Serve with Chips. Makes a Good Lunch Box Recipe. The Dal Mix can be Powdered prior and stored  in an Air-tight container.


Sending this to MLLA-33 happening @ Ammalu's Kitchen, Event started by Susan.


Check out the bloggers doing the Blogging Marathon, along with me.. 

Group 1 
30 Minutes Meals: Gayathri Anand 
Baked Goods: Monika 
For On Going Events: Gayathri Kumar, Usha
Kids Friendly: PJ, Savitha, Smitha, Veena Aravind  Srivalli
Rice Varieties: Champa, Divya, Padma


Group 2 
30 Minutes Meals:Priya Mahadavan, Pavani, 
Seven Days of Salad: lla, Divya Vikram, 
For Ongoing 7 Events: Priya Suresh, Suma Gandlur, Harini,   
Kids Friendly: Vatsala, Jay, Kamalika 
Seven Days of Rice: Veena Krishnakumar, Padma Rekha and myself