Chicken Dopiaza

I had Chicken Dopiaza long back when I was in college. This was made my the loving Granny of a very good friend of mine, Anjan. And since then I have had this so quite often, each time at his place. Any time she cooked this chicken and I was asked If I wanted to stay over for lunch, I would say nothing else but a big YES!! 

I know I could never make it as tasty as she makes it, but still I try and make this very often, coz I just love it. Till date, I can never believe that with such few ingredients (you will see down below) Chicken could be made so tasty, neither does anyone else (for whoever I make this for)!!

What to use :
(Serves 3-4)

• Boneless Chicken - About 1 lb

• Curd - 2 cups (about 1 lb)

• Onions - 3 / 4 large red onions (about 1 pound)

• Mustard oil - about 1 cup

• Dry red chillies - a big bunch about (about 1/2 cup)

• Salt - to taste

How to make it :

• Cut the chicken into medium sized-pieces.

• Beat the curd and add it to the chicken. Mix well so that the chicken pieces are well soaked in the curd.

• Put this chicken in a tightly closed box and refrigerate it for at least an hour.

• Cut the the onions into thin long slices.

• Heat the oil in a skillet / wok.

• Once the oil is too hot, add the onions.

• Once you sautéed the onions for about 7-10 minutes on medium heat, the onions would be turning soft and golden.

• Add the marinated chicken now to the onions.

• Keep the heat on high and mix well. Keep stirring continuously, and let it cook for about 10-15 minutes.

• Reduce the heat now to medium, and let it cook uncovered. Keep stirring so that the chicken does not stick to the vessel.

• In about another 10 minutes, the chicken will be almost cooked, you can see the colours changing.

• If you feel that the chicken is getting to dry and sticking to the vessel, sprinkle very little water.

• Add salt to taste.

• Add the dry red chillies.

• It will start getting dry and it might start sticking to the vessel, but that is ok, just stir it well. This is what will give the lovely colour and the crunchiness to it. That is the reason why we cook this on medium-high heat.

• In another 10 minutes the chicken will be done. Switch off the gas.

Enjoy the chicken with roti or plain paratha.

Note :

• You may use chicken with bone as well.

• You may use any other cooking oil too, other than mustard oil.

• The addition of so many chillies does not make it very spicy. It just adds flavour.

• This is a basically a very dry dish. The excess oil and the onions make the thinness of it, Just in case you want it with a slight gravy, you can add may be half cup of water towards the end. This is how it will turn out!!

Chicken Sweet Corn Soup

This is by-far the easiest and quickest soup to make. Not too many ingredients either - we will use things which are easily available. My Mummy makes this so often (since the days I was a kid), and we all love this so much, and you bet each time she has to make a haandi (big pot) full of it.

What to use :
(Yields about 6 cups of thick soup)

• Chicken breast - 1/2 lb

• Sweet corn - 1/2 cup

• Corn starch/flour - 2-3 Tbsp

• Egg - 2

• Oil - 1tsp

• Garlic - 4/5 pods

• Black pepper - 1 tsp

• Water - 2-3 cups

• Salt - to taste

Garnishing (optional) -

• Spring onions - few sprigs

• Butter

• Soy sauce - 1 tsp

• White vinegar - 1 tsp

How to make it :

• Put the chicken in a pressure cooker / covered pan. Add 1 tsp of salt and 2 cups of water. Cook on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes. If you using a pressure cooker, switch off the gas after 3 whistles.

• After the chicken cools down (pressure cooker will take at least 10-15 minutes before all the steam comes out), take it out and make shreds of it. You can use 2 forks to tear the chicken into shreds / tiny pieces. Else you can use a knife and try to cut the chicken into thin strips.

• Don't throw away the water in which we boiled the chicken - we are going to use the same. Strain this chicken stock.

• Take about 2 Tbsp of corn starch in a small bowl and add about 4-5 Tbsp of water to it and mix well, making sure its smooth and no lumps are left.

• Take the chicken stock and put it to boil. Add another cup of water to it. Put the shredded chicken to this boiling stock.

• Put the sweet corn (Canned / Frozen corn kernels) into this. Bring to a boil - keep on medium to high heat.

• Once this starts boiling, add the corn starch mix. Mix well.

• Let it simmer for 2 minutes on medium heat.

• Add 1 tsp of black pepper. Add salt if you need.

• Beat the eggs nicely.

• Bring the soup to the boil on high heat and then add the beaten egg to it. Don't mix or stir. Turn the heat back to medium.

• Let 1 minute pass by and then you can see chucks of white floating on the soup. That shows that the egg has been cooked. Stir the soup now to mix the chucks of egg into the soup properly.

• Finely chop the garlic pods.

• Warm up 1 tsp of oil in a small pan. Now put the chopped garlic in it and let it fry till its crunchy and golden brown.

• Once the garlic is fried, add it to the boiling soup.

• Switch off the gas and the soup is ready to be served.

While you serve your soup, you can garnish it with finely chopped spring onions and a dash of butter. Add 1 tsp each of soy sauce and white vinegar.

Note - 

• Boneless chicken like breast / strips is easy to use. But in case you have some left over chicken with bones like thighs / wings etc., you can very well use it too. Just that you have to make sure to separate the meat from the bones properly once its cooked - do it when the chicken is completely cooled down.

• You can use canned sweet corn or frozen corn kernels - they can be readily used and will needed minimal cooking. Fresh corn is also great for use - just that you will have to boil them and then peel them. I generally use frozen corn kernels.

• Add more water if you feel the soup is too thick for you. Vice-versa add a bit of more corn starch if you need the soup to be thicker.

• If you don't eat the egg yolk for some reason, use the egg white only - take 3 eggs in this case.