Easy Baked Chicken and The Kerala Kitchen June 2011 Event Announcement

Last month the amazingly sweet Sarah of Spoonful of Delight hosted the Kerala Kitchen while I was busy packing, shifting houses, unpacking and rescuing a little monkey who loves to dive headfirst into cardboard boxes. Head on over to her wonderful site here to check out the awesome collection of Kerala inspired dishes we received from our awesome members. Now that I am all settled into my new home and new kitchen, I am happy to be hosting again! Sarah had a neat idea to make it even easier for you to submit entries, with a simple form that you can see at the end of this post, so no need to fuss with emails. Thanks for that, and for being such a wonderful person Sarah! 

Last week was another good friend, awesome blogger and my co host of Kerala Kitchen Ria's birthday and I celebrated with Chocolate Oreo cake. Today I am posting her grandmother's recipe for a delicious tender and juicy baked chicken which is also super easy to make. It earned her mom the Pachakarani ( Queen of cooking) title at a cookery competition so you can be certain this is a surefire hit! 

It has become my staple whenever I am pressed for time or not in the mood to do too much chopping and stirring. It was a huge hit at Easter when I made it with whole Cornish hens ( available in most grocery stores here) or you can just ask your butcher for small, young hens. The third picture was a quick shot before taking the dish over to my friend's house for Easter lunch.She liked it so much she made sure to place it at the center of the table and request the recipe which she then sent to her sisters! The kids (including the little monkey who recently graduated from baby food) loved it because it wasn't too spicy for them. Leftovers (if any) also make for great sandwiches or over pasta.


This can also be made with quail or kada if you are lucky enough to find them, though Ria's mom makes them with regular whole chickens or chicken pieces.

I found sone kada mutta or quail eggs (which is a special treat at my grandmothers home) at a Japanese gorcery store here, so I served them alongide the chicken, though you can just use regular harboiled eggs. I highly recommend also tossing in some potatoes and tomatoes (cut in half) along with the chicken. The potatoes bake to tender perfection and the tomatoes get roasted and slightly caramelized and the juices run out and flavour the chicken sauce.

Baked Chicken and potatoes 

Recipe Source: This is Ria's family favourite recipe from her blog here

Active time: Less than 15 mins

Baking time: 1 hour to 1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients:

• Whole chicken with skin - 1 kg ( I used 4 large chicken breasts with the skin and bone instead)
• Ginger paste -1 tbsp
• Pepper powder-2 tsp
• Soya sauce-3 tbsp
• Salt- to taste ( I did not add as soy sauce is very salty)

Method:

Marinate the chicken with the above ingredients and leave it aside for 2 hours ( I rubbed the marinade over the chicken in an oven safe dish (corningware/pyrex) and put it in the fridge.

Ria also suggested cutting the skin, and lifting it to put the marinade under the skin as well, so that it is absorbed by the meat under the skin. Else once you eat the skin, the flesh might be quite bland. 

After 2 hours, rub the marinade that has collected at the bottom of the dish over the chicken ( you can use a basting brush for this if you have one) 

Bake at 180 degrees C (I baked it at 350 F)  for 1 hour turning the chicken over twice in between and basting it with the sauce/gravy/juices that forms and collects in the pan.

When I made this with cornish hens, I baked them for 1 hour at 350 F and then I brushed them with a little oil ( can use butter/ghee as well) and then baked them at 400F for a futhur 10 mins to crisp and brown them a little more.

I also put potatoes cut into small cubes and grape tomatoes cut into quarters till the stem but not all the way through and rubbed with a little oil, salt, pepper and oregano  in another baking dish and popped them into the oven with the chicken too, to serve them on the side

Brown Sauce/ Gravy ( Optional) :

Gravy/Juices that form in the baking dish from the baked chicken

Cornflour-2 tbsp (diluted in 1 cup of water)

Pepper -to taste

Once the chicken is baked, there will be a lot of gravy inside the baking dish.

Pour it into a sauce pan and heat it. Add cornflour diluted in water along with the pepper and stir.

Bring to a boil. Check for seasoning.

Pour it into a sauce boat & serve hot with chicken.

Serving suggestions:

Oven roasted or cooked and sauteed veggies like cauliflower, broccoli. and peas

Mashed potatoes.

Cooked, halved and pan fried potatoes or oven baked potatoes or sweet potatoes

Onions cut into rings and sauteed.

Garlic bread or white bread, or your own freshly baked bread
Pasta- I cook the pasta adding a glug of olive oil to the cooking water. After draining quickly, I toss the slightly wet pasta with a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper and the juices from the pan as well as the potatoes and tomatoes. 

Verdict: I did not make the gravy, instead I cut some potatoes into cubes, rubbed them with a little oil, salt and pepper and put them in the baking dish along with the chicken and they cooked along with it, absorbing the delicious juices. The chicken was tender and juicy, cooked just right, with a gorgeous crispy skin. So delicious!

KERALA KITCHEN JUNE 2011

Would love to have your Kerala inspired dishes over at The Kerala Kitchen cooking even this month. Do submit your entries using the easy to use form below. 


Since the form seems to have exceeded quota, you can now email me your entries to magpiemails AT gmail DOT com with the subject line Kerala Kitchen. Please mention your name, name of the dish, link to your dish post and a photograph if you wish, else I if you prefer, I can take it from your post. Please do also include a link to this post and The Kerala Kitchen   in your submission posts to ndicate that you are taking part in our event and to spread the word about the event. Thank you :) 


Would be great if you can also add a comment saying you have submitted an entry so that I know that the form builder is working fine and I don't miss any entries.In order to encourage and reward fresh content and especially because we have a top contributor award category, we no longer accept old entries ( i.e posts that were not made this month) Please also ensure that the photos you use are your own or that you have written permission to use other's photographs, with due credit given. If you have any questions, just drop a comment or email me at magpiemails AT gmail DOT com. Non bloggers can email me their entries too and I will include it in the roundup which will be posted at The Kerala Kitchen blog at the end of the month.