Alma Bax “Chicken fried” means that the chicken was breaded and cooked in olive oil and then finished off by adding flour, egg and breadcrumbs, these were then fried in oil. This was a method used for the “rich” chicken but is not a lot of fun and doesn’t produce a very good result, but is nice to show you have tried. Now for the “Restaurant style”. This is a lot better but still very hard to accomplish, take the same ingredients and fry them in butter and then add your flour, egg and breadcrumbs to the oil. Now you have a “Restaurant style” recipe.
When we wanted to cook for a big group, we always relied on the “restaurant experience.” When someone asks you “what’s for dinner?”, you’re not at the grocery store, with a bunch of ingredients, ready to throw something together. You are at a restaurant, with a long list of carefully prepared dishes that you won’t have to worry about. So, when we wanted to cook for the family, we decided to give it a shot. We didn’t want to cook a load of different things, we just wanted these kinds of dinners: the type that you get when you go out to eat.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of fried chicken. I mean, I love fried chicken, but it’s a great meal only when you’ve got the right consistency and a sauce you can use to dress it up. Not when you’ve got that fried piece of chicken that falls off the bone and sticks to the plate and then you can’t get it out of the way because it’s fried too. Plus, most fried chicken comes with a side of fries, maybe some macaroni and cheese, and a giant Caesar salad.
We see whole or whole chicken on restaurant menus all the time. It used to pique my interest when I saw whole chickens hanging in restaurants to attract guests, ready to be grilled or roasted. I had the idea to make a kind of tandoori chicken without using an oven, so I cooked the entire bird. I made the marinade to my preference, which is spicy, sour, and acidic (chatpata type).
This entire chicken is marinated first, then steamed to absorb the marinade in the kitchen, before being fried with a little oil and butter for basting in between. I added the onions while frying the chicken so that the marinade and chicken juice flavor penetrates the onions and gives the meal a wonderful flavor.
Time to prepare: 1 hour
Time to cook: 1 hour
North Indian cuisine
3–4 servings
Medium spiciness, sour, chatpata
Ingredients
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- 700 gms to 750 gms whole chicken (slits on bird)
- In order to fry, oil
Marinade No. 1
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- 1 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- a pinch of salt (to taste)
Marinade No. 2
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- 1 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon crushed chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 1 to 2 tbsp vinegar
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- a pinch of salt (to taste)
- The use of color (saffron, optional)
- 1/2 cup curd (thick)
- 2 tsp. oil
- 3 tbsp. butter
For frying
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- 1 tbsp. oil
- 1 tbsp. butter
as a garnish
- 1 medium onion (sliced)
- masala chaat – to sprinkling
- a few lemon slices
- Salad leaves (as needed)
Method
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- To make the initial marinade, whisk together all of the ingredients.
- Make slits in the chicken and marinate it in the first marinade for half an hour to an hour in the refrigerator.
- Take a bowl and combine all of the ingredients for the second marinade; taste to check whether the salt, spice, and sourness are right.
- Apply the second marinade to the chicken all over, including the interior. Rub gently. The marinade should be thick enough that it coats the chicken well and penetrates the slits/cuts as well as the interior of the bird.
- Refrigerate the marinated chicken for at least 4 hours or overnight if feasible (it tastes more delicious).
- Bring the chicken to room temperature before cooking (approximately 1/2 to 3/4 hour outside the fridge) and then cook it.
This whole chicken is prepared in two stages.
1st, steaming
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- You may steam the chicken in a steamer or in any vessel using the absorption technique, which requires no oil. For this, you may use my charga recipe. Wrapping in aluminum foil and heating is another option. I’m demonstrating how to steam using aluminum foil.
- The benefit of wrapping the chicken in aluminum foil is that the marinade will be thoroughly covered and cooked, and no liquid or marinate will be lost since the bird will be fully contained.
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2. Cooking the whole chicken on the grill, in a pan, or on a tava:
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- If you don’t have an oven at home, you may utilize this technique. It’s as simple as steaming the chicken in an aluminum wrap and frying it in a little amount of oil; there’s no need to deep fry it.
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I’m going to steam and fried the chicken in a kadai for this dish. The cooking instructions may seem lengthy, but I have broken them down to make them easier to follow.
Steaming
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- Take a large enough piece of aluminum foil and put the marinated chicken inside, sealing it from all sides to prevent any marinade liquid from leaking out while the chicken is cooked. Wrap the chicken in double aluminum foil (to prevent tearing), that is, wrap with one aluminum foil and then with another aluminum foil after that.
- Take a pot (something deeper or broader) in which you can easily cook a whole chicken. Boil enough water and set aside the strainer (the one with the tiny holes) as well as the wrapped chicken. The water should be boiling in order for the chicken to cook under steam, and the strainer should be kept away from the water. Cook the chicken for 15 minutes on one side, then flip it gently and cook for another 15 minutes before turning it off and letting it rest for 10 minutes.
- When you open the aluminum wrap, you’ll notice that the chicken has been well cooked in the marinade.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and put it on a dish.
- The primary goal is to steam the chicken, which is then cooked in the marinade and liquid.
Fry the whole/complete chicken
- Heat a kadai that is large enough to hold the entire chicken. 2 tblsp oil, 1 tblsp butter When the kadai is heated, gently transfer the chicken from the platter to the kadai and cook it.
- The sizzling sound begins as soon as the chicken is placed.
- When the chicken is done on one side and the color has changed, flip it over and add 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp butter. Cook until the chicken is thoroughly fried. Cook the chicken in a uniform manner on both sides.
- Keep an eye on the chicken to make sure it doesn’t cling to the pan. After a while, flip it over and cook it on the other side. In the meantime, depending on the situation, you may use oil or butter. To flip the chicken, use tongs and a large spoon. It will be simple to grasp and turn.
- Because the chicken is already cooked, it will be fried shortly, giving it a tandoori or barbecue flavor.
- Turn it with a tong while simultaneously holding the kadai. Remove the chicken from the fire after it has blackened on both sides and is ready to be served with a salad.
- Optionally, while frying the chicken, I added the sliced onion and drizzled little oil on the corners, cooking the onions with the chicken to give them the chicken flavor.
- Transfer it to a platter once it’s done.
- Serve immediately with chaat masala and lemon juice.
- You may chop it into pieces depending on how much you want to eat.
Notes
- Do not be alarmed by the lengthy procedure. It’s simply a matter of steaming the chicken first, then frying it in a kadai for a reddish charred color.
- When cooked in a kadai, the masala has a tendency to sputter all over the place. So you can cook with the cover closed. Cook over a medium heat, flipping the chicken halfway through the cooking time.
- Check the marinade to see whether it’s spicy and if there’s any salt in it. After that, apply to chicken.
- You may marinate it with your own seasonings. It should be thick when you add the curd. You may play around with the ingredients to suit your preferences.
- You may use kashmiri chilli powder to add color to your dish.
- If you don’t hold the parts correctly, they’ll break.
- It’s OK if the parts fall apart during cooking; towards the end, you may assemble it like a whole chicken and serve it. The most important thing is to obtain the finest flavor.
- Because you’re simply dripping the oil to get that burnt color, I didn’t provide any oil measurements because it depends on your frying technique. Finally, you may use oil or butter.
- You may create a tortilla wrap or a salad with the leftover chicken pieces.
- You may also use chunks of chicken instead of the entire chicken and use the same tandoori masala.
I have gone out on a limb for I feel this could be the best chicken I have ever had. I wanted to add a little twist to the usual fried chicken I get from chain restaurants. I do not get to go out to eat very often due to being a student so I looked at online recipes and it seemed simple enough. I chose to make the coq au vin as it is my favorite dish from my childhood. The chicken I used was a whole chicken, about 5-6lbs. It was supposed to be brined in a salt and water mix but I thought that was too much work. The brine was just plain water, I think I could have simplified it a lot and just used salt.. Read more about whole fried chicken marinade and let us know what you think.
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