“Your son should eat spinach to increase the power in his arms”, hollered the swimming coach to me last Wednesday. I nodded glumly as I know that the son only eats spinach in India: all my lies of Sachin Tendulkar eating spinach all day long having now come to bite me (maybe I should have picked Monty Panesar?).
So the boy and I had a business meeting to look at how we could add more nutrients to his standard diet of dal, yoghurt, potatoes and rice. The consensus was that I would cook more chicken at home and Waitrose would continue to provide us with their very tasty “salmon in a bag” at least once a week.
My first offering was Jeera (cumin) Chicken, my style. Which means that I had no recipe in my mind and just did things on the fly. Here it is
Jeera Chicken
Serves | 3 |
Prep time | 15 minutes |
Cook time | 10 minutes |
Total time | 25 minutes |
Ingredients
- 400 gms chicken (cut into small pieces)
- 4 deseeded chillies (cut into small pieces)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tbs. cumin seeds
- 2 tbs. garam masala
- 1 pinch of turmeric
- 3 tbs. plain yoghurt
- 4 tbs. sunflower oil
- Juice of half a lime
- Salt to taste
- Coriander to garnish
Note
Remember not to burn the cumin seeds. If you do so, the taste will be quite different.
Directions
Step 1 | |
Put the yoghurt and lime juice on the chicken pieces with some salt and mix thoroughly. Keep aside for about 15 minutes. | |
Step 2 | |
Heat up the oil in a pan and add the chillies and the garlic. When the garlic starts to brown add in the cumin seeds. | |
Step 3 | |
Fry for a minute or so. | |
Step 4 | |
Now add in the chicken mixture, the garam masala and the turmeric.Fry, turning gently until the chicken is cooked. | |
Step 5 | |
Garnish with coriander and serve hot with chappatis or naan breads. |