When the bird got an extreme makeover..

Last weekend, when I had gone for grocery shopping, I paused myself at the poultry section. I looked around at the pretty frozen parts of birds and also the whole birds sitting in the freezer. I usually end up buying boneless chicken breasts or chicken thighs, this time I bought the whole bird instead. I felt so thrilled when that pretty bird came along with me to my kitchen. When I opened the bag, the bird looked so gloomy and dull after a long tiresome day. Hence, I wanted the bird to have a special spa treatment.

First step of the spa treatment was giving the bird a bath, allowed it to dip down and relax in a bath tub, filled with aromatic water. After the refreshing bath, gave a pat dry with extra soft towels. Then, I gave the bird a real good massage, rubbed it all over with special gel and kept it in the refrigerator for extra relaxation overnight. Next day, took the bird out of the refrigerator and added some special effects by stuffing eggs in to them. Gave the bird a shallow fry in oil and after that it was sent to the oven for an extreme makeover. After the initial 30 minutes baking, the bird was given yet another final massage with a refreshing sauce and again it was sent into the oven for an hour long final makeover. When the bird was taken out of the oven, I gave the final touch ups by garnishing it with rose and added its beauty with other accessories.

After the spa treatment, the bird was seen rejuvenated and completely transformed into a glamorous pretty bird. It was soon surrounded by paparazzi’s and had an hour long photo shoot session; attended a press media where it talked endlessly about the extreme makeover it had undergone.

Ingredients:

• Whole Chicken, deskined,  medium size- 1

Cleaning the chicken:

• Clean the chicken after discarding all the unwanted internals from it.
• Wash it thoroughly under running water.
• Add lemon juice to the water and clean the inner and outer of the bird.
• After washing it, pat dry using a paper towel.

For Marination:

• Chilly powder- 3tsp
• Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice-  juice of half lemon
• Salt- to taste
• Water- enough to make a thick paste

Preparation:

• Mix the masalas with lime juice and little water to make it into a thick paste.
• Make small gashes on the legs, breasts and back of the bird.
• Spread the paste all over the chicken, inner and outside of the chicken.
• Place the bird in a wide pan and cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Overnight marination will help the masalas to penetrate into the chicken evenly.

For making the Egg stuffing:

• Boiled eggs-2
• Onion, cut thin lengthwise-1
• Ginger/Garlic paste- 1tsp
• Green chillies, chopped- 1
• Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
• Fennel powder-1tsp
• Coriander powder-1tsp
• Garam Masala-1/2tsp
• Roasted cashew nuts, chopped- 8nos
• Roasted raisins- 1 tbsp
• Curry leaves- 5 nos (optional)
• Cilantro chopped- 1 handful
• Oil- 1tbsp

Preparation:

• In a wide skillet, add oil, saute onions till it turns golden
• Add ginger/garlic paste, chillies, curry leaves and saute,
• When the onion starts to turn brown, add chilly powder, turmeric powder, fennel powder, coriander powder, garam masala and give it a stir .until the masalas get roasted
• If it is too dry, add little water and let it cook.
• Finally add the eggs and cilantro, saute till the masala is well coated on the eggs.
• Transfer the stuffing into a bowl and keep aside.

Stuffing process:

• Take the bird out of the refrigerator and let it reach room temperature.
• Gently stuff the egg stuffing into the cavity of the bird.
• Push the eggs into the cavity, for a medium bird, only 2 eggs can be squeezed in.
• After stuffing it, tie the wings and the legs of the bird tightly with kitchen twine, so that the stuffing doesn’t come out.

Shallow frying in the oil:

• Vegetable oil- 1/4 cup

• In a wide bottomed pan, add the oil, when it gets hot, place the stuffed, twined chicken in the oil and shallow fry it turning each side.
• Shallow fry until all the sides of the bird turns golden brown and take it out of the pan and keep it aside.

Initial Baking:

Veggies:

• Carrot, halved, cut lengthwise- 2
• Potatoes, cut long-2
• Celery, diced lengthwise- 2 stalks
• Beans, halved- 1/2 cup

• Preheat the oven to 400 F.
• Place the chicken breast down down on the baking pan and spread the veggies around the chicken. Cover with the baking pan lid or aluminum foil.
• Bake for initial 30 minutes, turning the chicken to all sides while baking, this helps in proper cooking of the bird.
• Also stir the veggies to prevent them from burning.

For making the Gravy:

• Oil used for shallow frying the chicken- 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds-1tsp
• Onion, diced-2 medium
• Ginger/Garlic paste-1tsp
• Coriander powder-1tsp
• Cashew nut chopped- 1tbsp
• Chilly powder- 3/4
• Fenugreek powder(optional)- 1/2 tsp
• Tomatoes, diced-2
• salt- to taste

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, when the oil gets hot, add cumin seeds.
• Add onions and salt to it, saute till translucent.
• Add ginger/garlic paste and saute.
• Add coriander powder, cashew nuts, chilly powder, fenugreek powder and give it a stir.
• Add the tomatoes to this and close with the lid and cook slowly till tomatoes are mashed well.
• When the gravy cools down, transfer to a blender and make it into a smooth paste, adding water if needed to make it thin.

Pouring the sauce on the half roasted chicken:

• After the initial 30 minutes baking, take the chicken out of the ove.
• Pour the sauce evenly all over the chicken.

Final Baking:

• After the sauce is poured over the chicken, bake it for another 45 minutes, uncovered.
• Make sure to check the chicken and stir the veggies occasionally.

Carving:

• After 45 minutes of baking, take the bird out of the oven and let cool for sometime.
• Carve the bird with a carving knife.

How to Carve:

1. Holding a drumstick in one hand and a carving knife in the other, slice through the meat connecting the bones.
2. Twist the drumstick with your hand to pop the joint, then disconnect if from the body by slicing through the joint.
3. Carve the thighbone, by cutting the meat around the thighbone and slice through the joint to remove.
4. Using a carving fork to hold the wing steady, make a deep horizontal cut above the wing point.
5. Hold the chicken with the carving fork and slice the breast. Each slice will fall when the knife reaches the cut from step 4
6. Slice behind the wing joint to remove the wing. Repeat step 1 to 6 on the other side.

Tips:

• You could use skin on chicken.
• You can substitute turkey for chicken.

I never had the nerve to make puff pastries on my own. So I always go with the easy way of getting it from the frozen isle of a food store. I love to have puff pastry almost every day, but when I look at the nutritional facts label on the box, the percentage of saturated fat it has freaks me out. This doesn’t mean that I totally skip this crispy and flaky goodness. Occasionally, I get the craving to eat this. I usually make a meat filling and stuff it inside the puff pastry sheets, which are cut into medium sized squares. But this time I wanted to make a different kind of filling, so I chose a sweet filling for this. I made the filling with coconut, eggs, sugar, raisins and almonds. When the puffs came out of the oven, it was crispy, flaky and golden. I couldn’t even wait for the puffs to cool down; hence I took a bite of it immediately. This sweet puff pastry tasted so good and loved the added raisins and almonds in it. One thing that happens whenever I make puff pastry is that the platter gets empty in just a matter of seconds.

Ingredients:

• Puff Pastry (store bought)- 1 sheet, cut into medium sized 9 squares

For making the filling:

• Coconut shredded( frozen/fresh)- 1/2 cup
• Egg-1
• Sugar-3tbsp
• Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp
• Raisins-2tsp
• Almonds sliced-2tsp
• Butter or Ghee-2tsp+2tsp

Preparation:

• Thaw the puff pastry sheets according to the instruction given on the back side of the box.
• Heat a skillet and add 2tsp of butter or ghee to it, when it melts, add the coconut to it and saute till its color starts to turn golden.
• Add the egg and scramble it, cook the egg without any lumps.
• Add sugar to this and stir well.
• Push the coconut mixture toward one side of the skillet.
• Add cardamom powder to this.
• Now add the remaining 2tsp butter/ghee on the other side of the same skillet, roast the raisins and almonds in it, when they turn golden brown, mix along with the coconut/egg mixture.
• If you want you could roast raisins and almonds in  a separate pan and then add these to the  mixture. I roasted in the same pan to avoid extra cleaning
• Let the filling cool for sometime.
• Place about 1-2 tsp of filling on to the middle of the each puff pastry squares, close the squares and seal the edges by pressing with your fingers and place these on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Depending upon which brand of puff pastry you are using, the baking time might vary, so if you are using frozen sheets, follow the baking instruction given on the box.
• Bake it for about 15-20 minutes or until the puffs turn golden brown and crispy.
• Bake it on the lower rack of the oven for the first 10 minutes and then move it to the upper rack for the remaining time. This would avoid the lower side of the puffs from becoming dark brown.
• Remove the pastries from the baking sheets and let cool on wire racks for 10 minutes.

Tips:

• With this filling you can stuff around 12 puffs.
• If there is any filling remaining, it can be used to garnish  the puffs.
• In this picture I have cut the puff into two halves just to show the filling.