Served with love: Chicken Kebabs

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Chicken Kebabs

Kebabs, the finest finger foods one can ever think of, have a not so glamourous origin. Scarcity of cooking fuel meant there was a need to effectively cook meat. Legend has it that kebabs owe their existence to medeival Turkic soldiers who used their swords to grill meat over open field fires (source - Wikipedia).

Of course, from those medieval fires to modern day cuisines, the humble kebab has come a long way and undergone a lot of tranformation - imagine Persian cuisine or Lucknowi cuisine without kebabs!!

I like kebabs for one simple reason - you can make them well in advance and freeze them; just grill them when the craving for something delicious strikes! And so, I am always on the lookout for newer kebab recipes.

When I first concocted the recipe for Berry Pulao, little did I know that the kebabs that went into it would end up being one of our favourites! So now, whenever I make Berry Pulao, I make sure I make some extra kebabs - these are so delicious and delicately flavoured that if I didn't make extra, they would never make it to the pulao!!

Chicken Kebabs

Ingredients:

300 gms chicken mince

for the marinade:

1 onion finely chopped,

1 small clove garlic, finely minced
1 tsp rose water
1.5 tsp anardana powder (pomegranate seed powder)
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp red chilli powder

goat's cheese - 11/2 tbsp
1/2 egg
1 tsp garam masala powder
salt to taste
saffron infused ghee (toast about 20 strands of saffron, crumble them, add a tbsp of water and a tsp of sugar and let it stand for about 15 mins. Then add 2 tbsp of melted ghee).

Method:

Finely chop the onion, add a bit of salt to the onion and let it stand for about 15 mins. Then drain the juice off.

Add all of the above ingredients to the chicken mince and let it marinate for atleast 6-8 hrs.
Shape into flat discs, or if you have skewers, shape as you would seekh kebabs. Drizzle some saffron infused ghee and grill till the chicken is cooked tender.

I grilled mine in the microwave for 18 mins on the grill setting. Keep basting with the saffron ghee frequently - atleast 3 times. It is this saffron infused ghee that makes all the difference to the flavour of the kebabs, so don't skimp on its use!

Serve with spicy onion salad.

For the onion salad:

To finely sliced onions, add chopped coriander leaves, green chillies, lime juice, salt and sugar. Make the salad atleast 15 mins before serving.

These chicken kebabs are going to Priya's MEC: Savoury Snacks, an event started by Srivalli.