Cajun Spiced Spicy Sweet Chicken Wings

Ingredients

12 - 13 chicken wings
Salt to taste 
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp white oil

For the sauce

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp Mexican hot sauce
1 tsp Sriracha
2 tsp Soya sauce
1 tsp Cajun spice
2 tsp minced garlic

A pinch of sesame seeds for garnishing

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 430 F. 
2) Mix in chicken wings with salt and black pepper. 
3) When oven is heated, bake the chicken wings for up to an hour till chicken wings are crispy with nice golden brown in color. 
4) Heat butter in a nonstick skillet. When butter is melted, add garlic followed by brown sugar and when it turns into a thick consistency, add Soya sauce, Mexican hot sauce, sriracha, and Cajun spice. Mix together and when it turns into a nice thick consistency, turn the heat off. 
5) Add the chicken wings into the sauce and coat the wings with the sauce evenly before serving. 
6) Garnish with sesame seeds. Serve immediately. 

Indian Style Chicken Nachos

Nachos are a Northern Mexican dish consisting of tortilla chips covered with meat and cheese based sauce. Though nachos are mainly served as a snack, it can be served as a fulfilling main dish if the ingredients added on the top of tortillas are more in quantity. Since I love nachos very much, I decided to try it out at home using Indian spices. Hope you all will like my version of nachos. 

Please don't forget to check out other cool recipes like this:

Pizza Bombs

Chicken Mole Poblano

Stir Fried Prawns in Chilli Garlic Soy Sauce

Croutons

Falafel Fritters

Falafel Wrap

Chicken Patties

Summer is beautiful and salubrious in the USA and since I have lighter courses over summer semester, I am trying to fully enjoy my summer by travelling, getting together with friends and family, and cooking. One important part of any get-together is food. Without appetizing food, any occasion does not get the spark needed, because people bond over foods, and discussion and conversation get intense over good delicacies. Some of the snack items that rev up any evening gathering are Egg Devil with Mutton Keema, Alur Chop, Kolkata Egg Roll, Bhetki Fish Fry, Chicken Popcorn and Chicken Spring Roll. However, one item that was missing from the list until now is Chicken Patties. 

 

The preparation of Chicken Patties involves less hassle. If one has all the rightful ingredients at home, one can put the dish together within no time. If in case, you love the recipe of Chicken Patties I posted, please don't forget to leave a comment.

Chicken Hazarvi Kabab

My son has completed one month today. It seems like yesterday that I went to the hospital in labor pain and ground my way through the delivery process. Any mother who has nurtured her young in her womb for 9 months and suffered one of the most excruciating painful experiences of all called labor knows why a child is called the 'bundle of joy' because the exhilaration and satisfaction upon seeing your young one nestled in your chest softly inhaling the first few breaths of fresh air of his or her life is incomparable with the joy of anything else. It is the most beautiful feeling in the world.

 

My pregnancy had been a smooth one. I was lucky in a way that I never felt nauseous for once and I could eat anything and everything I wanted. Since me and my husband were on our own throughout the pregnancy and delivery period, I was quite nervous about how everything would go, but with the grace of God, everything went smoothly. One of the most important things I have always taken care of is the food I consume. Though I was alone with no one to cook delicacies for me even when I was in the advanced stage of my pregnancy, I always took care not to let my craving go unsated.

 

It is very important to give your body proper nutrition to have a healthy baby and acquire strength enough not only to push the child out of your womb into the outside world but also to rear him or her up. One of the many things that I gorged on greedily were a variety of kababs as I had huge cravings for kababs during pregnancy. Some kababs I made at home and some I brought from restaurants, but the quality of kababs available in nearby restaurants were no match with what we get back home. In fact, some restaurants kababs were very chewy and dry in texture. Hence more than often I preferred to prepare my kababs at home only. The recipe below is one of such kababs I happened to cook quite frequently. The original recipe belongs to Sanjeev Kapoor but I replaced some ingredients according to my own convenience.

White Chicken

With great pleasure I would like to share the joy of the addition of a new member in our family with the readers of my blog - our son Debarpan born on 5th May this year. His arrival has changed our lives completely, for the better. Though in the absence of any helping hand at home, managing everything on my own is stressful, everything gets made up for when I get to see the adorable face of my newborn. My parents were supposed to come from India to give me support nursing my kid but at the last moment my father fell sick and their trip had to be cancelled. First few days after I came back home from the hospital with the newborn were quite challenging for both me and my husband, but with a bit of planning and mutual cooperation with each other, we are pulling through this phase seamlessly so far. We both are savoring every moment of our time with our son. It is pure bliss!!

 

The recipe that I am going to share today is a tried and tested recipe of a chicken preparation one of my friends recently shared on her Facebook wall. As these days I am trying to be frugal in my consumption of spices as my baby breastfeeds, I take a liking to this recipe because it is less spicy. I tried it at home recently and the outcome panned out to be fantastic. It will earn brownie points with those fond of less spicy dishes as it did with me. Happy eating!!

Yogurty Chicken

 

There is a particular cosmetic counter in a mall here where I buy cosmetics of a particular brand. What is very common about the cosmetics stores in India and here is the sales girls at the counter just try to shove products in your hand, so you go there to buy a regular face cream and you come back home buying a host of other things that you didn't have any plan of buying, credits to the marketing ability of the girl behind the counter who with her sweet smile and convincing but pushy marketing skill sell you products that you have no need of. While shopping in the malls in Kolkata many a time I have had experience of a sales woman coming behind me and showing me this and that dress of her choice to convince me how good that would look on me. Now I have been seeing myself on the mirror for years and I have little if not much sense of what I look good in and since in a mall the dresses are all over the place in front your eyes, you really don't need any help in choosing a dress for yourself unless you are very confused and ask someone for help. But it's really annoying when the girls don't leave you alone to pick your choice.

 

 

In US, thank God, you can shop your clothes at your own free will without a sales girl trying to shove a dress in your hand, but can't say the same thing while you go shopping for cosmetics. So as I said in the beginning, I buy cosmetics of a particular brand in a mall here and now every time I go there to buy the face cream, she shoves something or the other in my hand so persuasively that I can't say no. I have this problem of not being able to say no to people from childhood. Though not as bad as I was before in saying no, now I manage to utter the negative word once in a while but in front of someone being so pushy with her sweet smile and warm hospitable behavior, I simply find myself dumb and so out of the feeling that I would disappoint her if I don't buy any of the products she is trying so vehemently to sell, I end up buying cosmetics that I had no plan of buying while entering there.

 

I am sure many are there like me who similar way get influenced by the marketing skill of the sales girls and buy things not needed. I wish I would know how to evade the extra unnecessary purchase without disappointing them.

 

Back to the recipe, this is a very simple yet fantastic preparation of chicken. Make sure to cook it using butter. The buttery flavor boosts up the taste to a great degree.

Chicken Potato Tart

It was holi yesterday in India, an occasion when people of all walks of life revel in the madness of playing colors. Holi is just like any other festival celebrated in India with a great fanfare. People bond with each other over the festivity of food, colors and subsequent fun filled games.

 

I am not very fond of colors, having played holi very occasionally once or twice in childhood. After that growing up, I stopped playing holi for the difficulty involved later on in removing the colors from face. That was the most toughest part, besides tending to my daily activity with residues of colors still making its presence known in bits and patches all over my body was not something I relished really. So while staying in India, I made sure not to step out of home on the day of holi. For lovers of colors, I might appear a party-pooper but can't help it. I simply don't like the itchy feeling that smearing of colors leaves. Nevertheless keeping my personal feeling about colors aside, let me wish you my dear friends and readers a very big bright happy holi. Hope you all have enjoyed it a lot.

 

Though I wanted really to post some recipes appropriate for holi but couldn't manage time to prepare anything fancy over last few days. May be I would post some later in the year under sweet section. Meanwhile, enjoy the chicken potato tart I cooked last week. These mini tarts are ideal for a party at home in place of pizzas.

Chicken Stew

 

Slurp it or sop it, you are gonna love it. I am yet to meet one who doesn't love chicken stew and it is mind-bogglingly delicious, albeit healthy. Contrary to traditional belief that chicken stew is worth consumption when one is sick, it is actually a hearty soup teeming with nutrition that can be taken daily. What I most like about this soup is its versatility, you may use whatever vegetables you wish to and still bring out the same heartwarming taste. Personally, I like to use green papaya, radish, carrots, green beans, turnips, potato, corns and so much as green peas. This time while cooking the stew, I didn't have green papaya handy, my husband bought a Caribbean papaya from the store though which turned out to be sweet in texture and hence not use worthy. The papaya has to be young and raw for adding taste.

As I said, you may use whatever vegetables you like, but take care not to clutter the soup. Keep the number of veggies limited to 3 or 4 types only.

 

 

Mexican Chicken Rice

The location of our apartment is just fantabulous, for it is at the heart of the city flanked by gourmet restaurants and swanky shopping malls within walking distance. Needless to say, we eat out a lot taking the opportunity of the convenience of the location. One of our favorite haunts for dinner is Chipotle Mexican Grill famed for serving tantalizing tacos and burritos.

 

 

I love Mexican cuisines and for a long time I wanted to try a Mexican dish at home. So to begin with, I started my experimental venture with something very easy in preparation; Mexican Chicken Rice. I believe whoever has a grasp of cooking pulao can cook this dish effortlessly. The process followed in cooking Mexican Chicken Rice is same as that of pulao, the difference remaining only in the ingredients used. Just as we cook pulao, conventionally, with milk or water in some cases, Mexican rice has to be cooked with chicken broth easily available in the market. For people not familiar with the technique of cooking pulao, let me phrase this as simplifying as possible: in cooking dishes like pulao or pilaf where rice is cooked along with the other flavorsome essential ingredients, one important factor to keep in mind is the water and rice ratio. Estimated on 1:2 ratios, normally, 1 cup rice requires 2 cups of water to get cooked. However, the amount of water might vary with the brand of rice you use; but having said that, essentially, more or less most of the rice gets cooked at 1:2 rice and water ratio. So get the quantity right and everything will fall in place smoothly.

For more recipes on rice, please click the links below:

Arroz Con Pollo

Baked Corn Rice

Paneer Fried Rice

Pudina Rice - Mint Pilaf

Pulao with Coconut Milk

 

 

Turkey Guacamole Wrap

 

I have started adoring guacamole absolutely now, adding its creamy richness quite often to our palate. The main ingredient behind guacamole is of course avocado without which the very existence of guacamole would come under question. Now I was not aware whether avocado is a vegetable or a fruit. It is pear shaped and looks like a fruit but its usage in salad, sandwiches reinforce the doubt of it being a vegetable. Then tomato is also a fruit, but still used extensively in the concoction of innumerable cuisines. With mingled curiosity and confusion, I scouted the cyber world for an answer and finally felt satisfied knowing that avocado is a fruit and not a vegetable. I know many people who have grown up eating avocadoes from childhood may find my confusion unusual, but incidentally I hail from a tropical country where avocadoes don't grow naturally, so needless to say, I have acquired a taste for avocado upon coming to US only where avocadoes are sold aplenty in the market.

 

Despite the overwhelming craze for avocadoes in US, I was doubtful of how far its taste would suit my Indian palate while trying it for the first time on our trip to Las Vegas in celebration of our 5th anniversary. There in the hotel I ordered for a chicken avocado sandwich skeptically, unsure whether I would appreciate its taste. But just one bite into the creamy layer of sandwich was enough to remove all doubts and I fell in instant love. I decided to try my hand on preparing the most celebrated concoction with avocado that is 'guacamole', which is a Mexican sauce used as dip or incorporated in salad or sandwiches to enhance the flavor, upon my return from the trip.

I have made guacamole more than four or five times now, each time making it taste better than the earlier one with just few additions and subtractions of this and that element. Mind you, guacamole is very versatile recipe and can be prepared in a variety of ways. Last Friday when I made guacamole again, I had to grab hold of some tortilla wraps to make the following. I just love to consume guacamole this way spread inside a wrap. Just lovely!!

 

I have made the filling using turkey, but chicken would taste equally nice and by the way both turkey and chicken are quite similar in taste, so the change of meat would not make any huge difference.

Chicken Spring Roll

Strong wind howling outside throughout the day since morning, so bad that couple of times I opened the door to check if anybody was knocking. The lawn in front of our apartment that even yesterday was blanketed in thick sheets of snow now is wiped clean by the wind. It seems heavy wind besides threatening to blow one away does the job of a sweeper at times. In the everlasting quietude of our neighborhood, the constant wailing of the breeze sometimes makes me jump out of my skin for the hissing and whooshing remind me of the sound played in horror movies in the background. A lonely damsel rambling about in a dense forest, lost or perhaps sleepwalking, the rustling of leaves and creaking of twigs or a branch of a tree intensifying the suspense when suddenly a disembodied spirit makes its presence known nearby, very very nearby, almost close to breathing upon her neck.....oooops...I can feel goosebumps surfacing on my skin.

 

 

I recall when I was barely a child, about 8-9 years old girl with pigtails; I visited my auntie's place in Agartala with family during summer vacation. There one night I watched the horror movie Evil Dead 1 and after that for nights after nights I used to feel scared of going anywhere alone even to the toilet. At night, squeezed in bed between my parents, I would hold my father tight with eyes shut and bury myself from head to toe under the blanket, inordinately sweating due to the damp humid summer temperature and counting 1 to 10 forward and backwards waiting for sleep to rest on my face. Horror movies used to intrigue me quite a bit during childhood days, the fad continuing even I went to the university but slowly with time I realized the futility of getting unnecessarily scared by watching a slew of horror flicks. I mean what's the point of watching a movie that frightens the wits out of you putting you on edge for several days after the nightfall ? Movies are meant for entertainment, right? No fun out of getting uncalled for fear at the cost of a price.

 

 

Back to the recipe, Chicken Spring Roll is one of the favourite snacks of mine I fascinatingly enjoy. I wanted to try it for a while and recently I bumped into a very interesting recipe of the same in a blog called Steamy Kitchen where the blog owner Jaden Hair very beautifully illustrated the recipe step by step. I was thoroughly impressed and I decided to try it. Although I added few spices of my own to jazz it up, but more or less I hewed to the recipe she followed.

Chicken and Spinach Donut

Few weeks back I wrote about how I could not tell rice flour and all-purpose flour apart because of their identical look and messed up a dish using rice flour in place of all-purpose flour confusing the two. Anyway, since then the jars of both the ingredients are kept on separate shelves with labels attached for clear identification. But what do I do when my husband keeps a glass I normally use while cooking to add water into the dishes filled with sprite on the kitchen top? Confusion is bound to happen, isn't so? as both sprite and water look alike. Just imagine my horror when I discovered that the potato curry I made with the effort of half an hour was on the brink of tasting disastrous just because what I added into my curry assuming water was actually a water look alike cold drink. My husband wanted to sip something cold after coming back from office, so he filled the only glass he caught hold of, rest being washed in the dishwasher, with sprite which he drank half and left the remaining on the counter top and went about his work, while I came into the kitchen to cook dinner. I set on to cooking Bengali aloo curry during which I felt the need to add a dash of water and there the glass containing sprite was within my reach, I grabbed it and plop it went. 

 

But here is the twist. Nothing what I was expecting happened, the taste having turned out exactly what potato curry tastes like with no trace of sweet tasting cold drink anywhere. The reason is cold drinks carries a lot of carbon-di-oxide diluted with water which just like water, if cooked, evaporates completely. Thank god, the dish meant to be dry in consistency and that's why the amount of cold drinks added was less and cooked till gravy dried up, I wonder what would have happened if the curry required gravy. Then the taste of cold drink infused gravy would have tasted nothing short of cough syrup and combined with potatoes and spices....well the very imagination bringing the pukish feeling back.

Chicken Popcorn

Big Boss House is a mad house this year with Imam in his colorful wigs, outlandish costumes, grease painted face and frequent shifts of moods continually giving us occasions of belly-aching laughter.He is such a cartoonish, albeit at times very annoying, character talking over everyone, butting his nose into the conversation of others, receiving tongue lashing and getting ignored by the other housemates, irritating people to the extent of bursting out at least once, except Niketan, everyone else gave in to his provocation and resorted to shouting , and giving repeated 'timeouts' to people including the host of the show Salman Khan who reproached him strongly for his behavior and made fun of him publicly to keep him down, but to no avail. I have never ever seen such an amusing persona, yet highly obnoxious and incorrigibly entertaining. When he is in the house, you will hardly notice others as he doesn't let anyone talk, constantly provokes other contestants specially Rajeev and wears bizarre make-ups trying everyone's patience limit. 

 

 

As a viewer, it's interesting to watch his antics and idiosyncrasies on screen, but as an inmate he is an insufferable proposition, someone to be shied away from. I will not stay with such creature even at the stake of 50 lacs.

Chicken Popcorn is my favorite treat from KFC. But not all the time you feel like going out and buying takeaways from there, especially in such freezing cold when going out means a herculean endeavor of getting into a heap of warm clothes, all I want to do is hibernating at home :) and how do I do that, one might wonder. I watch my favorite program on the idiot box while digging into a tub of homemade chicken popcorns. I tell you, you must try it out once, it's just pure bliss. Yummmmm. 

Chicken Malai Tikka

 

I love Chicken Malai Tikka. I am yet to meet someone who doesn't like it by the way. First time when I made it in Bangalore, the chicken cubes came out of the oven very stringy, the reason I realized later on was when malai tikka gets cooked inside the oven, all the moistures begin to evaporate, and hence it's important to keep basting the meat from time to time with oil. After a few attempts, what I started doing and which worked in bringing out a lip-smacking flavour was I started roasting the chicken on high heat in a non-stick pan for couple of minutes till the sides began to brown and then put them in the oven. That way the amount of time required for the chicken to be in oven for uniform baking reduces and also the moisture quotient remains intact. I kept the chicken in the oven for sharp 15 minutes and I didn't have to baste once.

 

 

Usually chicken malai tikka tastes best when served with coriander chutney, but if you don't have the chutney ready at home or like my hubby if you don't want the chutney suppressing the actual flavour of the malai tikkas, you may squeeze lemon juice onto the tikkas and have them served withvinegar soaked onion and cucumber. It tastes equally pleasing.

 

Chicken Liver Fry with Onions

I am not much of a liver fan. To be frank, I don't enjoy eating liver as much as my husband does. It

is, in fact, in order to make him happy that I cook liver curry at times, the one my mother used to

prepare at home and I used to scoff at. Anyway, very recently while buying chicken liver from a

Lebanese grocery store here, the man behind the counter shared this recipe with me which I

slightly modified suiting my taste bud. I don’t wanna sound braggart, but the liver fry turned out

absolutely tantalizing and mouthwatering. The butter sauce poured at last lent a beautiful flavour

enriching the taste of the dish beyond measure. Served with crisply toasted breads, each nibble of

this fry melted in the mouth and I could not stop hogging.

 

An apt preparation to make even the worst liver hating person begin to appreciate, I, for example,

 being transformed from a hater to an admirer, this is the ultimate way to relish liver in its

delectable best. Though I have cooked it with chicken liver, but I believe it will turn out equally

 delightful with livers of calf or lamb. Try out and lemme know.
 

Chicken Keema with Mushroom

 

Good to come back to blogging again after two weeks break. I was out on vacation for 5 days and then upon coming back, I was so tired that the next few days were spent in getting the lost energy back. Cooking was not what I was enjoying as I was recuperating from fatigue. So for two weeks I was on very light meal, not having an iota of desire to try anything new.

But now that I have got my former vigor back, I am into my experimental self again. Okay, so this curry I cooked over dinner last night and it was scrumptious to say the least, my hubby having eaten 4-5 parathas with the curry.

Mangalorean Chicken Curry

Today I was watching Dr. OZ who made a startling revelation about coconut oil as being effective in weight loss. Being born and raised in a tropical country, I am aware of the benefits the regular use of coconut oil furnishes to hair and skin, but I always knew coconut to be higher in fat content, hence associating coconut oil with the weight reduction didn't fit the bill. But the claims and subsequent demonstrations related to coconut oil helping in weight loss in Dr. OZ's show brought about a whole new perspective to my thought. According to Dr. OZ, recent medical and science research has clarified that the high content of saturated fat in coconut oil is medium chain fatty acid that is quickly absorbed in the bloodstream and immediately converted into energy with no chance of being stored thereby contributing to weight loss.

 

Now the part of India I hail from, mustard oil is the main source of consumption for cooking food. But there are many places in Southern India where coconut oil is the primary ingredient used in cooking, so much as a packet of banana chips reeking of coconut oil. One of my Mallu colleagues from Kerala declared rightly when he said that he could not live without food cooked in coconut oil. Though in Bengal, coconut oil is used in abundance to nourish hair, the same is not so true for cooking, mainly because of our culinary practice being dominated by the use of mustard oil and white oil.

 

It's popularly believed that coconut and tamarind pulp is a known combination used in South Indian cuisines. Recently I was invited over dinner by a friend who is originally from the beautiful coastal region of Mangalore. It was a simple home cooked fare that we relished to our heart's content, but the one that won our heart was the Chicken Curry concocted in typical Mangalorean fashion, the mild tartness of tamarind and the whiff of coconut and curry leaves bursting with an awesome flavour.

Chicken Roganjosh

Recently on our weekly grocery shopping, I came across a jar of Rogan Josh curry paste. Before I proceed further with my tale, allow me cast a bit of light on Rogan Josh. As the name suggests, Rogan meaning 'oil' in Persian and Josh meaning 'hot' refer to a tongue-tickling hot preparation of meat, originally of lamb meat that is laced with an array of flavorsome ingredients, the color lent by a special breed of kashmiri red chillies deseeded to minimize the heat quotient.

 

In a world of innovation when scores of women are experimenting in their kitchen to cook a known dish in a variety of novel ways, variations into Rogan Josh are only but inevitable. As a result, we have Rogan Josh not only of lamb, but of fish, chicken, mutton and so much as vegetables. Since chicken is a staple at our home than mutton or lamb, needless to say, I have tried Rogan Josh with chicken only, until now.

 

Although I yearned of making the dish right from a scratch, I couldn't resist myself buying a readymade curry paste when it was right within my grasp. In future, I might post a recipe of Chicken Rogan Josh from the basics, but for now, if you want to follow my way, get a readymade Rogan Josh curry paste from the market (any Indian grocery of your area) and set out to a culinary venture, the end result of which will have people licking their fingers to savor the last bit of flavour.    

Kolkata Chicken Biriyani with a Twist

In Kolkata, my favourite haunts for biriyani were Ali Baba and Aaminia. I was a regular there, paying visit almost once in a week. Kolkata biriyani is little different from the ones available outside

Kolkata. Kolkata biriyani is simple in concoction, less colorful with white and yellow streaks monopolizing the color and one special thing is there that I have not seen added to the biriyani of any other region - egg. Yes, you read right, egg is the specialty in Kolkata biriyani. No matter whether the order is placed for mutton or chicken biriyani, the items supplementing the biriyani in its entirety are hard-boiled eggs and big chunks of potatoes.

 

In Bangalore, our favourite joint for the same was Arsalan. Throughout Bangalore there is an array

of biriyani chains serving the delicacy in flavours, different from one another hook, line and sinker,

but the one suited our taste bud absolutely was of Arsalan, completed with an egg.

 

The following recipe slightly varies from the traditional Kolkata Biriyani, precisely for it being more

colorful in appearance to the original. For color, I have used two colors - orange and yellow food color. Unlike the traditional one, I have fried the eggs. For biriyani masala, either you may prepare the masala on your own from the very base just like me or you may opt for the one available in the market, the taste varying quite a bit then.

 

Furthermore, I have chosen to cook biriyani in microwave but if you are more oven-friendly then do the same in oven at the temperature mentioned below.
 

Chicken Bokchoy with Oyster Sauce

Today in the morning I went for my Tipic test. Last few days devoted to cramming answers bore fruit with my passing the test with flying colors at one shot. Most of the other fellow examinees departed the test centre, woebegone, for having failed. So I was really happy to have accomplished the first needful for driving license. Now at least I am eligible to take my car out on road for practice with someone owning a valid driving license accompanying me.

 

 

Driving is important if one stays in a place where we are staying now where public transport is few and far between. Last time when my hubby fell sick, I found myself in the soup due to not knowing driving. I only know how I had to struggle to keep everything in place while he was away in hospital. Bad experience makes you realize the importance of things you usually take for granted.