PEST0 chicken- INdian style

I had made this pesto sauce a week back, and had stored it. Even after making pasta out of it, there still some leftovers!!!!! Chicken would invariably be my guinea-pig whenever I am in mood to try something new!!!!!!

And tis recipe I had madefor my office colleague, but this can be good addition tobhouse parties as well. Oeing to the less number of ingrediamts and hassel free it is, from now on this might be one if my regular picks as well. Moreover, this is economic as well!!!! Perfect for eeekend trips......

After a lot of reading about the pesto chicken topic, I wasn't happy at all.  The process of cooking which includes layering the chicken with the pesto sauce and then baking it in the oven was not me at all.  Is is then that I decided to give this a t2ist and make it myway, oure desi style!!!!! Afterall fusion is in.....

While this recipe is a mixture of all those that I have read (while I wasn't cooking for a long time), people can tweak it according to their own sensibilities & tastes. It would be good if one can completely stick to green chillies, but me the ardent fan of dry red chillies couldn't stop myself from adding two whole red chillies while cooking. Not only did the humble dry babies brought in some colour to the dish, also they helped in a bit of garnish while serving the dish. The main part of this dish would be making the Pesto right. Here's the recipe

PESTO

INGREDIANTS:

• 50g Pine nuts
• A large bunch of basil leaves (i had used about 100gms)
• 50g Parmesan cheese
• 150ml Olive oil
• 2 fat cloves of garlic

METHOD:

• Tip the nuts into a dry pan and dry roast for about 5mins.
• Whizz all the ingrediants together to get a slightly chunky mixture.
• Store in an air-tight container, and top it with enough Olive oil.

Well, the recipe given above is the authentic original recipe of Pesto. But i have tweaked it a bit, accoding to my convinience and ingrediant availability. I had replaced the pine nuts with the normal walnuts, and the parmesan with Gouda cheese. I had also increased the number of garlic cloves to 4!!! Once you get this right, your battle in a lot ways is won. And find the recipe of the chicken below:

INGREDIANTS:

• 250gm yoghurt
• 2 medium onions, boilef
• 1 large onion choppe
• 6 green chillies + 3 chillies, chopped
• 5 fat garlic cloves
• 1kg chicken (one can use boneless pieces, but the cannibal in me gets great pleasure while separating the meat from the bone)
• 3 dry red chillies
• 1tbsp ginger garlic paste
• Salt & sugar to taste
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2.5 heaped tbsp pesto sauce

the bowl after scrapping the marinade and pesto mixture

chicken happily simmering away

the ready chicken packed in tiffin boxes for my dear colleagues

METHOD

• 
  
• Boil the onions, meanwhile wash the chicken and keep aside. Try making smaller cuts, that way the chicken cooks easily, and is pretty well quoted with the sauce.
• Now make a paste with the yoghurt, green chilli & boiled onions, try and make a smooth paste.
• Marinate the chicken overnite with this white marinade.
• Heat the oil, add the chopped onions, and the dry red chillies. Add the sugar after a while, the sugar caramalises and gives a nice colour.
• Once the onion starts caramalising add in the choppes garlic, the ginger-garlic paste and the green chillies, and in a couple of minutes add the marinated chicken to the pan. Mix well with the masala. At this stage if you want you can also add a bit of water to the chicken pieces.
• Mix the pesto with the remaining marinade mixture with some water.
• Once the chicken is well wuoted with the onion garlic masala, add in the pesto marinade, mix well, lower the flame, and allow it to cook. You can adjust the salt at this time.
• Once it comes to a bubble and the gravy reduces, the dish is ready to be served.

That's it!!! You can always replace the homemade pesto with store bought ones, both are equally good!!and you are ready to enjoy compliments and love of your loved ones.........
Will be back soon!!!