Curried Chicken Salad

Every once in awhile I have leftover chicken and I think that it'd be a good idea to make chicken salad.  It almost never is.  A good idea I mean.  It just usually tastes gross and has a weird texture because I get lazy and don't want to chop it so I put in the generic magic bullet and then it becomes pasty.  Anyway, this one was an exception!  The flavor was good, Indian spices basically, and I chopped it into cubes instead of trying to make it all small.  Also toasted cashews.  There were lots in there.  And onions, and green onions, and tomatoes.

Serve on a lettuce leaf because there is no bread at home!

It actually looks fancier that way anyway!  

Palak Murgh

So I'm pretty happy with the outcome of this one.  It was basically born out of a need to use up some baby spinach.  It's basically chicken breast pieces cubed, sauteed with tons of onions and garlic, and then I thre in all the usual spices.  Then all the leftover spinach and just let it stew for a bit.  No liquid was added, that pretty much all came out of the spinach.  Seriously it was good!

Close up of the simmering action!

Serve with a parotta and a dollop of yogurt.  This meal was actually pretty healthy I think and also delicious!

Late Summer BBQ

Ok yes, it's October now but the weather has been awesome so it still feels like summer.  This was actually done about a month ago so it really was summer then.  There was a big art fair going on in our neighborhood so we invited some friends over to check that out and then have a BBQ.  This is the food that we came up with.

First up, a salad.  I don't like salads but this combo I made up was actually good!  The greens were baby spinach leaves and there were chopped up sundried tomatoes and toasted pecans mixed throughout.  But the best part was the homemade salad dressing concocted with random things we had.  The base was olive oil and pomegranate balsamic vinegar to make a really good vinaigrette.  Also in the dressing was some minced garlic, salt, peppers, spicy mustard, and a little brown sugar.  It was really good!!

Here's the total meal with the salad, cornbread, kebabs, potato salad, and fruit.  The potato salad and fruit were brought in by friends but the rest we made.  I already talked about the salad, now for the cornbread.  I used a boxed mix but altered it a bit to make it delicious.  First off, I added more milk than it called for plus some melted butter to make it softer. Then I mixed in some jalepeno cheese and topped it with green onions. It was super good!

The kebabs were also great.  The basic structure was chicken, green pepper, and onions.  I made three kinds, one was gluten free for a friend of ours and it just had some olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Another was marinated in soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, and a bit of spicy mustard.  And the third was slathered in BBQ sauce from Oklahoma Joe's in KC. They were all great but the Asian style was my favorite.

And the best part? Leftovers to enjoy for dinner later in the week!

Seriously Good Tacos

There are two things that can happen when Ruchir gets hungry.  One: he makes a weird concoction - examples are grilled squirrel, octopus, beaver, etc.  Two: he makes something amazingly delicious!

This is chicken that has been stewing in a wonderful mix of all sorts of delicious things.

Serve with pepperjack cheese, cilantro, taco sauce, and  use Jarritos or Mexican Coke to wash it all down!

Thai Coconut Curry Rice

I was rummaging around the cupboards looking for something to eat when I unearthed this old forgotten box of Thai Rice mix.

I love Thai food, especially this coconut chicken curry from Thai Gai Yang which was close to my old apartment. So I decided to add some things to this rice mix to make it more like that delicious curry I crave. I sauteed some ginger, garlic, and green chilies. Then I added some of the chicken that I had roasted (yes, I'm still trying to use it up!). And then to the rice mix, instead of the water that I was supposed to add, I added some coconut milk. Mixed it all together and it was a pretty good meal!

Roast Chicken

After returning from veg land (north India), I went on a meat buying spree. I made an impulse buy and bought a whole roast chicken. It was only 4 bucks and it was fairly easy to make. I didn't have that much on hand so I just rubbed it with olive oil, stuffed a ton of butter under the skin, threw some potatoes and onions an garlic cloves in the pot and let it go. Sometimes simple is good because the chicken turned out very moist with delcious crackly skin.

I made a gravy with the browned bits and some cheap white wine that I got at a Christmas party. The gravy was a little boozy so Ruchir didn't have any (he's a teetotaler: ). I ate it with some mashed potatoes and a salad. I always douse my salads in this special dressing that I created because otherwise I generally hate greens. But that will be described another time. Anyway, verdict on this meal...mmmm!

A note about this pictures, the ones in this post and probably most of the ones to come are taken with my phone. I can just email the pictures in and it's just so much easier than hauling out the camera, loading onto the computer, then uploading it to the site. So hopefully the quality isn't too bad!