A few months back, my family and I went for shopping and stayed out all day, I mean it was almost 15 hours! We had left right after breakfast. 7 hours into shopping and we were starving. We started looking around the streets of Riyadh for an Indian restaurant.
You might be wondering why specifically Indian cuisine? I mean with all the multitudes of option obviously available why not try something new. Well because my parents being desi and all think that there's no food better than desi food.
Anyhow, after almost an hour we finally ended up in front of a South Indian restaurant. Upon entering itself, the mouth-watering and delicious smell of fresh mint hit me, and just like that I was almost salivating! My very first concern was that delicious smell and on asking I was told is Mint Chicken, a dish I was unfamiliar with but was highly popular with their regular customers. Being me, I ordered it without a second thought. 15 minutes after waiting patiently, it finally arrived and I finally got to feast my eyes on the beauty that was this dish. Brown, juicy & tender looking chicken in front of me, roasted to true perfection with mint and various other herbs. 'Twas beautiful, I tell you. It tasted like what Tandoori Chicken combined with Green Chutney tastes like. But this time the Green Chutney was in the chicken instead of being on the side as a dip.
You might be wondering why specifically Indian cuisine? I mean with all the multitudes of option obviously available why not try something new. Well because my parents being desi and all think that there's no food better than desi food.
Anyhow, after almost an hour we finally ended up in front of a South Indian restaurant. Upon entering itself, the mouth-watering and delicious smell of fresh mint hit me, and just like that I was almost salivating! My very first concern was that delicious smell and on asking I was told is Mint Chicken, a dish I was unfamiliar with but was highly popular with their regular customers. Being me, I ordered it without a second thought. 15 minutes after waiting patiently, it finally arrived and I finally got to feast my eyes on the beauty that was this dish. Brown, juicy & tender looking chicken in front of me, roasted to true perfection with mint and various other herbs. 'Twas beautiful, I tell you. It tasted like what Tandoori Chicken combined with Green Chutney tastes like. But this time the Green Chutney was in the chicken instead of being on the side as a dip.
Fast forward to last week when my brain finally got energized - after midnight that is - I decided to recreate my favorite roasted chicken. I roughly thought of what ingredients should be in it and luckily all of them were available at home. After mixing all the spices, I marinated the chicken for about 6 hours as sleep took over me at 3 a.m and I woke up around 9 am. The chicken was ready right in time for lunch, after being roasted for almost an hour. It wasn't exactly like the one I had at the restaurant but somewhat close.
Alhumdulillah this was another one of my food experiment that turned out great!
Time for you to gather all your spices and learn how to make this Green Chicken I've been ranting about.
Ingredients:
- Chicken whole 900 grams
- Yogurt 1/2 cup
- Ginger paste 1 tsp
- Garlic paste 1 tsp
- Coriander powder 1 tsp
- Black pepper powder 2 tsp
- Whole black pepper 1 tsp
- Cloves 1/2 tsp
- Green chillis chopped 1/4 cup (depending on how spicy you want it)
- Coriander half bunch
- Mint leaves 1/2 cup
- Bay leaves
- Lemon juice 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
Directions:
- Rub chicken with salt.
- Add yogurt, ginger & garlic paste, Coriander powder, green chillis, half bunch Coriander, 1/4 cup mint leaves, lemon juice and salt to a blender and make a paste.
- Now add the paste to the chicken. Make sure you get it under the skin and inside aswell.
- Marinate it for 3-4 hours or overnight.
- Remove the chicken from the fridge atleast 30 minutes before putting it in the oven.
- Stuff it with the bay leaves, cloves, black pepper and the remaining mint leaves & Coriander, this will give your chicken a great aroma of fresh herbs and spices.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°c.
- Now put in the Chicken and roast it for 1 hour 15 minutes. The time might vary depending on your stove settings.
- When the chicken is golden brown remove it and let it cool down for 10 mins before cutting.
- Serve with your favorite chicken sauce and enjoy!
