Topic: Marinating chicken prior to pre-cooking????

[kbmason79]

Hello All,

I have just watched a video by Julian from C2G where he suggests marinating your meat in yogurt, garam masala,mustard oil and G&G paste before you pre cook it.

Has anyone tried this or something similar before? (any recipes would be great)

Also I am after a recipe for pre cooking chicken? anyone point me in the right direction please!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AierdApIQj0

[goncalo]

there is plenty of recipes around here for chicken tikka marinades. If you have julian's book you have recipes for both your questions.

My favorite tikka marinade on this forum is blade's better than bir, although I don't like the tandoori paste and use tikka paste instead.

For precooking, my favorite standalone precooking method is Julian/C2Gs and recently I've been experimenting the cooking of the chicken in the base and I must be honest, I had the most succulent and tastey chicken since I started my march towards BIR cooking. A simple idea is:

fill pot with water
1 tsp of turmeric
1 tsp of mix powder
2 tsp of garam masala
1 tsp of salt
1-2 tbsp of ghee
aromatic wholes to taste (green/black cardamom, cloves, bay leaf, star anise, fennel, etc)

[Geezah]

For a non overpowering, succulent chicken thats full of flavour I have to promote Stephen Lindasy's recipe from his Murgh Makhani recipe.

Its not chicken Tikka as such, but it tasted awesome.

4 chicken breasts, cubed
1 1/2 tsp. salt
juice of 1 lemon
4 tbsp. natural yogurt (more if required but enough to coat the chicken)
3 to 4 tbsp. vegetable oil (optional)
4 tbsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. red chilli powder (less if you don?t want it spicy)
2 tsp. tandoori masala
2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (optional)
1 tsp. finely chopped or crushed ginger
3 tsp. finely chopped or crushed garlic
3 to 4 finely chopped green chills (or less if you want less heat)

Stage 1 - Method:

1. Rub the salt and lemon juice into the chicken
2. Whisk the yoghurt, add vegetable oil and spices.  If you want a less fattening mixture, omit the oil and increase the amount of yoghurt
3. Add the ginger, garlic and chillis
4. Coat the chicken in the marinade, preferably in a glass bowl and marinade overnight or for at least 6 hours.
5. Preheat your oven as high as it will go, and when ready to cook the chicken, turn it down to Gas Mark 6.
6. Place the chicken on a foiled baking sheet or roasting dish, cook for approximately 15 to 20 minutes then remove and drain off the juices.

[RubyDoo]

I have stopped pre cooking chicken on home basis other than Tikka of course. I find it adds nothing to the dish flavour wise. Big point also for me us that if I pre cook then it makes sense to do it in bulk. That bulk then has to be frozen having been frozen once already, raw. I then defrost and make a dish. No probs but if there is a significant amount left over then it goes to waste on the freezing 'rules'. Most dishes can be made easily with raw chicken. Just add early in the dish and seal properly. Left overs can then be safely frozen. 

I think that makes sense. On second bottle of vino tinto. 

[goncalo]

I think that makes sense. On second bottle of vino tinto. 

portuguese wine, eh? ;-)

[Malc.]

Did I here right, "it's good to have a bleach soaked cloth when working with raw chicken"? He then goes on to put his bleach soaked hands into the chicken! 

[natterjak]

Did I here right, "it's good to have a bleach soaked cloth when working with raw chicken"? He then goes on to put his bleach soaked hands into the chicken! 

Probably far worse than that goes on in the average BIR kitchen! But yeah, not the best idea is it?

[Ghoulie]

interesting prog by Blumenthal on the tv ages ago where he was trying to emulate indian street butter chicken dish via making a chicken tikka first.

he proved via an MRI scan that the use of yogurt in the marinade carries the marinade further into the chicken than not using yogurt.  clever stuff

[goncalo]

interesting prog by Blumenthal on the tv ages ago where he was trying to emulate indian street butter chicken dish via making a chicken tikka first.

he proved via an MRI scan that the use of yogurt in the marinade carries the marinade further into the chicken than not using yogurt.  clever stuff

Thanks for this tidbit. I've decided to postpone precooking of 3kg of breasts for tomorrow and have washed, oiled, spiced, lemoned and yogurted the chicken for tomorrow and hoping for some improvement!

[Tommy Timebomb]

I also started my curry making journey with Julians marinate method and think I asked this question myself a while back.
I must say that since then I have got lazy and not been doing this, I quite often regret the resulting tenderness and taste etc.
Most of the time however I have moved over to using Mickthebass Tikka marinate as I've become a chick tik junkie so rarely use it.

One other trivial reason is that I tend to get round to making things on the impulse and never have any yogurt in the house immediately at hand, and being too lazy to go out to the shops Mickthebass's non yogurt version has all the ingredients at hand substituting the fresh lemon for bottled lemon juice.