Topic: Marinading chicken

[Peripatetic Phil]

With the current level of snow, my wife trapped in London, and little to do except cook curry (!), I decided today to see what improvement (if any) pre-marinading will make to this evening's meal.  I have made a ginger, garlic and yoghurt marinade with Bassar curry masala (1 rounded teaspoon), hand-ground black cumin (1 flat teaspoon), lemon juice (1 teaspoon), salt (1 teaspoon) and small mint leaves (eight); in this I have put two skinned-but-not-boned chicken legs, slashed tandoori-style), rubbed the marinade well in, and the whole is now sitting in the 'fridge for a few hours.

Further reports later, as the meal progresses and is eventually eaten ...

** Phil.

[parker21]

hi phil have you seen heston blumenthals series in "search of perfection" chicken tikka masala? he took  2 pieces of chicken marinading 1 in g&g paste and the other g&g and yoghurt to a scientist mate who has an MRI scanner for food and then scanned the for 5 hours. as you saw the film of the scan the yoghurt based marinade had penetrated much more than the other! the yoghurt also protects the chicken when cooking leaving the meat moistier

hope you enjoy your meal , will be doing chicken vindaloo later still trying to shake a cold and its bloody freezing down here in kent -6.5 deg C snow and frezing fog now
regards
gary

[Peripatetic Phil]

hi phil have you seen heston blumenthals series in "search of perfection" chicken tikka masala?

No, 'fraid not : we watch hardly any terrestrial television, and about the only thing the set goes on for is cycling (and occasionally snooker) on Eurosport !
 

he took  2 pieces of chicken marinading 1 in g&g paste and the other g&g and yoghurt to a scientist mate who has an MRI scanner for food and then scanned the for 5 hours. as you saw the film of the scan the yoghurt based marinade had penetrated much more than the other! the yoghurt also protects the chicken when cooking leaving the meat moistier

Yep, that was my theory : should know real soon now 

hope you enjoy your meal , will be doing chicken vindaloo later still trying to shake a cold and its bloody freezing down here in kent -6.5 deg C snow and freezing fog

I am in Kent, so come on over to Chainhurst if you want to try the results !

** Phil.

[JerryM]

Phil,

looking fwd to report. the use of fresh mint is of particular interest as i've only used dry and fully believe a high amount of mint crucial in the "tikka" glory.

worth a look too is the ashoka - i make it all the time (24hr marinade ideally) when i can't do tikka.

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3189.msg28438#msg28438

[Peripatetic Phil]

looking fwd to report. the use of fresh mint is of particular interest as i've only used dry and fully believe a high amount of mint crucial in the "tikka" glory.

worth a look too is the ashoka - i make it all the time (24hr marinade ideally) when i can't do tikka.

Strangely enough, it was Panpot's Ashoka marinade that was my inspiration for this, but for reasons of personal preference I chose to jettison the turmeric, tomato puree and oil, and to replace them with kala jeera, mint and yoghurt. 

After marinading, I gently heated five tablespoons of oil and "bhooned" about two teaspoons of Bassar curry masala and one teaspoon of turmeric for a few minutes, then added the chicken, increased the heat, and continued to cook the chicken, turning continually (remember it was still on the bone : I just separated the main joint before cooking) until it was part-cooked.  I then added my normal quantity of KD2 base and proceeded to make a KD1-style Chicken Madras.

The end results were "interesting" : certainly edible, but not a dish I have ever tasted in a BIR.  The garlic and ginger really came through, but the mint seemed to have got lost without trace.  I reserved one chicken leg, and I may try a Chicken Tikka jhoul today with the left-over sauce from yesterday.

Incidentally, mint is really easy to grow : of all the herbs on our patio, it and the chives seem to have the best life, easily outgrowing all except the rosemary, whilst any attempt to grow coriander results in very fat happy snails and slugs, who if forced will instead eat Greek flat-leaf parsley but turn their noses up at English curly parsley !

** Phil.

[parker21]

hi phil was it fresh garden mint by colemans or just fresh mint, most restaurants i have been to use colemans in their marinade as it is also used to make the lamb tikka therefore only having to mix 1 marinade. just a thought. btw mate i'm in biddenden so not too far away. made my vindaloo lastnight just after i froze my n**s walking the dogs it was -7 by the time i went 2 bed it was 0 degrees, how much chilli powder lol
enjoy the rest of your weekend
regards
gary

[Peripatetic Phil]

hi phil was it fresh garden mint by colemans or just fresh mint,

Straight out of the garden. Gary (despite the snow); Mr Coleman didn't get a look in.

most restaurants i have been to use colemans in their marinade as it is also used to make the lamb tikka therefore only having to mix 1 marinade. just a thought. btw mate i'm in biddenden so not too far away. made my vindaloo last night just after i froze my n**s walking the dogs it was -7 by the time i went 2 bed it was 0 degrees, how much chilli powder lol enjoy the rest of your weekend regards gary

Biddenden ?  That is cycling distance (if it weren't so d@mned cold); I can see that you and I are going to have to swap a "come dine" one day soon, even if some of the others can't make it...

** Phil.

P.S. Tried tikka'ing the remaining leg, but the g/g flavour was too strong, so it is now marinading in the left-over sauce and will be served as Chicken Tikka Jhoul tomorrow.

[Razor]

Tried tikka'ing the remaining leg, but the g/g flavour was too strong

arr, did you blend your own or did you use jarred  ;D

Ray

[Secret Santa]

hi phil was it fresh garden mint by colemans or just fresh mint, most restaurants i have been to use colemans in their marinade

I seriously doubt that any BIR whether eat in or takeaway use fresh mint any more. They probably use Coleman's just like us!

[Peripatetic Phil]

arr, did you blend your own or did you use jarred  ;D

My own (of course) : just too much of it ! (Oops : not what I meant -- too late at night.  I meant "too much garlic & ginger" : the mint just disappeared into the noise).

** Phil.