DIET DELIGHT

Diet Delight - LEMON CHICKEN WITHOUT OIL

SAY NO TO OIL, for a change, EVEN FOR NON-VEG !

Sounds weird ?? Well, it does. But I can guarantee, you will be very pleasantly surprised with this healthy, yet tasty dish. AND simplest possible recipe, yummy looking , too !! There are certain dishes, which are tasty, but do not look great. This one does.

The only thing required for this recipe is your knack to know when to cook covered, when to stir-fry, when to increase flame, when to simmer and when to sprinkle water while stirfrying !! I know, every cook usually develops this knack somehow. For the beginners, messing up a couple of times does teach them these cooking tricks!!

I would give credit for this recipe to my sis-in-laws – I had heard it from them ( not tasted ) , experimented and did a lot of self-patting ( ha, ha) .

How I prepare it :

Wash & clean regular chicken pieces ( with bones ). In a non-stick pan, mix chicken pieces with finely chopped Onions, Ginger, Garlic flakes, green chilli and freshly ground black pepper, lemon juice and salt to taste. Put the mix on flame – first cook covered on medium to low fire, so that chicken gets cooked. Initially, the mix will leave water of its own – keep on cooking by covering for some time and stir-frying uncovered for some time . Be careful about the flame , as there is no oil and no water . While stir-frying, to prevent sticking to pan or getting burnt, just sprinkle water to make it moist as it starts getting fried - Do this till the chicken is done and looks fried with a nice coat of onion & other ingredients – leaving the sides of the pan even without oil. ( don’t worry- it may stick just a little bit ). Taste to adjust salt and lemon towards the end .

L.oo. the dish is over .

A few tips : For 10/12 pieces of chicken, take about 2 to 3 onions( medium ), 10/12 flakes of garlic, 3/4^th inch of ginger, ½ of a small green chilli ( as quite a bit of pepper is going into it, decide on green chilli to suit how much hot you would like it – I recommend more of pepper). Basically,quantity of all these should be adequate to give a comfortable rolly-polly to the chicken pieces – erring on a slightly higher side ( except in salt, lemon juice & green chilli ) should be okay, rather than taking less of these than required. And chop finely.

Be careful about lemon juice – excess of it will spoil the taste. One small juicy lemon should be okay for the above quantity. Better, put about half of the juice first, after chicken is cooked (or when you can taste it), check and put the rest as required.

I promise, it tastes heavenly if ingredients go in right measure and frying is done properly to give it that nice blackish-red colour, even without red chilli. Onion with lemon juice gets that reddish colour.

I will come back with another recipe without oil for mutton (goat meat) ! Do not jump off your seat ( ha, ha) .