Chicken Cafreal Roast

Sounds like an elaborate recipe, huh? Well, wait till you make this. My husband expressed his desire to eat something baked or roasted this week instead of the regular ‘curry’ fare. So, I looked through some recipe books and found one, whose ingredients intrigued me, and this looked doable in an oven.

Ingredients:

Chicken drums & thighs (skinless) – 8 pieces
Coriander seeds – 2tbsp
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Peppercorns – 1tsp
Green Cardamom – 6-8
Cinnamon small pieces – 3-4
Cilantro – ½ bunch
Garlic cloves – 2 cloves
Ginger – 1 inch
Green chillies – 6-8
Onion – cut into rings
Salt to taste
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Non stick spray

Before heading out to pick up my daughter from day care, I dry-roasted the spices and ground them in a coffee grinder. The cilantro leaves, garlic, ginger and chilli were ground to a paste with a little water in magic bullet grinder. I tossed the chicken, ground spices and the cilantro puree in a Ziploc bag. To this, I added salt and olive oil and then, zipped the bag to toss the ingredients inside. Left this in the fridge for an hour or two.

On arriving home, I set the oven to ‘convectional roast’ mode at 350 F. The chicken pieces were lined in a roasting tray and put in the oven. Because roasting chicken takes time, I headed off to give some dinner to my toddler. After 30 minutes, when the chicken looked half done, I sprayed the non-stick spray and sprinkled the onion rings on top. This cooked for another half hour while I enjoyed some gardening activities with my little one.

My husband and I were really hungry by now. So, when the chicken was already in the oven for about an hour (including preheating time), I increased the temperature to 400F and cooked an additional 15 minutes. The chicken was perfectly cooked in an hour and fifteen minutes.

What a sumptuous dinner it was! And I can’t but help but write with pride that the little 'chi'-lover (chi - that's what she calls chicken) ate a part of it even after a full dinner and an entire bottle of milk. Although she did agree it was spicy for her – however did not want to give up ☺ I often underestimate my daughter's spice handling capacity. Kids love freshly cooked food that tastes good, I tell ya – try it!