Tikka Room

As you may have seen previously, we have started getting a bin of random produce delivered every two weeks. Sometimes, we get fruits and veggies that we are very familiar with and can incorporate into our weekly meal preparation without much difficulty, sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zone and try something new.

In our most recent bin, most everything was pretty usual: cabbage, lettuce, sweet corn, blueberries, etc. But we also received about a dozen sprigs of fresh mint. Now I've eaten recipes with a teaspoon or two of mint, but what to do with that much mint? Well, obviously some form dessert comes to mind first -- probably something with chocolate. BUT, I am not the dessert maker in the house. So, if it is up to me find the creative use for an ingredient, then most of the time I will opt for something a bit more on the savory side.

Enter: Chicken Tikka.

According to WikiPedia, this dish is South Asian, though the various sources I found on the web when figuring out how to make it were not so conclusive -- while several agreed with WikiPedia that it was Indian, some said it was Middle Eastern, and at least one even said Mediterranean.

At first glance, with several very strong-flavored ingredients, it sounds like this would be horrible, but all the flavors blended in very interesting ways to result in a very tasty, flavorful meal.

Chicken Hariyali Tikka

• 1 cup chopped cilantro


• 1/2 cup chopped mint
• 
  
• 1 Tbsp. minced garlic


• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice


• 4oz. can of green chilies


• 1 Tbsp. ground ginger


• 1/2 cup water


• 4 boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

1. Put all ingredients except the chicken in a blender and liquefy.


2. Put chicken chunks in a gallon-sized heavy-duty zippered storage bag.


3. Pour the blended sauce into the bag and seal (make sure it is tightly sealed with as little air in the bag as possible.


4. Clean everything (since you've been handling raw chicken)!


5. From the sanitary safety of the outside of the bag, massage the sauce into the raw chicken for a few minutes.


6. Lay the bag flat in your refrigerator approx. 8 hours or so.


7. Skewer the hunks of chicken and grill

When all was done, we still had a couple of sprigs of mint left, so after the kiddos went to bed, we polished those off in the form of Mojitos.