Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Soma Chaudhuri’s Methi-Murg Kebab, Not Just Another Chicken Kebab!

So Soma sent me her famous Methi-Murg Kebab one day. Nothing would be simpler to knock out than this chicken kebab recipe of hers. Methi Murg_Soma
Apparently, she stumbled onto this recipe in a tandoori cookbook many years ago in Calcutta. Since then she has played with the ingredients, and given it a Soma-touch! 

Soma_C_MM

And this is something I made up of her Methi-Murg Kebab.
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I have to admit, I did tweak Soma’s recipe a bit. I thought of playing around the idea of adding some yogurt in the marinade would make the kebabs more moist. Soma’s Methi-Murg Kebabs taste delicious and look really beautiful on a massive platter in the middle of a table. And the leftovers, if any can sneak into your pita/tortilla/paratha with some greens the next day for a take-to-work lunch!

Ingredients for Methi-Murg Kebabs are:

3 chicken breasts, cut in two-inch pieces
Half cup plain yogurt
3-4 tablespoons plain cream cheese
1 heaped tablespoon ginger paste
1 heaped tablespoon garlic paste
1 heaped teaspoon green chilli paste
Juice of one large lemon
Half teaspoon red chilli powder
2 tablespoons kasturi methi leaves, crushed
2 tablespoons besan
Bell pepper squares for skewering with the kebabs later
1 egg beaten, for basting
Salt
Oil

010Make a marinade with the yogurt, cream cheese, lemon juice, ginger-garlic-green chilli, red chilli, kasturi methi and salt. Make sure you break down the cream cheese to mix well with the rest of the ingredients.

Now add the chicken pieces, and coat the marinade well. Keep covered in the fridge for at least 6-8 hours.

027There are two steps to making this kebab. Heat a pan until really hot. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil and add the besan, quickly stirring and reducing the heat to low-medium so that we don’t burn the besan. After about 2-3 minutes of stirring the besan in the oil, dunk the marinated chicken into it (with the marinade). Cook the chicken on high for 10-12 minutes or until half-cooked, moving continuously and coating the chicken well with the besan and its marinade. Remove and let it cool for you to handle it.

028030Add the green (or red/yellow/orange) bell peppers to the half-cooked chicken and let it sit for 10 minutes. When you are ready to cook, heat a grill pan or you can even do this in a gas tandoor or broil.

032Skewer the chicken and bell peppers alternately to go on the grill. If you are using bamboo skewers, make sure you soak them in water for sometime to prevent them from cracking under the heat. I use metal skewers, because I want mine to see me through the rest of my life!

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Baste the skewered chicken and bell peppers lavishly with the beaten egg. Your grill pan should be really hot before you drizzle some oil on it.

034Place each skewer gently on your grill pan and let it cook on each side for 3-4 minutes.

PreeOccupiedTurn and baste with the egg and some more oil, till you get a beautiful char on all sides.

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038Remove the kebabs from the pan and serve with salad, onion rings, and green chutney on the side. Preferably on that lovely platter you have been keeping away to serve a star dish.

5 comments:

Home Cooked Oriya Food said...

amazing kebabs... love it!

Seema said...

Have been waiting for the recipe ever since I saw this on your FB page. Thanks to you for the stap by step pics and Soma for sharing the recipe in the first place.

Hey, I have a query here? Is there anything I can substitute in place of cream cheese?

Also, can u please share your recipe for the green chutney that is served with kebabs?

Regards,
Seema

PreeOccupied said...

Seema, try heavy/whipping cream instead of cream cheese. That should work well too. The idea is to give the kebabs a creamy/melt-in-the-mouth texture.

And the green chutney recipe is here: http://preeoccupied.blogspot.com/2010/04/dhone-patar-chaatney.html

Hope this helps.

GB said...

Good to see you post recipes up here again--those look delish. I'd never thought of using cream cheese in a marinade--have to try it sometime.

:)

Vetirmagal said...

This is by far the authentic detailed recipe, so far I have seen on the net.
Thanks for sharing this in detail with all foodies!

This is in list of must try .