Yummy Chicken Hot and Sour Soup

It’s hard to believe that my yearly meal plans and cooking ideas had gotten executed with just the blink of an eye, where did the time fly? Coming out from the holiday mode, I’m back on my track focusing on my veggies and turning on to yoga a few extra times a week, how about you?

This month’s meal plan is something requested by many of you so I’ve chosen friendly and healthy recipes. These are comfortable and likeable foods my family enjoys! Autumn produce brings along a promise of substantial soups in colors that celebrates the changing leaves, my kitchen has been romancing soup these days. We have had autumn gold soup made from the flesh of chicken, beautifully fresh and fine carrot julienne and crunchy cabbage. When he wants a hearty bowl of mushroom and chicken soup in a hurry, this soup is my best friend! It’s a great way to sneak some veggies into those picky tummies while enjoying a warm bowl of soup. Hot and sour soup is a flexible version of Chinese soup, I have always slurp veg version of hot and sour soup in Mumbai consisting of chunks of garlic, ginger, bamboo shoots and of course chinese touch of vinegar and soya sauce, regularly sipping soups has practically become our dinner routine.

This incredibly fresh, healthy and savory based hot and sour soup was a win all around, I was expecting "eeew! Veggies" but he ate it right up and actually enjoyed it. I don't think I have ever been fully considered as one of those on a healthy diet as I'am eating desserts every day. Oh yes! it's one of those things I enjoy in life and don't want to give up, I would cut down to like one bite size dessert and I draw the line there, I feel happy that this soup is filled with so much of goodness that I feel okay with the dessert afterwards, Crazy!. Now do yourself a favor and make this yummy chicken soup to add up to your dinner rotation this week, don't you just want to dive into all that goodness?

Chicken Hot and Sour Soup

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 2-3 persons

Ingredients:

1 small chicken breast, boiled and shredded

1.5 cup chicken broth

1 small bowl carrot, peeled and julienne strips

1 small bowl cabbage, julienne strips

1/2 bowl capsicum, julienne

1/2 bowl chopped mushrooms

3-4 tablespoons cornflour dissolved in 1/2 cup of water

1 cup vinegar

1 cup soya sauce

1 tablespoon chopped green chilies

1 cup red chili powder

1 egg

1/2 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon cooking oil, for tempering

1 teaspoon chinese salt

Salt to taste

Directions:

• In a stock pot, pour in chicken broth and add in shredded chicken, bring it to boil on a medium flame and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, let’s make the two easy sauces that needs to be served with the hot and sour soup. For spicy based sauce, simply add 1 teaspoon red chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt to 1/2 cup white vinegar and mix well. 
• For vinegar based sauce, Add chopped green chilies and 1/2 teaspoon salt to 1/2 cup white vinegar and mix well. Set aside, You can refrigerate the sauces for later usage.
• Now add in fine julienne of carrots, cabbage, capsicum and chopped mushroom to chicken broth and cook for 1 minute on a medium flame. 
• Add 2 tablespoons soya sauce, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 teaspoon chinese salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and salt to taste. Mix well and simmer for another 1 minute.
• Dissolve cornflour in 1/2 cup of water without forming lumps, stir the cornflour paste to the soup and continue stirring until the soup mixture turns into a smooth and thick consistency (about 3-5 minutes). You can add more cornflour solution in order to achieve a better consistency (at this point you can thin the soup by adding a little more chicken broth if needed, I like mine fairly thick).
• Once the soup has transformed into the desired consistency, simply add the beaten egg into the mixture and always stir or move the ladle while you're slowly adding the beaten egg in order to create long strands of egg. Cook for 2-3 minutes and adjust the seasonings.
• In another nonstick pan, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and immediately add it into the soup mixture so that you can re-heat and re-eat the soup the very next day.
• Garnish the top with shredded chicken and black pepper or with chopped green onions, serve warm with the two hot and sour sauces. Happy Winters!

The Chicken Tikka Biryani

Firstly, I am eminently grateful for all of you who allow me to do what I love to do every single day! When I decided to lay the first stone in 2016, I never dreamed my food blog would turn out as good as prodigious. When I look back to some of my fan’s recipe requests and my popular recipes to see which one made it to top 15, it pushes me to try something new and different with food. I’m completely flabbergast at where my little hobby has taken me. None of it would be possible without all The Hoggerz fans trying and sharing my recipes, A huge THANKYOU! If you’re new here, this is always a great place to start!

I have decided to try something a little different with tikka recipe and give it a new angle this cold winter nights. Everyone heartily adores the smells and taste of tikka in my house, I have been getting tons of requests that fits in this newly developed recipe, which you can see here I thought to give a try this week and see how it goes. If you too have requests for anything in particular such as a vegetarian meal, gluten-free, kid friendly, freezer friendly, low carb, slow cooker etc let me know! For all you tikka lovers, don’t worry I’m still eating my veggies and I will continue to share a variety of recipes for you’ll as I always do!

If you’re sick of hogging tikka with naans, paratha’s or indian flat bread, then tikka biryani will be a total amazeballs meal for you and family! Tikka biryani is the same smoke filled tikka recipe, but it has a lot of different techniques and ingredients. If you love experimenting in your kitchen like I do then you should try this one. Tikka biryani is a marination of flavorful indian spices, kick of food color and aromatic yogurt gravy! My husband is a huge fan of tikka flavored meal so I thought to put the rice together and steam chicken tikka with amazingly flavored yogurt curry and this was born. Enjoy this with your loved one’s on this new year's eve! If you would like to see some of the previous easy and quick chicken tikka/tandoori recipe for weekend dinner plans then simply click here!

The Chicken Tikka Biryani

Preparation Time: 60 minutes

Cooking Time: 60 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Serves: 2-3 persons

Ingredients:

2-3 Chicken pieces, as we are a family of two I have prepared this recipe with minimal elements, you can double the quantity as needed.

1 cup basmati rice

1 cup whisk, greek yogurt

½ cup fried onion

2 sliced tomatoes

1 cup cooking oil

1 teaspoon ginger paste

1 teaspoon garlic paste

1 tablespoon red chili powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon black pepper powder

½ teaspoon hot spice powder

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon cumin powder

¼ teaspoon fennel seeds powder
1 big cardamom

2-3 cloves

½ inch cinnamon piece

¼ teaspoon orange food color

1 piece of charcoal, for smoky flavor

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons cilantro

2-3 slit green chilies

Salt to taste

Method:

• Let’s marinate the chicken first, In a bowl, marinate chicken pieces with lemon juice, 1 teaspoon ginger paste, 1 teaspoon garlic paste, ½ tablespoon red chili powder, ½ teaspoon hot spice powder, ½ teaspoon black pepper powder, orange food color and salt to taste. Mix well and keep aside for 30 minutes or 2 hours.
• In a non stick pan, heat cooking oil and cook the marinated chicken pieces undisturbed for 10-15 minutes until it becomes tender and little crisp from outsides. You can either grill, barbecue or bake the marinated chicken pieces. Drizzle cooking oil over the chicken when needed.
• Once the chicken absorbs all the flavors and gets evenly tender, give smoke with burnt coal and cover the pan for at least 15 minutes so that the chicken turn out to be smoky!
• Meanwhile, In another pan, heat ¼ cup cooking oil and fry half moon sliced onions until golden brown, add 2-3 cloves, ½ inch cinnamon piece, 1 big cardamom, sliced tomatoes, add ½ teaspoon red chili powder, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, ½ teaspoon cumin powder, ½ teaspoon fennel seeds powder, ½ teaspoon black pepper powder and cook on medium flame.
• Now add ½ cup greek yogurt and fry or bhuno until the gravy forms a smooth and thick paste. Add chopped cilantro and 2-3 slit green chilies and cover the pan, allow it to cook for 3-5 minutes on a low flame.
• Add roasted chicken tikka pieces in the gravy and mix well. Adjust the seasoning and salt of the gravy as needed.
• In a saucepan, add basmati rice in 2-3 cups of boiling water, add 2 teaspoons of salt and steam for 2-3 minutes until the rice is half cooked. Immediately strain the rice and discard all the water.
• In a pot, drizzle cooking oil and 3 tablespoons of water, layer half cooked rice and spread the chicken gravy on the top of rice spread. Add the remaining rice all over the gravy and make layers, lower the heat and cook covered for 10-15 minutes until the rice is completely steamed.
• Serve hot without breaking the rice and chicken pieces. Tikka biryani tastes best with plain yogurt raita. Enjoy!

Tea-Time Zucchini & Onion Fritters

Winter has outstretched its stay, here winter is much like summer, it has a variable temperament, its fickleness is its chief facet, although my favorite season. I have come to appreciate its turn, there is something charming in the redolence of air, the bareness of the trees, a crisp and tonic, cold morning with silvery sunlight and sometimes the gray tones of astringent winter marries well with the evening delights of warm slow-cooker soups or delicate fritters with a milky latte. Winter and rainy days naturally foster the hankering for fritters as they are crisp, healthy and unbelievably light, low calorie veggie delight for a tea time snack. I like adding different patterns of veggies and flavoring fritters so that my hubby dearest happily tucks in veggies without persnickety about the insides.