Roast chicken

Serve with a green salad and some crusty bread in summer or with roast potatoes, carrots and peas for winter – roast chicken is a dish for all seasons.

Less than 30 minspreparation time

1 to 2 hourscooking time

Serves 4

Ingredients

1. lemon
2. small bunch fresh thyme
3. 1 x 1.5-2kg/3lb 5oz-4lb 6oz free-range chicken, preferably organic
4. 2-3 garlic cloves
5. 50ml/2fl oz olive oil
6. sea salt, to taste
7. freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Slice the lemon halfway through lengthways. Insert a sprig of thyme into the slit and place the lemon inside the cavity of the chicken.
3. Make the flavoured oil. Strip the leaves from the remaining thyme stalks and place the leaves in a bowl.
4. Press the garlic cloves with the heel of your hand to lightly crush. Remove the skins and add the garlic cloves to the bowl.
5. Pour the olive oil into the bowl.
6. Using a pestle and mortar, a mini food processor or a hand blender, blend together the thyme leaves, garlic and olive oil. It should be quite liquid.
7. Spoon the thyme, garlic and oil mixture all over the chicken, working it into all the nooks and crannies.
8. Place the chicken in a roasting tray and pour over the remaining flavoured oil. Season the chicken generously with sea salt and black pepper.
9. Cover the chicken loosely with foil and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the foil and roast for another 20-30 minutes and reduce the temperature to 160C-180C/320F-350F/Gas 3-4. It's fully cooked when the juices run clear when the bird is pierced in the thigh with a skewer.
10. Turn off the oven and let the bird rest in the residual heat for at least ten minutes. Remove from the oven, then carve.
11. Stir the pan juices over the hob to heat through.
12. Serve the carved chicken on a large platter and pour the pan juices over the top.

Is that dead chicken on your plate?

Recent Research exposes the shocking practice of roadside Chinese bandis serving chicken delicacies made from dead stock purchased from poultry farms for half the price! Every other galli in Hyderbad has its own trademark roadside Chinese fast food bandi. And the 'cheap and best' dishes like chicken 65, chilli chicken, chicken lollipop, chicken manchurian that these street vendors dish out are immensely popular with everyone from the neighbourhood watchman to a sportscar high roller. But is that piping hot plate of deep-red chicken 65 safe for consumption? The truth will shock you!

I am not saying all the roadside Chinese bandis are using chicken but most of the people using dead chicken

It's not just the generous dose of ajinomoto, artificial color and stale oil that you should be worried about. In a shocking trend, many Chinese bandis are serving dishes made from chicken that died in poultry farms (dead stock)! Instead of being disposed off by incineration or burying, the decaying chicken get deep fried and find their way into your plate!

With the dead stock being sold by select poultry distributors at half the price of live chicken, Chinese bandi owners are only too happy to stock up on the dead meat to maximize their profit. That's not all. Even the seemingly harmless omelettes that are dished out at fast food bandis and kiosks that dot the city can pose a serious health hazard to street food junkies. The reason? Most of these roadside vendors buy cracked and stale eggs at subsidized rates.

Throwing light on this hazardous practice, a restaurant owner in Banjara Hills says, "It's one of the best-kept trade secrets among roadside vendors and a network of distributors who sell dead chicken. The stock is hidden from public view in the numerous cages stacked in the trucks or is delivered from poultry farms at odd times of the day. Even the cracked eggs are distributed early in the morning in rickety autos that go around selling them."

A trip to the city's busiest chicken market — the Nampally chicken market — brings to light this hushed sale of "cheapest" chicken. "We do sell cheap chicken — meat of dead poultry. I sell it to almost 80 per cent of Chinese bandis in the city and it comes at half the the price of live, healthy chicken. But you can't tell the difference between the two once its cooked," reveals a distributor in the Nampally chicken market.

There's more to worry about when it comes to eating Chinese bandi food, apart from the health hazards caused by the consumption of cooked dead stock, say animal activist NGOs. Bhuvaneshwari Gupta, nutritionist and campaign coordinator, PETA India, says, "Poultry farms disregard the most basic guidelines. Our investigations into poultry farms across India, including in Hyderabad, have shown that animal waste and dead fowl accumulate on the floor of poultry sheds. Meat, whether obtained from a dead bird or from a bird whose throat is slit with a dull knife in a filthy slaughter house, is equally unhygienic. The walls and floors of most slaughter houses are covered with urine, faeces, blood and pus. Eggs shells are contaminated with salmonella and other harmful microbes."

When we quizzed the Andhra Pradesh Poultry Federation about this shocking malpractice, D Sudhakar, president, says, "We always tell the farmers and breeders not to sell dead chicken, but to burn or bury them. We can't keep a constant watch on every poultry seller, but we can definitely advise them to refrain from resorting to such measures, in the interest of both the industry and the consumer."

Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani Recipe

Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani Recipe

‘home style’ Chicken Dum Biryani.Hyderabadi Dum Biryani is an Indian chicken and Basmati rice recipe that is cooked on Dum over slow heat. Simple recipe to make or prepare 

Ingredients:

1. 1 kg chicken, washed and drained completely
2. 2 large onions, finely sliced
3. 2 tbsps chopped coriander leaves
4. 1 tsp saffron
5. 1/2 cup luke warm milk
6. salt to taste
7. 2 tbsps ghee + 5 tbsps oil
8. For marination:
9. 3/4 cup thick curd/yogurt
10. 8-10 green chillis, make a small slit in them
11. 1 1/2 tbsps ginger garlic paste
12. 1 tbsp red chilli pwd (adjust)
13. 1/4 tsp turmeric pwd
14. 3/4 tbsp coriander pwd
15. 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
16. 3/4 cup pudina leaves
17. juice of 1 lemon
18. 1 3/4 tsps salt

Biryani masala, make pwd:

1. 8 cloves
2. 1″ cinnamon stick
3. 4 elaichi/cardamom
4. 3/4 tsp shah jeera
5. 12 pepper corns

Ingredients to cook rice:

1. 4 cups Basmati rice
2. 6 cloves
3. 3 cardamoms
4. 1″ cinnamon stick
5. 3 bay leaves
6. 1 marathi mogga
7. 1 star anise
8. 10 mint leaves
9. 1 tbsp oil
10. 1 1/2 tbsps salt
11. water as required

 Method:

1. Marinate chicken with the ingredients called for ‘marination’ along with biryani masala pwd. Keep aside for 4 hrs or a min of 1 1/2 hrs. While the chicken is marinating, work on the rest of the preparation.
2. Cook basmati rice in lots of water along with bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, marathi mogga, elaichi, oil, salt till its half cooked. Strain the water and spread the rice on a large wide plate. Allow to cool.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil + 1 tbsp ghee in a vessel, add sliced onions, saute for 8-10 mts till caramelized. Remove and keep aside.
4. Add the saffron to the luke warm milk and combine well. Keep aside.
5. Take a wide deep vessel to prepare the biryani. Add 3 tbsps oil, add the marinated chicken and spread out over the vessel. Cook on high for 2 mts. Add a tbsp of oil over the chicken pieces. Reduce flame.
6. Spread half of the rice over the chicken layer, pour half a tbsp of ghee all over the rice, add half of the caramalized onions and spread over the rice. Next sprinkle a tbsp of coriander leaves and pour about one fourth cup of saffron milk over the rice. Over this layer, spread the remaining rice. Again pour half a tbsp of ghee all over, add remaining caramelized onions and spread over the rice. Finally sprinkle a tbsp of coriander leaves and pour remaining saffron milk over the rice.
7. Place lid and over the lid place a heavy weight and seal the edges with wheat dough. Cook on high flame for 2 mts. Remove the vessel from the stove and place a iron tawa. Allow to heat. Reduce to low flame and place back the biryani vessel on the iron tawa and cook biryani for 20-25 mts. Turn off heat and do not remove lid for 10 mts.


8. After 10 mts, remove lid, combine gently and serve hot with raita and curry of your choice.

Crisp Chicken Wings

Crisp Chicken Wings


Oriental style chicken wings in spicy marinade, twice fried.Very tasty way to make wings. You can dip them in your favorite sauce when baked or they are yummy as is.

Ingredients:

1.     6 chicken wings-pricked in 2-3 places
2.     1 egg-slightly beaten
3.     1 cup cornstarch / cornflour
4.     1 tsp garlic paste
5.     1 tsp ginger paste
6.     1 tsp salt
7.     oil for deep-frying

Method:

1. Mix together the chicken, egg, cornflour, garlic and ginger paste, 1 tsp salt and enough water so that the chicken pieces are `coated' with the batter.
2. Leave thus about 1 an hour.
3. Heat the oil and deep-fry the chicken wings over high heat to begin with and then lower the heat till wings are almost cooked through.
4. Drain on absorbent paper.
5. Just before serving, heat the oil again and fry the wings in hot oil till brown, drain on absorbent paper and serve.

Chicken price out of reach

The rising mercury levels in the State are literally keeping the people on the edge and so is the case with the prices of chicken.

With temperatures hovering above 40 degree Celsius, the cost of chicken has almost doubled to about Rs.180 per kg, leaving food lovers in a sticky situation.

While the price of a kilo of a fully dressed chicken was between Rs.80 to Rs.90 a few weeks ago, citizens are forced to shell out that much amount for a ‘live' bird.

That is not all; poultry industry experts say that the high temperatures are taking the toll on the birds as they are failing to gain weight.

“Because of heat, birds are not eating, resulting in poor weight. With already high mortality rate among the poultry and failure to gain enough weight by the live birds, the availability of the chicken has taken a plunge,” said K.G. Anand, general manager of Venkateswara Hatcheries.

Apart from excessive the heat, the prices of the chicken feed have also increased tremendously and this too is affecting the total cost, he explained.

“There is an acute shortage of corn and soya, major ingredients of the chicken feed, resulting in the increase in the cost of each kilo of chicken feed by Rs.16. On an average, a chicken has to be fed with four kilos the feed for it to gain sufficient weight, so there is an increase of Rs. 64 per chicken in the input costs,” Mr. Anand said.

Though MeT officials predict that the capital will receive rainfall soon, Mr. Anand said that the prices of chicken will not drop back to the earlier levels of Rs.80 per kg.

“Among all other meat forms, chicken is the only meat that is available throughout the year. While fish is available only during few seasons, availability of mutton is also not satisfactory owing to the lack of grazing pastures. Even vegetables will not be available till July-end and hence demand for chicken will be high,” he observed.

But, mercifully, the high chicken prices will not have an effect on the cost of eggs, according to K.V.S. Subba Raju of National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC). “Eggs are available for Rs.2.60 each and we do not fore see any drastic increase in their prices”, he said.

The mortality rate of chicken or sweltering heat does not have much of an effect on egg production and at the most the prices might go up to Rs.3.50 per egg, he added.