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
- Put all ingredients except the chicken in a blender and liquefy.
- Put chicken chunks in a gallon-sized heavy-duty zippered storage bag.
- Pour the blended sauce into the bag and seal (make sure it is tightly sealed with as little air in the bag as possible.
- Clean everything (since you've been handling raw chicken)!
- From the sanitary safety of the outside of the bag, massage the sauce into the raw chicken for a few minutes.
- Lay the bag flat in your refrigerator approx. 8 hours or so.
- 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.
