It wasn't Martin Biron's chicken, but very fresh and tasty all the same.
All-natural Perdue. Who knew?
I've never attempted Tandoori in my life, since I figured one had to have a special oven. So the results were surprising.
We all know a Weber can smoke and grill up the ying-yang with solid barbecue results — but tandoori? Another surprise.
Now a real tandoori involves ginger, garlic, coriander powder, fresh mint & cilantro and other spices. This, however, was an accidental "well-how-about-that?-almost-tandoori."
WALKING THE CO-CHEF
Today's lemma (not a di-lemma, just a plain old "lemma") was to figure out something different to do with the chicken. I didn't want to do any of the usual marinades or any of the regular tastes — but how?
This would take a good dogwalk to subliminally concoct a solution. Several flavor varieties, too. Something intense and aromatic for me; something traditionally barbecue and near smoked for Gordon; and something in between for the heck of it.
Co-chef prepares for walk.For starters some well-known names can make the initial process a lot easier. A good shake of Famous Dave's chicken rub, a liberal dose of Mrs. Dash's regular herb and spice blend. [On it's own blah, maybe, but add some finely chopped garlic, some EV olive oil, some Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, some Kikkoman low-sodium soy sauce, ... and what else...?
I knew I wanted herbs — some thyme, some rosemary, but what else to really shift gears: some very fresh ground coriander.
Back in the day I could skip over to Little India from my office on East 28th street. I'd bring the fresh coriander home in a bag. It was so fresh and strong just bringing it into the house made your eyes water for days and the house, well highly pungent to say the least.
Uh oh. Lots of chicken here. More than I thought. Not enough marinade for all that. Maybe add some white zinfandel to increase the quantity of marinade, a few dashes of D.L. Jardine's Texas Champagne cayenne pepper sauce for a little heat and we're done.
As for Gordon -- just roll one of the breasts in Bulls Eye and grill/smoke.
Somehow some of the BBQ sauce mixed with the herb/spice/garlic/wine/savory marinade and the in-between flavor happened. Not bad either. Voila, three flavors of chicken — I hope this lasts more than 2 days, but I suspect there will be interlopers.
With breasts as thick as these I pulled out the sharp knife and scored them deeply to accept liberal infusions of garlic and marinade. There was no significant loss of juices, since the charcoal flame seared the flavor in.
Wasn't sure how it would work all out, but the Weber was in a happy place heat-wise. Not too hot, but strong enough to grill, with space further back for smoking.
Once cooked, setting it on the platter revealed a surprising waft of tandoori. Too cooked. No — the breasts were thick enough to retain just enough moisture. Lucky. Taste check -- subtle tandoori and tender.
Next time, I go for the full monty authentic Weber tandoori. Ww have some fresh mint growing in the garden ... that's a start. Maybe, with the local knowledge of Gregg, I will even be able to scout out some naan to roast at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment