Chicken Coriander and Great Courage

Pursuing a new hobby such as cooking requires a lot of courage, but inviting friends over to eat your second dish is a different story. I have invited 2 of my friends, Harold and Joana as my human guinea pigs. 

Chicken Coriander is a famous Indian Food. I don't know what a coriander is until today, so if you are an idiot like me, here's one thing you need to know about Coriander: Cilantro and Coriander are one and the same. If you refer to the leafy part, that's the Cilantro (or Wansuy in tagalog). On the other hand, the seed part is called Coriander. 

Got that? (these herbs and spices are killing me)

Here's how you make one:

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, skinned, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon salt
250 ml plain yogurt
2 tablespoon oil
3 large onions, chopped
2 tablespoon fresh ginger paste
2 tablespoon garlic paste
5 green cillies
2 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder 
200g chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
100g chopped mint leaves


First, you need to marinade the chicken with 100mL of plain yogurt, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of chili powder. I am a sucker for spicy foods so I added another teaspoon to the mixture. Leave the mixture for 15-20 minutes.

In a saucepan, pour some oil and add the onions (wait until transparent) then the ginger and garlic paste. After 5 minutes, add the green chillies, coriander and cumin powder. Ok, here are some tips: when slicing onions, make sure to put them in the freezer (10-15mins) so that you will be spared from the agony of teary eyes. On the other hand, if you have a blender (or a mortar), do not buy ginger and garlic pastes. You can make your own. Not only it is fresh but its free from preservatives.  For the coriander powder, try to buy some seeds which you can powderize using the blender. Blenders are really handy and useful. I just bought my Philips HR2001 blender last Friday for the price of P1,995. It's very affordable and it's very good for starters.

If you feel that the mixture is ok (because my mom told me that cooking is all about intuition), add the chicken with the marinade in the saucepan. Add another 100-150ml of plain yogurt, chopped coriander and mint leaves. Bring them to boil and wait for 20 minutes to cook everything. Serve HOT!

The verdict: They were actually impressed but I am not sure if they are telling the truth. 

My apologies for I failed to take a NICE photo of the dish because my hands are all over the place. I promise to document my next dishes in DETAILS...I never realized the cooking is really tiring especially if you are using fresh ingredients. 

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 To compliment your Chicken Coriander, you can make your own Mango Lassi--a famous Indian Drink. It's very easy! Just blend mango slices, yogurt and sugar. Serve chilled.