Servings : Serves 4
A light, delicious and nutritious meal, mildly spiced and refreshingly zesty, easy to prepare and just the meal for those warm summery afternoons when almost everything else seems either too dull or too heavy
Ingredients for Chicken
- 250 gm boneless chicken breast, cut into even sized cubes
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp garlic paste
- pinch of turmeric powder
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp yoghurt
- pinch of orange coloring
- salt to taste (about half tsp.)
Ingredients for Pasta
- 400 gm pasta of your choice, I used Rigatoni tube pasta
- 1 small head of broccoli, cleaned and cut into small florets
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 small green or red capsicum, cubed
- 1 green or red chilli, chopped
- 3 cups milk (I used skimmed milk)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 1/2 tsp garlic paste
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
- juice of half a lemon
Instructions
First prepare the Chicken
Marinate the chicken cubes in the above ingredients preferably overnight or for at least 4 hours. Skewer them and grill/bake/pan-fry until tender. This should take about 10-15 minutes per side if you’re grilling/baking (200 C oven temp). You can dab a bit of oil on the pieces midway through grilling before turning the skewers over. Do not over-cook them – they will end up getting hard if you cook them any longer than the specified time.
If you plan on frying the chicken, use no more than 1-2 tbsp. of oil in a non-stick frying pan, do not put the chicken in skewers, instead just fry the pieces as they are, in batches, for 3-4 minutes per side and drain well. Set aside.
Next prepare the Pasta
Boil the pasta as per packet directions. Should take about 10-12 minutes. In the last 30-40 seconds before draining, throw in the broccoli florets into the boiling pasta. Count 30 seconds and drain. This helps slightly cook the broccoli but leaving it with that delicious crunch so they don’t get over-cooked. Set aside.
Using the same pan you boiled the pasta, add the butter. Next add the onions and fry for a few seconds, and then add the garlic paste. Stir for a few more seconds and then sprinkle the flour and the garam masala. Keep the heat on low. Stir the flour for a minute or 2 until it loses its raw smell. Gradually add in the milk and keep stirring on medium heat until the sauce has thickened and is creamy. This takes about 5-8 minutes or so. Add a bit of salt. Remember not to over-salt the sauce as the chicken has salt and the pasta was boiled with salt.
Add the cooked chicken cubes, pasta, broccoli, chopped chilli and capsicum. Stir everything together gently until well combined. Sprinkle the chopped coriander and squeeze in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt/spice if needed. Once everything is warmed through and well coated, serve immediately!
Enjoy! 🙂
do you mean plain flour as maida?
Yes.
awesome..
awesome..
i am so going to try this out
i am so going to try this out 🙂
So the Pepper you dont cook
So the Pepper you dont cook it then? Just add at the end? And can i cook the broccoli a bit longer for children? How long would you suggest?
Yes although what you can do
Yes although what you can do is skewer the chicken with the pepper so that it gets grilled slightly. And yes you can cook the broccoli longer if you like them softer. I normally prefer them crunchy, so maybe a couple minutes or so extra should be enough. 🙂
Salaam. What can I replace
Salaam. What can I replace the brocolli with?
W/Salaam, you can use
W/Salaam, you can use cauliflower or green beans or just leave it out completely. 🙂
Salaam. Jazakallah for the
Salaam. Jazakallah for the reply 🙂
Thanks a lot for this super
Thanks a lot for this super delicious recipe. I’ve been making it regularly since the last two years. Everybody at home loves it.
JazakAllah.