How is Chicken Prepared in Indian Cuisine?

In India, the most consumed types of meat are fish and chicken. The latter is popular among most countries because you can make a wide array of tasty dishes with chicken. Poultry production is essential for India’s economy because meat is a dish that people use worldwide. The way you cook chicken is key to the overall tastiness of your dish.

What are the Health Benefits of Chicken?

Before jumping to how Indians prepare chicken, let’s first understand chicken’s health benefits.

Rich in proteins — Chicken is rich in proteins which benefit the health of our muscles and bones. Food protein contains amino acids which are essential nutrients for building muscles in our body. Moreover, the fact that chicken is rich in proteins helps eaters not worry about dieting because even smaller quantities of protein are filling. Eating chicken is vital for building muscles, having healthier bones, and maintaining a healthy weight.

Rich in vitamins — Vitamins in chicken help improve the immune system, have healthy cells, and get more energy during the day.

Rich in minerals — Chicken contains iron which makes proteins essential for oxygenating blood and muscles, and providing healthy teeth, hair, and nails.

Now let’s dive into chicken cooking in Indian Cuisine.

How is Chicken Prepared in Indian Cuisine?

Chicken is used in different areas of Indian cuisine, starting from appetizers to BBQ and curries. Let’s see how chicken is prepared in three popular Indian dishes you will love to try out.

Butter Chicken

To prepare chicken for this dish, Indians do the following steps:

1. First, they wash the chicken thighs or breasts.
2. They dry it gently with a paper towel. For that, they put a paper towel on the table, place chicken on it and use another towel from the top, not forgetting about patting dry the sides of meat.
3. They cut the chicken into pieces.
4. Then, marinate the chicken with lemon juice, yoghurt, ginger garlic paste, various spices, powders, and salt.
5. They leave the chicken to marinate and refrigerate overnight. The longer it is marinated, the better it softens the meat making it tender and melt in the mouth.
6. They prepare chicken in a tandoor, grill, or fry on a pan.
7. After that, the chicken is served with mild curry sauce.

In Canada, you can taste butter chicken poutine, which is tandoori cooked boneless butter chicken served with sauce and poutine. The mouth-watering appearance of this Indian dish tells all about its scrumptious taste.

Chicken BBQ

To prepare chicken for BBQ, Indians do almost the same as preparing butter chicken. However, spices and flavours differ for each dish.

1. They make slits on the chicken so that it can absorb flavours thoroughly.
2. They marinate the chicken with lemon juice, yogurt sauce and specific spices (cumin, coriander, turmeric, etc.), pepper, and salt.
3. Then they put it in the refrigerator overnight.
4. Lastly, they grill the chicken.

You can taste chicken BBQ in Pickering, where you can find a wide range of BBQ dishes that you’ll definitely love, such as tandoori chicken tikka, hariyali chicken tikka, malai chicken tikka, and more.

Chicken Curry

For this dish, the preparation of the chicken differs in a way, let’s see how:

1. They first prepare curry with onions, ginger garlic paste, powders, tomatoes, and various flavours.
2. After sauteing the sauce, they add chopped chicken thigh or breast to it.
3. They saute the dish until the chicken is mixed with the other ingredients.
4. Then, they cover the pan with a lid so that the chicken will absorb all essential flavours.
5. After that, the cook adds hot water in a way that covers the chicken partially.
6. Next, they cook the dish on low heat until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

In Canada, Indian chicken curries are divided into different dishes like methi chicken, chicken tikka masala, palak chicken and more.

Chicken is a vital component in dishes which is rich in nutrients, minerals, proteins, and vitamins. Indians uniquely prepare this component, adding aromas, flavours, and various colours to it. Indian cuisine makes chicken dishes stand out by a melty and soft texture as they get marinated in tasty sauces and creams.

The cuisine offers unique dishes as its flavours and spices make each food different from others. And the way they cook chicken shows the energy and effort that each Indian puts into preparing tasty food.

Cooking is all about putting love and care in each dish, and Indians do it more than well.