Top 5 Recipes of Chicken for the Family and Guests

When the weather becomes hot, one wants lightness in everything, including the food. Chicken plays an important role both in home and festive menu. Today, we offer you 5 marvelous recipes of  chicken, which we and our friends have tried.

In all the recipes, the chicken should be skinned before its preparation – it makes the chicken tender and not fat.

Chicken with Apples in Sour Cream – an exclusive recipe from Natalie (which was created spontaneously during the celebration of her son’s first birthday).

You will need:

Chicken breasts – 2
Apples (not very sweet) – 2
Onion – 1
Sour cream – half a glass
Salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, some greenery like dill or parsley (dried or fresh)

Brown the onion, add peeled apples chopped in cubes (sprinkle them with lemon juice for the apples not to get darker), fry them till they become soft. Put the apples aside. In the same frying pan fry the sliced chicken fillet on all sides (for some 5 mins). Natalie fried everything using butter (she hadn’t got oil at that time) and the taste became even better. Then mix the apples and chicken; salt and pepper them; add nutmeg (a little bit) and add hot water and sour cream. Stew for 10 minutes. Add the greenery and the grated rind of the lemon half. Take away the dish from fire. That’s it. You can serve it with rice. Everybody enjoyed the meal greatly!

Chicken in Georgian Style

This chicken for Sonya’s first birthday was cooked by Anastasia for guests. “Once on Saturday I was watching TV where there was a program on cooking. I was giving our daughter her breakfast at that time. Everything was explained in such detail in the program that one, first, could not resist the temptation to want to make it and, second, everything was so easily cooked that it was not difficult to remember the recipe. And when can a new mother  try the recipes if not when expecting guests?!”

Cut the chicken. Stew it withoutwater and oil (!) on little fire in a high saucepan. While the chicken is being cooked, pound garlic with saffron, Georgian spices called “hmeli-suneli” and seeds of coriander. Saffron with garlic – such nice fragrance!

Pour the broth from the saucepan into another dish and continue stewing the chicken. Add onion chopped in cubes into the chicken. Wash 3-4 tomatoes. Peel them (first putting into hot water, then leaving in cold water for some time). In some time add Georgian sauce “Satsibelli” (or at least some hot ketchup), garlic with spices, the broth and tomatoes into the chicken. Mix and stew everything for another 30 minutes. That’s it!

Chicken in Crispy Crust with Cheese Stuffing – a recipe from Alima

“We really liked this dish – when it is hot it is juicy and tasty but one can also use it cold having cut it, then the stuffing can be seen. It suits for a holiday.

Chop, salt and pepper chicken fillet. Put a half of the fillet into a dish for baking making the first layer. Put the stuffing above. I took the cheese Fetaxa (Hochland). It is not very salty and can be easily cut. Then one more layer from thin slices of ordinary firm cheese. Then greenery. Then put the second part of the fillet. Sprinkle with flour on top, smear with beaten up eggs and sprinkle with dried and finely ground breadcrumbs. On the very top pour melted butter (50 g.) You need the flour, egg and butter for the crumb to be crispy. Bake the dish in a warmed up oven”.

By the way, you can add sesame into breadcrumbs. It looks nice! You can also use sesame instead of breadcrumbs.

Chicken for Shish Kebab and Barbeque – from Anastasia and her husband:

Steep chicken pieces in kefir with onion cut in circles and spices (to your liking) for the night (or even for several hours). You can also steep chicken in the same sauce for frying it on the frying pan.

And for those who have an opportunity to enjoy cooking for a long time – an Indian recipe of chicken (Navaratan Chicken or Chicken in Cream with Nuts and Raisins) . This recipe has been given by Shri Mataji. And we tasted it when visiting our friend Vera (she makes such chicken for each of her birthdays).

You will need:

60 g cashew nuts (2 handfuls)
2 tbsp. melted butter (ghi)
1 tbsp. black cumin (kala jeera)
3 bay leaves
3 large onions, chopped in small cubes
0,5 tbsp. turmeric powder (haldi)
4 cm. ginger, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves
6 chicken legs, skinned and cut in half
65 ml. yoghurt
125 ml. water
6 tbsp. heavy cream (malai)
30 g peeled almonds (1 handful)
30 g pistachios (1 heaped tbsp.)
2 tbsp. raisins
2 tbsp. Fresh coriander, finely chopped

Spices – ?: 6 cloves, 3 cinnamon sticks (ca. 3 cm.), 3 black cardamoms, 1/2 tbsp. fennel seeds.
Spices ?: 1/4 tbsp. chilli powder, 2 tbsp. paprika powder, 4 tbsp. garam masala

Vera uses 2 times less spices of the group “B” where she does not put chilli at all (as for the European taste it is too hot).

In a mixer, blend half the cashew nuts with water to form paste.

Heat the melted butter in a pan. Add kala jeera, let it splutter. Add the bay leaves and the spices “A”. Fry for a few seconds.

Add the onion and fry until slightly golden. Add the haldi, fry for one minute. Now add the ginger and garlic, fry for a further three minutes.

Add the spices “B”, fry for one minute. Add the chicken, the yoghurt mixed with water and salt to taste.

When the chicken is almost done, add the cashewnut paste and the heavy cream. Add the nuts, pistachios and raisins. (Vera puts all then nuts when the chicken is not on fire any more).

Mix well and let it cook until the chicken is tender. Garnish with the chopped coriander.

Bon appétit!

And how do you cook chicken? Would you share the recipe with us? And if you try to use any of the recipes above, could you please write about your impressions and/or ideas born in the process in the comments? (please, use Latin letters and not Cyrillic)

Illustrations to the article:

The photos are made by those who have shared the recipes, except for the last one – it is an illustration from the book “Cooking with Love. Recipes of H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi”.

For this article in Russian, please visit here.

Next time we will tell you about our way of putting a 12-months-old child to bed.