Indian Ruby Chicken and Sides
I decided to start writing separately about the meals that Sam and I make on the weekends because I want to keep track of them, and also to encourage me to write more.
This past weekend we made Indian food for Oliver’s birthday party – a Pokémon birthday party complete with themed decorations, plates and tablecloth! For his birthday present, I made him a set of Pokémon themed ABC cards – relevant to his interests as well as educational.
On the menu for the night was: Ruby chicken, saag paneer, black daal, and naan. And basmati rice, but we ended up just making it in the Instant Pot like regular rice.
Sam used the slow cooker to cook the chicken for almost 8 hours, then simmered in the curry to finish. I had a fun time frying the paneer for the saag paneer, which I’ve never bought before but luckily found at Sprouts! I thought I could get away with using less spinach, but I underestimated how much spinach cooks down.
The naan wasn’t as fluffy as I wanted it to be, but my hypothesis (also my hypothesis for why my pita bread was only 80% successful) is that I was using gluten-free 1-to-1 replacement flour. I thought it would be exactly that, a 1-to-1 replacement, but since I’m dealing with yeast it probably doesn’t react the same way. But! I was able to get those little scorch marks and it still tasted fine so again, 80% successful.
Finally, we just used a bag mix for the daal (lentils) mixed with some other spices and simmered for way longer because semi-homemade is the way to go, sometimes.
Recipes used:
- Ruby chicken (based off of Dishoom in London)
- Saag paneer
- Naan
- Mango lassi