Crispy Chicken

It’s yet another weekend and I will be sharing an all-time favorite recipe of mine: Crispy Chicken. Nothing beats that first bite you get from a piece of juicy, well prepared crispy chicken and I will be showing you how you can make that perfect crispy chicken right in your homes.

In making crispy chicken, I have decided to break down the steps into 4 in order to simplify the whole process. These steps are:

·         Brining

·         Marinating

·         Coating

·         Deep frying

Brining

Brining helps improve the taste of the chicken and also makes it super juicy!  To brine, you would need:

Half a cup of salt

Half a cup of sugar

Lemon

Chopped Onion

Pepper corn (uziza seeds)

Bay leaves

In a pot of water, throw in the salt and sugar. Squeeze in the lemon juice and throw what is left of the lemon into the pot. Throw in the chopped onion. Blend the pepper corn with a spice blender (or grind with a mortar and pistil) and add to the mixture. Add the bay leaves and heat up mixture on a burner. Do not allow mixture to boil. Allow the mixture to cool and drop in you chicken. Place the brining chicken in a fridge and allow to brine for between 2-5hrs.

 

Marinating

Marinating allows all your seasoning and aromatics really sink into your chicken. For your marinate, you need:

Garlic and Ginger

Mustard

Soy/Oyster Sauce

Seasoning

Take out your Chicken from the brine and place in a bowl. Add the chopped garlic and ginger, mustard, oyster sauce and seasoning. Mix everything up and place in a fridge for it to marinate for about 2hrs.

 

 

 

Coating

To coat your chicken, you would need:

Flour

Paprika

Dry pepper

Seasoning

Eggs

Mix the flour, paprika, dry pepper and seasoning in a bowl. In a separate bowl, break in some eggs.

Dip the marinated chicken in the egg wash and coat with the flour mixture. Repeat the process (so chicken gets really crispy). Place chicken on a tray and allow to stand for a while.

Deep Fry

Heat up some vegetable oil till it gets super-hot and drop chicken in piece by piece. Reduce flame and allow frying on medium heat.

Allow to fry till it gets golden brown. Take out chicken and place in a bowl containing  paper towels.

 

 

Yam Sticks in Batter with Sweet Chili Prawn Sauce

I remember the first time I made this dish; it had people ordering for more. It doesn’t really sell cheap and it’s not that cheap making it at home but trust me, every bite is worth it. A kilo of Prawns sells for between N2000 and N3000. Other things in the prawn sauce are yellow green and red bell (tatashe) pepper, ginger, onions and ketchup. It is really easy to make. Stir fry garlic and chopped onions. Throw in the prawns and stir fry on very low heat. Add the yellow, green and red pepper followed by some seasoning. Keep stirring and lastly, add ketchup and half a spoon of sugar. Turn off the flame and give it a good stir.

For the yam sticks, cut the yam into sticks and parboil. The yam sticks are then drenched in eggs and coated with a mixture of flour and season and then deep fried.

 

 

Super and Quick N500 Meals: Restaurant Style

 

It is that time of the month when all you have in your budget to make a meal with is N500. Confused about how you can whip up something spectacular with such a modest budget? Here are a few tips of meals you can make at those times when you are not too financially buoyant.

 

-          Egusi Soup: yes people! With N500, you can make a quick pot of soup. Here are the ingredients you need and how much each will cost

 

·         Egusi: N60

·         Red oil: N40

·         Smoked Fish/meat: N200

·         Pumpkin leaf (ugwu)/Bitter leaf:N50

·         Onion: N20

·         Seasoning cubes: N30               

              Total: N500

 

-          Chinese Fried Noodles: You can decide to go the Chinese route and host that special person to dinner (restaurant style) with a modest budget of N500.

·         Noodles 50

·         Turkey quarter kilo N200

·         Garlic and ginger N20

·         Green and yellow pepper 100

·         Onions N20

·         Vegetable oil N70

·         Egg     N30

Total: N490

 

Jollof Rice: Make that mouth-watering, party standard Jollof rice. You will be amazed at how good it tastes when you are done making this.

·         Canned tomatoes N40

·         Onions N20

·         Dry pepper N20

·         Turkey/liver/beef/chicken- 200

·         Rice N100

·         Garlic and ginger N20

·         Curry/seasoning N50

Total:         N450

 

Kindly send an email to neovosfoodservices@gmail.com for complete recipe of any of the listed meals.

Have a lovely week.

COAL GRILL VERSUS ELECTRIC/GAS GRILL: WHICH IS BETTER?

I have received quite a number of mails on this subject matter and having grilled with both, I must say each has its upsides and downsides. I have a coal grill and an electric/gas grill and having used both over a period of time, I have decided to do this write-up comparing the pros and cons of both.

For those that plan on setting a grill up at home, here a few factors you may want to consider before deciding if you would be going the way of a coal grill or an electric/coal grill

Cost: While an electric/gas grill costs between 10 and 35 thousand Naira (40-150pounds), a coal grill can be set up easily by filling (a little below a quarter)  a metal basin with sand, spreading coal all over it and placing a metal gauze on the basin. Setting it up should cost roughly about a thousand naira (about 4pounds) to set up.

Taste: Quite a good number of people will agree that the smoky taste that comes with coal grilled barbecues is a plus and a huge advantage any day when compared to the final product you get from an electric grill. But is this enough reason to choose a coal grill over an Electric grill especially after considering the fact that you can easily pick up smoke flavored syrups off the shelves of supermarkets? When added to your marinating chicken/fish/beef, the smoke syrup simply gives your barbecue a smoky taste after grilling with an electric/gas grill. But you guys know the saying though “If it’s not like panadol, it’s not the same as panadol”.

Convenience: This is one area I would easily pick an electric/gas grill over a coal grill. It gets really messy putting out the flame on a coal grill and cleaning up afterwards is not really the best experience in the world. Dealing with all that smoke also comes with some level of bravery when grilling with a coal grill.

Cooking Time: With a gas/electric grill, you can easily heat up and be ready to grill in about 10 minutes where as a coal grill takes relatively more time and effort to get it going. The coal grill has no regulator so you have to be patient till you get the appropriate temperature before u start grilling.

In conclusion, the best grill for you is the one that fits your needs, your lifestyle and your budget. Do you want to be able to put together a grilled meal quickly, with very little time? Does flavor matter most? Also, you may want to determine the size of the grilling space you have before getting a grill as this should determine the size of grill you get.