Saturday, August 4, 2007

Lemony Chicken with Cilantro (Hare masale wali murghi) Review

4.5 stars (on a 5 star scale) (4 stars originally, 5 stars leftovers) p. 95 A good dish of very moist chicken. As with other recipes from this cookbook, the leftovers were noticeably better than the original serving. Indeed, regarding the original serving, I complained the dish wasn't cilantro-y enough, partially blaming the state on my not using as much cilantro as the recipe called for. But the leftovers were quite cilantro-y. Even the lemon came out stronger in the leftovers. If the chicken was this good on the first night, I'd have given this recipe 5 stars. Some notes on the ingredients:
  • Two big bunches of cilantro were not enough! Each bunch, after chopping, made a bit less than a cup of cilantro. The recipe calls for three cups of cilantro, which I clearly didn't have.
  • I used all the juice from one lemon instead of measuring two tablespoons of lemon juice. (Past experience has taught me the two are roughly equivalent.)
  • I used a mix of chicken thighs (1.5 pounds) and breasts (1.0 pounds).
Some notes on the preparation:
  • It takes longer to prepare than what one would guess from reading the recipe. In particular, separating the leaves from the stem for that much cilantro a pain.
  • It's hard to thoroughly puree such a small amount of ginger.
  • Although the recipe recommended using six tablespoons of vegetable oil in which to brown the chicken, that seemed excessive to me and so I used less with no difficulty.
  • I didn't add all the spices at once because I didn't have them ready. I added them as I measured them.
  • I accidentally added garlic at the wrong time.