While stuffing the kitchen items into boxes in Dubai, little did I know that I am packing up my experimental side along with them too. A lot has happened in our lives during the time between Eid-ul-Fitr to Eid-ul-Azha – the ones who are a part of my Instagram and Snapchat family must have an idea about what am I talking here. I won’t be discussing about the occurrences here but will be writing about them soon in my later blogs.

So, I was saying that I so missed each and every element of my (kitchen) ’empire’ during the stated time frame. That doesn’t mean I did not cook all this time, I certainly did (I have talked about my cooking struggles here in case you wanna know) but the kind of equation and comfort you have with your own things was absent definitely.

As soon as I got my hands on my cargo boxes, the cartons I unpacked first were obviously the kitchen ones. The very next thing I adamantly resolved was that I need to cook something really good to treat out taste buds but that should be easy and quick too since I was already occupied with loads of things – you know the chores you have to perform when you have just moved into a new place.

Desperate to fix a quick dinner that should fall on the above mentioned criterion I came across this very basic and simple dish from Khanapakana that did not call for any special ingredient – best part. I moulded the recipe a little as per the availability of spices and Tadaa we got to eat a proper and scrumptious dinner after a looooong time. Sharing the recipe below since many of you asked for it. 🙂

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About shashlik: The word ‘shish’ comes from Azerbaijani/ Turkish language which means ‘Skewer’ and ‘Shashlik’ literally means skewered meat. The word Shashlik is derived from Crimean Tatars (a Turkic ethnic group) in 16th century – woah this is certainly a historic dish!  

Rating:   

Inspired By: KhanaPakana

Cuisine: Asian

Course:  Main

Serves:	2-3	Ease Level:
Prep Time:	15-20 mins	Quickness:
Cooking Time:	20 mins	Spice Level:

 Above ratings are out of 5, with 5 being the ‘most’.

GET:

Cooking spoons
Bowl
Frying Pan(s)
Knife
Cutting board
Plate

SET:

Chicken boneless chunks 500 gms
Onions 2 (cut in big square pieces)
Tomatoes 2 (cut in big square pieces)
Capsicums 2 (cut in big square pieces)
Oil for frying

Marination Ingredients:
Yogurt 100 gms
Salt 1 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste 1 tsp
Chili powder 1 tsp
Lemon juice 3 tbsp

Sauce Ingredients:
Oil 2 tbsp
Onion 1 (julienne cut)
Ginger Garlic paste 1 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Chili powder 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Tomato paste 150 gms
Apple 1 (cut in small cubes)

GO:

Marinate chicken pieces with all the Marination ingredients for at least 2 hours.
For Sauce:

• Add oil in a pan and saute onions in it till they turn transparent.
• Add all other sauce ingredients except for apples
• Cook a little and mix in apple cubes as well
• Simmer for a little while until oil comes on top

Thread marinated chicken chunks on skewers along with dices onions, tomatoes and capsicums.
Shallow fry them in a frying pan till they are done.
Introduce the chicken skewers into sauce.
Serve hot with steamed or fried rice.

MY TWO CENTS:
Adjust the spices to suit your taste buds.
You can use small diced tomatoes instead of tomato paste or can grind the tomatoes into paste as well.
You can use curry powder in case of all spices mentioned in the sauce ingredients.
Fry the skewers a little more than required to give them a smokey BBQ flavor, careful not to burn them.
The above cooking times are estimated on the basis of simultaneous cooking.

Hope you’ll enjoy trying it out.
I’d love to get your feedback. Feel free to drop a comment below about your experience.

Happy shash-licking😉