Healthy times call for ‘Chicken Shashlik’!

I’m sure many people keep wondering the same question as I do: “Why is every unhealthy food so delicious while most of the healthy food isn’t?” In search of an answer to this question and well, more importantly, to try and curb our unhealthy eating habits, I started looking for recipes on the World Wide Web, which were healthy yet had enough taste to not let me give up the ‘healthy eating routine’ ( and no, we are not dieting; we are just avoiding bad carbs and bad fats!!).

During the time when I was doing my research for healthy recipes, I saw a program on a food channel where the Chef was making Chicken Shashlik. The recipe really got me excited and after watching it till the end, I realized that the recipe is really quite healthy yet it tastes delicious. It is high in protein contents (chicken) and also includes vegetables which makes it all the more healthy. And the fact that it is grilled means that it has very little fat in the form of oil.

So well, I embarked on the journey to find the perfect recipe for dry Chicken Shashlik, and after 2 online written recipes and 3 video recipes down, I finally found the perfect one, which was not only grilled on skewers but also had an accompanied BBQ sauce to avoid the recipe being too dry.

Here I am, sharing Shireen Anwar’s (of Masala Morning fame) recipe of Chicken Shashlik with BBQ sauce. The original recipe is served with boiled rice and BBQ sauce but as I mentioned earlier, I am avoiding carbs these days, so I served it just with sauce. Needless to say, it turned out to be delicious and was loved by both me and my husband. So go give a try to this guilt-free recipe and get appreciation.

Ingredients:

Boneless Chicken 1/2 kg, cubed

Salt 1/2 tsp

Black pepper, crushed 1/2 tsp

Ketchup 2 tbsp

Worcestershire Sauce 2 tbsp

Ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp

Chili powder 1/2 tsp

Capsicum 2

Onion 2

Tomato 2

Olive oil 1 tbsp

For BBQ Sauce

Tomato paste 4 tbsp

Ketchup 4 tbsp

Vinegar 4 tbsp

Garlic paste 1  tsp

Salt 1 tsp

Sugar 1 tsp

Chili powder 1/2 tsp

Method:

Chicken

• Cut chicken into cubes.
• Marinate it with salt, pepper, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, ginger-garlic paste and chili powder for 30 minutes.
• Cut capsicum into half and de-seed. Cut into cubes of the same size as chicken.
• Cut onion into quarters (i.e, cut it in the shape of ‘plus’ sign); separate the layers.
• Cut tomato into half, de-seed and cut into small pieces of the same size as chicken/ capsicum.
• Heat grill pan with 1 tbsp oil.
• In skewer, first put onion, then closely put chicken, then tomato, and then capsicum; repeat till the skewer is filled.
• Put in grill pan and after 5 minutes, brush BBQ sauce on it.
• When one side is done, turn and brush BBQ sauce on the other side also.
• Once the chicken is cooked and the veggies are soft, take off from the pan.
• For dry shashlik, in a serving platter, take out boiled rice and put skewers on top.
• If gravy is needed, put the remaining BBQ sauce with 2-3 tbsp water in grill pan and let it boil.
• Pour on top of the skewers or serve separately in a bowl.
  
  
  

BBQ Sauce

• In a bowl, mix together garlic paste, tomato paste, ketchup, vinegar, salt, sugar and chili powder.

Tips

• Wooden skewers can also be used in place of shashlik skewers.
• In place of grill pan, normal frying pan can also be used; chicken shashlik can alternatively be baked with 1 tbsp oil.
• Chicken and vegetables can be arranged in any order; however, if chicken is placed next to tomato, the chicken cooks faster.
• Ready-made BBQ sauce can also be used.