Spicy Grilled Chicken Breasts Recipe:

The Sunday Brunch- Grilled Chicken breast in Indian tikka style marinade, served with Onion & Radish salad and French beans

This one’s an easy Sunday brunch recipe that I pulled up thinking of both health and taste in the hindsight. Easy indeed, trust me for the recipe in contrast to the fancy description is pretty simple and quick.  All you need to do is plan in advance so that you can marinate the chicken overnight and have a juicy and soft chicken when grilled. Moreover since I’ve used Indian spices to prepare the marinade, so you may perhaps need a little time to arrange the ingredients. It is actually the famous Indian tikka style marinade that gave a spicy twist to my grilled chicken, and they did turn out worthy of dying for.

Spicy Grilled Chicken

Ingredients (Serves 2):

For the Marinade:

• 4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• 2 tablespoon curd
• 2 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon red chilli paste
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt to taste
• ½ teaspoon Garam masala powder
• 2 tablespoon olive oil or any other vegetable oil or melted butter
• ½ teaspoon dry basil
• 4 pinch of roasted crushed paprika

For the Sides:

• 12-15 full green or French beans, boiled with some salt and strained
• 1 small onion , fine sliced or julienned
• Radish, same quantity as onion, julienned
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• A dash of chilli vinegar
• Salt to taste
• Handful of finely chopped fresh cilantro or coriander

Preparation:

The tikka style Marinade:

1. Mix all the ingredients together leaving chicken in a deep non reacting dish.
2. Trim the fat and tendons off the breast pieces. Then flatten each breast by patting lightly with a rolling pin to even out the thickness of the breast.
3. Carefully cut small crosswise slits on the top side of the chicken breast.
4. Marinate the chicken in the above spice mixture in a Ziploc or a covered non reacting dish.
5. Allow to marinate overnight in the fridge or at least 5-6 hours.

The Grilled Chicken:

1. Slowly heat your grill to approx 165^oF , if using a stove grill pan just try placing your palm over the grill and if you are able to feel the heat just before touching the grill, we assume it’s hot enough.
2. Brush the grill with a little oil before the first use.  Grill each chicken breast for 6-8 minutes on each side on medium heat.  The cooking time needs to be judged by the look and feel of the grilled chicken (a good grill should be golden on the outer crust, firm to touch but not hard and very light pink inside).
3. While the chicken grills, simply mix all the ingredients except the beans together to make a salad.
4. Remove and keep the chicken on the serving plate, and Quickly just toss the whole beans on the same hot grill.
5. Serve grilled chicken hot with the side of onion & radish salad and beans along with some lime wedges.

Dos and Don’ts:

Dos:

1. Do add your choice of seasoning to the marinade.
2. Do try the grilled chicken with some black bean sauce, it’s delicious.

Don’ts:

1. Do not cook the chicken for too long and too slow; otherwise it will turn very dry.