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I’ve been on this self-imposed asinine diet, where I’ve decided I need to eat lighter, non-spicy meals with less oil and more fiber and a balanced carb-protein partnership. So, while my day time carbs are taken care of with breakfast of rolled oats, fruits and almond milk and dal khichdi or poha for lunch, both of these, I love you and obsess. Huh, I’m finding my evening line-up is a little difficult to determine.
I’m avoiding spicy and oily Indian gravy, and am happy to eat veggies, a little rice, or sweet potatoes the same way you would sukkah potatoes or just roasted or boiled. This is now one of my top seeded tubers. I’ve been avoiding kebabs and tikkas, just because I’m a bit bored with them, and because I keep ordering kebabs from any sigdi, yakub and court, there’s always a little doubt about which of the chicken or mutton. part is being used. I can’t stand chicken tikkas made from dried breast of chicken, and sikkis made with leery-looking kheer and devouring spices. So, I started looking for a good grilled or roast chicken.
There was a time when roasted chicken was a regular in any metropolitan Bombay home. Parsis, Goans, East-Indians, Anglo-Indians and modern Hindus cooked one form or another of chicken. Some, the classic English way, others with gravy, spices with large amounts of onions, and even dried fruits and nuts. In our homes, this would be ginger-garlic paste and turmeric with an extra rub to make it a bit desi.
Now, what is a classic roast chicken? In its simplest form, it is a whole chicken with the skin intact, with a little butter applied under the skin; And lemon, salt, and pepper are rubbed everywhere, trussed and put in the oven until it’s crisp-glazed with delicious, juicy breasts and well-roasted thighs. You can also choose to stuff the cavity of the chicken with stuff, which I’ll talk about later.
Often, if an oven was not available in Indian kitchens, the chicken was cooked on a griddle covered with another metal utensil to recreate the oven’s heat and atmosphere. In fact, the famous Goan Roast Chicken Cafferial was made exactly like this. Some say that caffreal was first cooked as a street food by sailors at Panjim port. The chicken is marinated in dry spices along with ginger, garlic, ground coriander leaves, green chillies, lemon juice, pressed in a metal vessel and cooked in oil. When the chicken is ready, it turns out as if it was roasted.
Or the classic tandoori chicken, which doesn’t exactly go back to the days of the Mughals and Afghan invaders, but is actually a creation of post-Partition refugees. Marinated whole chicken is cooked inside an earthen-baked tandoor. If the skin is left on and the chicken is marinated in a slightly more delicate manner, tandoori chicken will make a world-class roast.
Bandra in Mumbai is not only the queen of the suburbs but it is also the regent of pick-up snacks and meals, and a parade of Christian-run eateries such as McCraig’s, Andorra, Candies and Family Table make all kinds of roast chicken. In Andorra, opposite St Andrew’s College, you can order a full bird in advance, or buy it in portions, and it comes well-roasted with a rough skin and a stuffing of sausage and herbs. .
At the family table, there’s always a pile of roasted half chickens on display. They make your chicken tangy, tangy, juicy, delicious and easy to take on the go without any fuss or gravy. However, the candies are a bit more elaborate. They have a classic roast chicken, a roast chicken with stuffing, and a chicken cafacial. But their classic roast is what I love. They serve their roast chicken with a variety of sides and sauces. A large piece of leg or breast, with the skin, roasted beautifully in a simple way, mashed and served with a comforting brown gravy with a portion of vegetables and a free salad tossed.
As far as restaurants go, I really like the Asian Spiced Slow Roasted Chicken at Smoke House Deli, Bandra. They serve chicken in sesame with sweet potato mash and stir-fried greens. But for whole roasted chicken, delivered straight to your home, I discovered ‘230°C’. It is so called because, apparently, the ideal temperature for roasting chicken is 230 °C. I ordered to buy it and was pleasantly surprised. Their chicken is stuffed with aromatic herbs and slow-roasted at 230°C and comes with vegetables, fries, potato wedges, corn, and caramelized onions. You can choose. The roast is available in Italian herbs, Thai, Kashmiri spices, Chettinad spices and ghost jolokia marinade. I really liked Bhoot Jolokia, although I try to avoid spicy food! That’s all for my diet. After all, it’s me who self-imposed it and called it Asin.
Kunal Vijaykar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. What is the name of his youtube channel? The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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