Though chicken is popular globally,here is an interesting fact, every country has their preferred choice of chicken parts. Americans and Europeans love chicken breasts whereas Indians and Chinese have deep liking for chicken legs, which is why chicken legs are in great demand here and are highly priced.
I remember, in my childhood days, Sundays were those Non-Veg delight days when mom would cook non-vegetarian dishes and that is how it was in many middle class Indian families back then, who could afford to eat non-veg food once or twice a week.Mostly, mom would make mutton or chicken curries, and if it was chicken curry she would give one chicken leg to Dad and other leg was up for grabs between me and my sister. Later, after some years my sister would relinquish her rights and would happily let me devour that solo leg that was served in my plate. Thanks Didi for all that lovely days we shared together.
Why I am sharing this story ? Dear readers, I thought that I must familiarize you with my deep rooted love for the chicken legs, and hence this anecdote was essential. So last Sunday, I uttered those 3 magical words which my wife is pretty used to by now, “What’s in Lunch?”. She shrugged her shoulders and raised her eye brows as if wanted to say, “Why do you ask me same question every time?”. So it was going to be chicken, but I insisted her, we should make something different. I was not in the mood to have the chicken curries or the tandoor or the tikkas. Smita suggested we make Grilled Chicken recipe that we made last time when my sister and brother in law visited us.
In this recipe, chicken drumsticks are marinated with powdered dry spices(coriander seeds,cinnamon stick,black peppercorn,cloves,cumin seeds) and some garlic, ginger, green chilies and mint leaves. There are some more ingredients that has to be added to marination that you would find in the detailed recipe. Chicken is coated nicely
with this marination and allowed to rest in refrigerator for at least 6 hours or preferably overnight. It is then grilled in a grill pan from all sides. Smita decided to make “Mint-Mayo” dip as an accompaniment which goes well with this grilled chicken.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2
- 5 Chicken Drumsticks
- 1 inch piece of Ginger
- 10-12 cloves of Garlic
- 4 Green Chilies
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp red chili powder
- ½ tsp jaggery powder
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 3 tbsp Vinegar
- 1 tbsp Clarified butter/Ghee
- Cooking Oil
- Salt
- 1 tsp whole coriander seeds
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- ½ tsp black peppercorn
- 7-8 cloves
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 cup Mint
- 1 green chili
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise
- 3 tbsp hung curd
- 1 tbsp fresh cream
- Wash and dry the chicken. Prick all over the drumstick using fork so it can absorb the marinade better.
- Keep the chicken drumsticks aside.
- Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned under "Dry Spices" for a min.
- When spices are nicely roasted turn off the flame and allow them to cool down. Grind these spices into a fine powder.
- Dry roast ginger, garlic and green chilies until garlic turn light brown.
- Turn off the flame and let the pan cool down.
- Make a fine paste with ginger, garlic, green chilies and mint leaves.
- Masala paste should not be too flowy.
- For Marination:
- Add Masala paste to a large bowl. Now add dry spices powder, jaggery powder, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, lemon juice, salt as per taste, ghee and 3 tbspoon Vinegar.
- Mix all the Ingredients well.Marinade is ready..
- Coat chicken drumsticks with marinade evenly from all sides.
- Refrigerate the marinated chicken overnight or at least for 6 hours.
- Remove the marinated chicken from the refrigerator and set it aside for 15 mins.
- Heat Grill Pan on high flame. Brush the bottom evenly with some oil.
- Turn the gas knob to medium and now arrange chicken drumsticks on the grill pan.
- Baste the drumsticks with some melted butter.
- Grill the chicken from all the sides.
- Enjoy Grilled Chicken in Vinegar with Mint-Mayo Dip.
- Mint-Mayo Dip
- Grind mint leaves, green chilly, mayonnaise into a fine paste.
- Add hung curd, fresh cream to the fine paste and mix them nicely.Dip is ready.
Do try out this Grilled Chicken recipe and let us know how its comes out.Do not forget to accompany those grilled drumsticks with Mint-Mayo dip!!
Click here to watch recipe video
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