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Chicken Roti
Chicken Roti
Chicken Roti is very popular all over the Caribbean. This version is from Trinidad. This is very similar to the Indian dish, butter chicken; just with Jamaican curry powder instead of Indian and without a ton of butter. This is great comfort food on a cold day.You can use skinless or skin on chicken. Your choice. I prefer to use skin on. I like the flavor the skin add to the dish. I also don’t like to waste any part of an animal. I used bone in chicken thighs and drumsticks. Dark meat definitely works best for braising, but if you want to use white meat, please do. Last, but most importantly, I always will recommend using bone in chicken as opposed to boneless. You are utilizing all of the animal while extracting copious amounts of flavor from the bone. You can use boneless skinless chicken if you want, but it will not be the same. My goal through my food blog is to get Americans to not be afraid to spit out a bone into a spoon and set it off to the side like the rest of the culinary world.For the chickpeas, I prefer to use dried as opposed to canned. To me, canned are too soft and don’t absorb as much of the juices as dried do. A 1lb bag of dried yields the equivalent of 4 cans, while costing less than half the price. So I boil a whole bag when making this and use the other half of the chickpeas for hummus.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Chicken Marinade
- 2 1/2 lbs bone in chicken pieces cut bite size
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp Jamaican curry powder
- 1/2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
Chicken Roti
- 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp allspice
- 3 tbsp Jamaican curry powder
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 2 cups boiled chickpeas or 1 can
- 2 cups cubed potatoes 1/2″ cubes
- 1 habanero
- 3 cup chicken stock
- salt to taste
Instructions
Chicken Marinade
- Either skin or leave the skin on to 2lbs of chicken parts. I used drumsticks and thighs. With a cleaver, cut into bite sized pieces, about 1″. Add all the marinade seasonings to the chicken. Mix well and marinate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
Chicken Roti
- In a large sauce pan or dutch oven, heat up the cooking oil over medium high heat. Sauté the onions with garlic, thyme, allspice, cumin, smoked paprika, nutmeg, and curry powder. Cook until translucent; about 4 minutes.
- Add the marinated chicken pieces and the habanero. Cook for 5 minutes
- Add the chicken stock, chickpeas, and potatoes. Simmer on medium heat uncovered for 45 minutes.
- Now is a great time to roll a fatty. I like to set a timer to remind me when to check the food.
- Add salt to taste.
- Bowl it up and let the flatulents begin.
Fried Tofu
Fried Tofu
This is new territory for me. For my entire life, especially being a butcher, I’ve talked mad shit about tofu. MAD SHIT. How wrong I’ve been. If you are as closed minded about tofu as I used to be, I recommend trying it fried like this first. It is a great gateway into eating tofu. I had recently had it in a bowl of Kuay Jub at my favorite Thai restaurant, On’s Kitchen. And then something clicked in my head and stomach with it. I kinda can’t stop eating it. Maybe because I’m stoned as fuck. The first thing you want to look for when frying tofu is that it has to be firm tofu. Anything less than firm tofu has too much moisture and won’t hold it’s shape very well. The beauty of tofu is that it is $.99 a brick at my local Asian market. It also takes on pretty much whatever flavor you give it. It is great in stir fry, soups, or just on it’s own like how I prepared it.
Servings: 1
Ingredients
- 1 brick firm tofu
- 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
- salt
Garnishes
- siracha
- green onion
- toasted sesame seeds
- fried garlic
Instructions
- For frying tofu, make sure to use firm tofu.
- Wrap tofu in a couple layers of paper towel.
- Weigh down the tofu with another plate and something that weights around 3lbs. Let it be for 20 minutes. It is important when frying tofu to get out as much moisture as possible so the oil doesn’t spatter. Also, if there is any moisture left on the outside of the tofu, they will slightly stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Cut brick into 12 pieces. If you want them to be smaller, cut them smaller. Unless you plan on deep frying the tofu, I wouldn’t cut them any larger. Pat these down with more paper towel.
- Add cooking oil to a skillet on medium high heat. Since I’m using a smaller skillet, I cooked the tofu in 2 batches. Cook on the first side for 5 minutes.
- Flip tp the other side and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Drain tofu on pare towel of excess grease. Salt.
- Throw the tofu in a bowl and toss with green onions, toasted sesame seed, siracha, and fried garlic.
- Eat the fuck out of this.
Korean Braised Beef (Instant Pot)
Braised Beef (Instant Pot)
This recipe is super easy with tremendous results. Mix sauce ingredients together. Mix together with meat. Pressure cook. Done. It doesn’t get more low maintenanced than this.There a many different types of beef you can use with this recipe. Chuck, bottom round, beef ribs, beef shanks, chuck tender will all work very well. The best part of this recipe is that it takes only an hour in the Instant Pot as apposed to 4-6 hours in a slow cooker. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can definitely make this in a slow cooker on high for 4-6 hours or in your oven at 275 for 4 hours. Either way you cook it will be delicious. This meat is also great in Korean Beef Tacos, which will be in another segment.
Ingredients
The Beef
- 3-4 lb chuck roast
- 1 large onion quartered
Sauce
- 6 tbsp light soy sauce
- 3 tbsp rice wine
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1/2 Asian pear grated
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup beef stock
- 6 garlic cloves minced
Garnish
- sesame oil
- sesame seeds
- green onion
- cilantro
Instructions
Sauce
- Mix all sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
The Beef
- Cut chuck roast into 2″ pieces. This will help the meat cook faster.
- Add the beef, onion, and sauce mix to the Instant Pot. Set to the pressure cooker function. Cook on high for 1 hour.
- Release the pressure. If you’d like for the sauce to thicken, turn on the sautée function on medium and cook for 10 more minutes.
- Serve over jasmine rice. Garnish with sesame oil, sesame seeds, green onion, and cilantro.
