Yogurt Marinated Chicken – Everybody out of Cupboard/Roll-call

When chicken goes on sale, I like to make a yogurt marinated chicken.

It’s sort of like tandoori or butter chicken, only I don’t use garam masala in the spice blend – mostly because garam masala as a mix is to expensive for me to buy when I’ll only use it once every 3 months, and the other is because it has cinnamon in it and it’s something that my taste buds can’t stand, and other spices that I can’t really taste. That being said, it’s cheaper to make your own mix and there’s plenty of recipes for that online elsewhere.

I call it Everybody out of the Cupboard, or Cupboard Roll-call because it uses all the odd spices that I normally don’t use very much. It’s a great way to use them up, because buying spices at the grocery store is generally a case of -this will expire/go bad/go stale before I use it all- and they can sit in the cupboard for years. What about a bulk food store you say? Public transit, it takes a minimum 3-4 hours roundtrip to get to it, too much a hassle. People clean out their fridges and pantries before things can go off, but never think to do the same to their spice cabinet/drawers.

1. Chicken Breasts – sliced into strips or 1″ chunks, your preference.
   2-3 breasts for these quantities. If doing more, increase your yogurt & lemon juice.
2. 1 cup yogurt – preferably plain, greek style, but I skim the top half of one of those fruit on the bottom types and it works fine enough for me. Vanilla also works.
3. 1 small can/6 tbsp tomato paste
4. 1/4 cup lemon juice – bottled is fine, I can’t afford fresh
5. 1 tsp each of the following spices

• ground ginger
• garlic salt
• ground cumin
• ground tumeric
• cayenne powder
• onion powder
• dry mustard – also known as mustard powder, dry mustard powder, hot mustard powder
• salt
• ground/cracked black pepper

For a more ‘authentic’ taste, you can add ground coriander, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon, ground cloves & ground nutmeg. Together with ground black pepper & ground cumin makes the garam masala mix.

Any spice that isn’t in the thyme/basil/sage etc category can go in the mix really.

1. Throw everything into a ziplock bag and mix together, then refrigerate at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.
2. Grease a baking/casserole dish, then dump in everything from the ziplock bag, including the extra marinade.
3. Cook @ 350 in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. You might need extra time if you’ve added more chicken and depending on the thickness of your chicken.

You could figure out how to adapt it to the IPot, but I’ve tried it a couple different ways and using the Seal Lock when cooking makes an ungodly mess, and without the Seal Lock it takes the same amount of time as it does in the oven, or even longer using the slow cook method.

Serve over rice or your favourite grain/starch, or use as the meat in tacos or pita wraps. I was forced to make a lettuce bowl – it’s there at the bottom, because I tried a cheap brand of pita wraps and they were too flimsy to make a wrap/burrito.

 

For those daring, you can increase the yogurt and lemon juice for volume and even do a whole chicken(either whole or split the spine to spread it out), marinate overnight and then roast it in the oven.

Don’t like using a ziplock bag because it’s plastic/wasteful? That’s fine. You could even marinate it in your baking dish as long as you include 1/4 cup of oil but I find that sometimes the parts on top don’t get marinated enough. Just don’t use a plastic tub container because it’ll ruin the plastic – spaghetti sauce ring like ruin it.

Mock Sushi House Dressing

This isn’t for the Instant Pot, but it is a favourite of mine that I don’t get to enjoy very often because Single Occupancy grocery shopping does not convey to keeping things like carrots or salads in the fridge before they spoil.
This is the only salad dressing aside from a tangy full fat caesar that I can stand to eat.

Mock Sushi House Ginger Dressing
yields at least 2 servings, but probably should stand for 4
(Portion control is a suggestion, not a rule. Unless it’s medication or doctors orders.)

• 1/3 Cup Olive Oil
• 1/3 Cup Sushi Vinegar (White Wine Vinegar can be substituted)
• 1/2 pkg 320g baby carrots (loosely 2 cups OR about 3 medium sized, peeled & chopped)
• 1 ” piece of peeled, fresh ginger (thumbprint sized), more or less to taste.
• 1 Tsp Soy Sauce, more or less to taste.
• 1 Tsp tomato paste (tube kind is fine), more or less to taste.
• 2 Tbsp lemon/lime juice(2 squeezes), more or less to taste.

Combine all in a high powered blender, blending until fairly smooth & creamy(no chunks). Takes about 45 seconds with a Ninja Bullet.

This recipe is pretty much all about personal tastes, and I’ve browsed about a hundred different versions online before I settled on this base recipe after a little experimentation.

Doesn’t seem zesty enough? Sub out the vinegar for orange juice.
Missing a bit of tang? Add a little sesame oil(it goes a -long- way) or increase the tomato paste.
Still seems like something’s ‘off’ and not what you were expecting? Try a different oil. Most can’t find a difference or care if they do, but a more authentic oil to use would be peanut oil. Or use the lightest tasting oil you can find. Cold/solid coconut oil however wouldn’t be recommended, the cold of the salad would solidify it again.
Don’t have tomato paste in a tube or can’t find it, a good ketchup will do in a pinch, just keep in mind the more you use, the more it’ll go from orange to red(because there’s food coloring in most ketchups).

As long as you don’t go to crazy with the volumes, you can increase or double the ratio’s of all the ingredients to your personal preferences.
I prefer these measurements as listed for how ‘thick’ the dressing is. It tastes very similar to my favour local sushi house, but it’s thicker and less runny than theirs. If you prefer your dressing a little looser, blend it again with a little more vinegar for tang, or oil for ‘coverage’, or add some orange juice, not much is needed.

This version can easily cover an entire medium sized bag of salad. Serve over iceberg or a garden salad blend, but I also like it over spinach or spring mix. But im a heathen that way. Add an avocado if you can, that’s an option that must be tried with a Sushi House Salad if available. Don’t forget you can prevent browning by squeezing lemon juice over the avocado as soon as you have it cut in half and removed the pit(removed at your own safety hazard).