Chicken in a Lemon Cream Sauce

This is a recipe that I can claim as completely my own :) There is this amazing Lemon Chicken dish that is served as a starter at the Urban Tadka restaurant and all its branches in Mumbai. It just has a hint of lemony sauce and is midway between a dry dish and a gravy one. Its hot and sour and totally lip-smacking!

So when my friend G asked for a new chicken recipe for a party she was throwing at her place, we decided to try and recreate the Lemon Chicken. I had no idea where to start and even after trawling the food-blog world, couldn't come up with a satisfactory recipe. That's when I decided to just make it up keeping in mind the flavours I had tasted at the restaurant.



Luckily for me, I was not the one experimenting with it the first time ;) But G did a wonderful job of executing the recipe and that in turn gave me confidence to cook this when I had a couple of friends over for lunch... G's version was far more lemony and sour since that's the way she likes it. But Sid cannot handle too much khatta in his food... So the recipe below has the kick of lemon without being too tongue-curlingly sour.

I know the photographs are not too enticing, but that's because I had absolutely no time to click pictures before the guests started arriving. And by the end of the meal, there was hardly any chicken left! So these badly clicked snaps are ones taken in the kitchen on my mobile phone and really do no justice to the flavorsome dish...


Ingredients:

Chicken - 2 kgs
Lemon - 4
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Cumin/Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander/Dhania Powder - 1/2 tsp
Onions - 4-5
Green chillies - 5
Salt
Vegetable Oil - 1 tbsp

Marinate chicken in the juice of 3-4 lemons with salt, 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste, dhania powder and jeera powder. Mix well and refrigerate for one hour to marinate.

Take a large non-stick vessel and heat the oil in it. Finely chop the onions, keep the green chillies whole and fry both in the oil. Once it is browned well, add the chicken pieces to it, stir well, cover and cook for 10min.

For the Lemon Cream Sauce :

Mayonnaise - 100gms (I used half a jar of Fun Foods Mayo)
Fresh Cream - 200gms (I used Amul Fresh Cream)
Thick Yoghurt/Curd - 5 tbsp
Lemon juice - 2tbsp (Juice of 1 lemon)
Salt
Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Fresh Parsley/Coriander leaves - for garnish
Sliced Red Chillies - for garnish

Mix the mayonnaise with the cream and yoghurt. Add the lemon juice, pepper and a pinch of salt. Whisk gently with a wooden spoon till it forms a thick creamy mixture. Pour this over the chicken that is cooking. Combine well so that all the chicken pieces are coated thoroughly with the lemon cream sauce. Now finely chop the fresh parsley or dhania patta and sprinkle generously. Cover and cook for another 10-15min. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning.

The way I like it:

I personally like to add the juice of another lemon at the end for that fresh lemony flavour. You can also add freshly ground pepper if you want it to be spicier. Garnish with coriander leaves and sliced red chillies and serve hot with buttered rice or garlic bread. Goes well with rotis too.

I'm dashing this off to the Chicken Recipe Event hosted by Sameena of My Culinary Creations.