Vindaloo Chicken Skewers

This is not a traditional Goan recipe. After I tested this recipe I thought of checking Google to see how many recipes I could find for Vindaloo Chicken Skewers and I was surprised to find not too many yay!

I wanted to make something with vindaloo curry paste other than just chicken vindaloo curry. The Goan in me only knows of Pork vindaloo, to think out of the box is a challenge. This whole week I have tried to think what would make for a good dipping sauce. Most people are used to a yogurt based sauce with Indian grilling. Goa is a state that hardly uses yogurt in cooking so I just could not think of any proper dipping sauce. Yogurt tends to overtake the spice flavors. To make up for the lack of a sauce I decided to sweeten the marinade. And guess what… I was totally surprised with the outcome. And my best/worst critic gave me a thumbs up  😉

This blog post has 2 recipes today the second being the famous Goan salad that I grew up eating. The dressing was always the same we never had seen any other salad dressings till I came to the US. The basic salad is made with cabbage, carrots, onions. tomatoes, vinegar and oil is an option. I skipped the olive oil as I wanted to cut the calories. Sometimes simplicity just cannot be beat. So I would challenge you to try this very simplistic recipe at-least for once’s :-).

Prep work for the skewers:

1) If you want your meats to be well-flavored then my HUMBLE advice is to marinate the meat over-nite.

2) Refrigerate the meat in an air-tight glass container like a Pyrex, as it can stain plastic tupperware and it has a  strong smell of the vinegar, ginger-garlic paste.

3) Soak the skewers in water for a couple of hours so that they do not get burnt specially if you are using a fire grill.

Serving size : 4

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of chicken breast
• 2-3 tbsp of vindaloo curry paste
• 2 tbsp of seasoned vinegar
• 2 tsp of sugar
• 2 tbsp of fresh ginger garlic paste
• salt to taste

Directions:

• Wash the meat and butterfly the breast, place the meat between parchment paper and lightly tenderize the meat. Cut them into 4 strip each.
• Mix the vindaloo paste, sugar, vinegar, ginger-garlic paste to form a marinade. Season the chicken with salt, apply the marinade and store it in the refrigerator overnight in a air tight glass container.
• Heat the grill either wood, gas or electric.
• Skewer the meat about 8 skewers in total.
• Brush it with some oil and grill the skewers for 4-5 minutes on each side. I like my meats well done. If you like it just done then for 2-3 minutes on each side.

Serve as a side with rice or with a nice Goan salad.

Goan Salad Recipe

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of shredded cabbage
• 1 cup of shredded carrots
• 1/2 medium onion finely sliced
• 1/2 jalapeno diced finely
• 3 tbsp of seasoned or any vinegar
• 1 medium tomato diced (optional)
• 1 tbsp oil (optional)
• 1 1/2 tsp of sugar
• 7-9 sprigs of chopped cilantro
• salt to taste

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl add vinegar, sugar, diced jalapeno, salt and whisk it.
• Mix the cabbage and sliced onions together and pour about 3/4 the amount of dressing and mix it well.
• Pour the rest of dressing into the grated carrots.
• On a serving plate lay the cabbage first. Next lay the carrots. Decorate  with chopped tomatoes and cilantro.