Green Masala Chicken with Feta Cheese

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Ever had one of those days when you don't know what your doing with a recipe and just try your luck and hope for the best? Well this was one such recipe, I decided I wanted to make a green masala curry but add a twist, a different flavour, couldn't quite figure out what until I opened my fridge to find some feta cheese and thought AHA! A ligthbulb moment! Wasn't quite sure where and when I would add this so I just played along and added when I thought....."Oh this will be a good time!" :)

May I say how delightful it turned out too! The feta added a subtle tangy flavour which complimented the mint, fenugreek and coriander, giving this dish an overall creamy rich texture. 

I love it when a plan comes together! :)

My cousin happened to pop in for tea as I was cooking so she ended up being my guinea pig food taster! Much to her delight she liked it so much she decided she would try it out at weekend for her family. So my lovelies, why not give this a try and see what you think!

Serves 6-8 people

Ingredients

4lbs of boneless chicken

1 bunch of fresh Coriander

1 bunch of fresh Fenugreek leaves

5 sprigs of fresh mint leaves

4 cloves of garlic

2 inch piece of ginger

Juice of 1 Lemon

200g of Feta cheese

3-4 onions

11-12 green chilies (you may use more or less depending on how spicy you want it)

5 Tablespoons of Olive oil

4 tablespoons of Ghee

3 teaspoons of salt or to taste

3 teaspoons of Garam masala

2 teaspoons of cumin seeds (One to add in beginning and one to use for tempering)

 Method

1. Wash chicken thoroughly and leave to dry.

2. To make the marinade, in a blender add the mint, fenugreek and coriander leaves along with the garlic, ginger, and lemon juice, one teaspoon of salt and 2 tbsn of olive oil. Add half of the block of feta cheese. Blend to a smooth paste. 

3. Mix the marinade with chicken and leave to marinate at room temperature for minimum of Half an hour.

4. In the meantime take the onions and chop roughly, blender to make into a paste. Heat 3 tbsns of olive oil, add 1 tspn of cumin seeds and then add the onion paste. If you wish you may add 2-3 green chilies here, but this is optional. Cook till all water in onion paste has cooked out. See pics below.

5. Now add the marinaded chicken to onion paste and mix well. Cook on high heat, the chicken will release water, cover and let it cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. 

6. Now turn up heat to high and cook to dry out the water, as water is drying add the rest of the feta cheese, and mix well.

7. Keep stirring on high heat till water evaporates and the masala is sticking to the chicken. When this has been achieved turn off heat and set aside.

See how masala sticks to the chicken

8. Now for tempering, heat the ghee in a small frying pan, then add to it quarter of an onion thinly sliced, 4-5 dried red chillies, 1 tspn of cumin seeds heat until sizzling and onions are going a golden brown colour, then pour over the chicken. 

9. Garnish with mint leaves and serve with fresh warm chapatis. :)

Enjoy!
Bil hana wa ash-shifa