Priya Makes Garlic Ginger Chicken

I can perform all of Chicago,

start to finish, as a one-woman show.

Like, five-six-seven-eight,

♪ And all that jazz ♪

♪ He had it comin' ♪

♪ When you're good to mama ♪

♪ Razzle dazzle 'em ♪

♪ Nowadays ♪

[laughs] [applauding]

[upbeat jazzy music]

Ready for Oklahoma?

♪ Wait for me ♪

♪ I'm comin' ♪

♪ Don't tell Sonia ♪

It's like the Cabaret song, Don't Tell Mama.

[laughs] I just, yeah, talking

about meat is very sensual [laughs].

[crew laughing]

Just gonna put music over this one.

Let's talk about chicken breasts.

I feel like, here in the test kitchen, people are not

so excited about boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

They're like, It tastes dry and rubbery.

There's no fat on it, so you can't get that juicy flavor.

But I like boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

One, because this is my Aunt Sonia's recipe,

and she uses boneless, skinless chicken breast.

Second, they're really inexpensive.

And third, they cook quickly and evenly,

and if you cook them the right way,

they retain a ton of flavor.

I'm also gonna show you what I think is the superior method

of cooking boneless, skinless chicken breasts,

which is searing them on both sides so they get crisp,

and then lowering the temperature

and just letting them cook low and slow

so that they taste really juicy,

they absorb all of those flavors.

Trust me, you are not gonna wanna make

boneless, skinless chicken breast any other way.

The secret ingredient in this dish is amchoor,

yeah, this one [laughs],

or dried mango powder.

It has this really tangy, acidic flavor.

When I don't have lime or lemon on hand,

I just put amchoor in a dish.

It's just so delicious and so versatile,

and that's really what's gonna make this chicken sing.

So in one bowl, we've got garlic and ginger.

We're just mincing them 'cause it's the most surface area

is gonna get on the chicken when it's in the marinade.

We've got our olive oil [clicks tongue],

and then we're gonna squeeze the juice of one lemon.

We're gonna use this clever contraption.

Oh yeah, no seeds, this is great.

Veronica, you're onto something [laughs].

So we're gonna stick our lemon juice in there,

and then we're gonna add about a tablespoons worth

of mint leaves and cilantro leaves.

Cilantro, I prefer using the stem,

but again, this is Sonia-mommy's recipe.

You just wanna make sure that it's chopped pretty finely,

because again, you want it to evenly coat the chicken.

All right, cool.

There's our mint and now for our cilantro.

Let's not tell Sonia-mommy,

I'm just gonna use some of the stem.

So a fun fact is that, when I was little,

I did theater, I was really into theater,

and I thought I wanted to be an actress full-time.

It was a short-lived phase, but I did auditions and stuff.

I mean, I'm no Selena Gomez,

but we coulda been friends, maybe.

I was in Fiddler on the Roof.

I played Bielke, the youngest daughter.

All right, let's go through our spices,

got turmeric,

you know what turmeric is,

earthy, colorful.

We've got red chili powder.

You can use cayenne or paprika

if you're feeling chili-adverse.

We've got ground coriander.

You're gonna wanna freshly grind it

if you have access to that.

Freshly ground coriander is the best coriander.

The reason we're not using the seeds is, again,

because we're making a marinade,

and we want it to evenly coat the chicken.

We've got our amchoor, our dried mango powder,

and then we've got salt.

So we're just gonna put all of this stuff.

It's kind of like mixing your dry ingredients

and then putting dry into wet with baking,

we're doing that, just with the marinade.

All right, so

this is all mixed up.

Ooh,

that smells really nice.

So we're gonna put dry into wet.

And

this is our marinade.

All right, so now,

we've got our chicken.

Oh, it's just, such like platonic-looking chicken breasts.

All right, so

gonna just kinda minorly vacuum-seal this,

and just make sure it's tightly sealed

or this next step will be very messy.

And you're just gonna massage it.

This is fun.

You're just gonna massage the marinade onto the breasts.

There we go.

And you just wanna make sure that everything gets coated.

So we're gonna heat up to medium-high heat,

and we're gonna put our oil in,

just a little bit.

I'm gonna put a teeny bit more.

There we go.

So we're just gonna let that heat up for a minute

and then we're gonna add our breasts [laughs].

All right, our oil is nice 'n' hot.

So we're gonna turn the heat down to medium,

and we're gonna lay these out.

One,

two,

oh, three, oh God, can we fit all four?

I think we can,

little guy,

four, there we go.

All right.

So just lay them flat.

So you're basically looking for the breast to get golden

on one side, and then you're just gonna flip them.

Okay, great.

Flipping that.

Fliperooski.

I'm gonna give that like 30 more seconds

'cause it's a little big one.

Set another two-minute timer.

Whew!

Basically what we're doing is, we're searing them

on high heat so they get that crisp exterior,

and then we're gonna cover it and lower the heat to low,

and then we're just gonna let it cook,

and then we're gonna turn the heat off, and then let it sit.

So that is just a low-and-slow method of cooking chicken

breast that just ensures that they are super, super juicy,

and it's also really hard to overcook the chicken this way.

Okay, so now what we're gonna do

is we're gonna lower the heat,

but we're gonna put the heat down to low.

We're gonna cover.

Hey, dhakkan.

We're gonna put the dhakkan on.

All right, and then we're gonna let it go.

My entire family is currently in Norway without me.

I mean, I'm going to go join them, but Sonia-mommy is there

right now, and I think it's like dinnertime,

so let's see if she's around.

Hey, Bintu-mama.

Sonia-mommy! They are both here!

Hey, so everyone wants to know here in the test kitchen,

how'd you come up with that combo?

I was just looking at the ingredients,

and I said, What's the easy way of marinading chicken?

And the best thing is lemon

and spices,

so oil, lemon, and spices.

And I said, Well, how do we make it easy?

Put it in a bag, I guess. Put it in a bag.

And Indian chicken is so popular right now.

It's so good, it's so good, too.

I feel like, the way that you make it,

the chicken just stays super juicy,

and it's just so flavorful.

I feel like chicken breast, usually you're not

used to getting all that flavor out of it.

I think I need the next thing is,

I'm gonna sell it to Freshii.

Let's see if they work it out. Oh, wow, okay.

This could be a business.

If anyone wants to buy Sonia-mommy's chicken recipe...

[Sonia-Mommy] Okay, we'll see you here, soon.

Can't wait to see you.

All right bye, Sonia-mommy, bye, Bintu-mama!

Bye! See you soon!

At this point, you're gonna wanna peek at the chicken.

You can't peek at the chicken.

So right now, we are just gonna turn the heat off,

let this sit on the residual heat for another 15 minutes,

and again, basically the hot steam inside

is going to cook the chicken all the way through.

It's gonna take it over the finish line,

but you cannot lift the lid, otherwise you will release

the hot steam that cooks the chicken.

So just be patient, and your patience

will be rewarded with very juicy chicken breast.

All right, so we're just gonna pick

the herbs that we're gonna garnish with.

We're picking these herbs because

we just want it to look a little prettier,

just a shower of fresh herbs on top of

anything is really great.

Let's go check on the chicken.

All right.

Let's just check on it, clandestinely.

Oh yeah, y'all I think we did it.

By George, it's done [laughs].

So a just practical way to tell that chicken is done,

that I was taught, is if the juices run clear,

that means they're done.

So right here, you can see, juices running clear,

juices running clear, we're good to go.

What you'll notice about the chicken, it's just,

I don't know, it just looks very juicy.

It's got the nice crust from all the spices.

It smells really amazing.

And as a finishing touch, we're just gonna [clicks tongue]

shower it with herbs.

I don't think there's anything

that I need to say besides,

I texted Sonia-mommy a photo,

and look what she said.

It says, Awesome!!

[everyone laughing]

With two exclamation marks.

Sonia-mommy does not give out compliments easily, so

I don't know, I'm feelin' pretty good about myself.

I'm gonna take,

this one looks like a nice, crispy boy.

Mmm.

The herbs are like a nice little break for freshness.

You've got the nice crust from the garlic and the ginger.

You can even give a little dip.

Mmm.

oh, my God, that's good.

This is, I'm gonna say it again,

the only chicken recipe I want or need in my life,

and the only way to make boneless,

skinless chicken breast super juicy.

No but seriously, whether you're entertaining

or meal-prepping, this is such a good back-pocket recipe.

It's really easy.

It's literally just making the marinade,

some hands-off cooking,

and there you go.

I mean, it's easier than roasting a whole chicken, right,

and you still get that juiciness.

I'm one of those kids who, when I was little,

I had a very cute kid-singing-voice,

and it just did not translate to an adult-singing-voice.

Like I auditioned for acapella in college,

and as I was auditioning I was like,

My voice just really didn't translate from my

[laughs] child-acting days.

It's 'cause, in general, as a kid,

I just had very little shame.

And having little shame as a kid

just translates to nice, outgoing, big, bold notes.

And now I have no shame as an adult,

and it's less important.