Hi everyone and welcome back to another week of Tasting My Heritage! This week we’re going to be traveling back to Pakistan to make a super delicious dish. That would be Pakistani style chicken legs. I’m sure there’s a more proper name for it but this is what my dad calls and this recipe is something that he makes very often for our family.
This can be made over the stove, in the oven, or the air fryer. It’s super delicious and you can pair it with a side of roti or rice (whichever you prefer).
For this recipe, I’ll be using a Ninja Foodie to make this. A Ninja foodie is essentially just an indoor fryer/air fryer. I had access to this because when I made this recipe I was lucky enough to be at home and that is the appliance my parents use.
Ingredients:
- One spoonful of ginger garlic paste
- Two over measured teaspoons of plain yogurt
- The entire packet of shan brand chicken tikka masala
- A little bit of shan brand tikka seekh kabab masala
- One teaspoon of shan brand chaat masala
- Oil of your choice (I use olive oil for this recipe)
- About a quarter teaspoon of salt (or to your taste)
- A bit of red kashmiri powder for color
Step one: Wash your chicken legs. Rinse them thoroughly with water. Once they’re washed, dry your chicken legs. You’ll want to start cutting lines into your chicken legs. We do this because we want to open the chicken legs out to all of the flavors.
Step two: Add a spoonful of ginger garlic paste (you can find this at any Indian store). Mix that in and then add two over measured teaspoons of plain yogurt. This plain yogurt is important because it helps maintain the flavor of the chicken legs, it helps the chicken legs taste less spicy and more rich, and it also helps keep the chicken legs juicy. Which is a great cooking hack and I hope you’ll use that trick for your other meals in the future.
Step three: Add in a packet of shan chicken tikka masala.
Shan chicken tikka masala includes many different ingredients and spices. As per their website, I will be listing those here so you can get a better understanding of what’s really going into what you’re making. Shan chicken tikka masala includes Salt, Red, Chili, Paprika, Turmeric, Aniseed, Cinnamon, Cumin, Brown Cardamom, Black Pepper, Star Aniseed, Ginger, Dried Papaya Powder, Maltodextrin, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Sugar, Canola Oil, Citric Acid, Sodium Phosphate, Silicon Dioxide.
Step four: Add a bit of tikka seekh kabab masala for extra flavor. I’ll be highlighting the spices for this spice as well. As per the Shan website, Red Chili, Salt, Paprika, Coriander, Muskmelon, Ginger, Garlic, Black Pepper, Star Aniseed, Dehydrated Onion, Long Pepper, Allspice, Caraway, Green Cardamom, Bay Leaf, Citric Acid, Maltodextrin, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Sugar, Canola Oil, Silicon Dioxide, and Dried Papaya Powder.
What’s interesting about this is that most of their spices so far remain the same, yet they compliment each other in great ways, especially when making these chicken legs.
Step five: Add one teaspoon of shan chaat masala packet. We use this because it helps give a stronger taste to your food. You could go with or without this, but we’d like to make this as flavorful as possible. As I also mentioned before, the yogurt that we add into this also helps the flavor lessen a little bit, in case you’re worried about the spice.
And of course, let’s add the ingredients off of the shan website. From the shan website, the ingredients within the shan chaat masala include, Salt, Red Chili, Paprika, Coriander, Cinnamon, Ginger, Aniseed, Long Pepper, Cumin, Green Cardamom, Black Pepper, Dried Mango Powder, Clove, Carom, Citric Acid, Maltodextrin, Sugar, Canola Oil, and Silicon Dioxide.
This packet also includes similar ingredients to the packets used above, but there is also some extra flavor coming from the mango. If you read my post from last week, I definitely appreciate that ingredient in anything I make!
Step six: Once this is all seasoned, mix everything together once again. From there, you should cover your marinated chicken legs and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours but overnight is even better. If you leave it overnight, the flavors will be a lot stronger in your chicken legs because of the holes we cut in the chicken.
Step seven: Add your marinated chicken into the air fryer (air fryer and oven use about the same directions). I put mine in at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or so, checking on it after about 10 minutes. Once that’s done, you can add cilantro or any other garnishes.
Step eight: Finally, enjoy with basmati rice or roti!