Marry Me Chicken - Desi Style

Marry Me Chicken is a popular dish and typically consists of tender chicken breasts cooked in a creamy tomato sauce with a perfect blend of herbs and spices. This version of Marry Me Chicken reimagines the dish Desi style.

If there was a Desi Version of Marry Me Chicken this would be it. I have done a few versions of this chicken but this is the best version yet.

The method is a bit labour intensive but it is so good and worth it.

Marry Me Chicken - Desi Style

Verushka Ramasami, SpiceGoddess Blog

Ingredients

• 2 kg chicken pieces cut, cleaned, washed and pierced

Brine

• 4 cups hot water added to a large pot

• 2 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp salt

• 2 bay leaves

• 10 peppercorn

Marinade

• 6 tbsp double cream plain yoghurt

• 500 g chicken roast masala

• 2 tbsp ginger/garlic/chilli paste

• 1 sachet spicy chicken spice

• 1 sachet chilli flakes

Nando’s Cream Sauce

• 1 bottle Nando’s Sauce of your choice

• 2 tsp sugar

• 250 ml fresh cream

• 100 ml hot water

Pickled Peppers

1. ½ red, green and yellow peppers, finely chopped

2. 150 ml grape vinegar

3. 1 tsp dried mint

4. 2 tbsp brown sugar

Method

Brine

1. Bring the brine ingredients to a boil, remove from the heat and let it cool until it is completely cold. About three hours.

2. Use a large mixing bowl add the chicken pieces. (I actually used two bowls to split the chicken before adding the cold brine solution to the chicken.) Cover and put into the fridge for at least 2 hours.

   
   

Marinade

1. After 2 hours drain and pat dry the chicken pieces.

2. Mix the marinade ingredients and massage into the chicken pieces.

3. Place the marinated chicken pieces with the excess marinade into airtight containers and into the deep freezer for at least 2 days. This is needed for the flavours to get into the pieces.

4. Remove from the freezer the night before you wish to cook it. Leave the containers in the fridge to defrost.

Cooking

1. Heat the oven to 180 °C and position the oven rack on the middle shelf. Use a large oven tray for cooking.

2. Place the chicken pieces onto the oven tray and drizzle with 2 tsp of oil.

3. Cook for 1 hour in oven, turning the chicken pieces of 30 minutes into the cooking process.

4. After 1 hour, remove from the oven tray and place in your airfryer in batches. My airfryer has a large basket and I could fit 10 pieces at a time.

5. Crank up the heat to 200 °C and cook for 6 minutes. Remove the chicken and place on a big, clean bowl. Repeat the process until all the chicken is done.

Nando’s Cream Sauce

1. Add all the sauce ingredients to a saucepan, mix well and bring to a boil.

2. Drizzle half the sauce onto the cooked chicken in the bowl. Mix well before setting the chicken pieces onto a clean oven tray.

Pickled Peppers

1. Mix the peppers in the chicken piece in the oven tray and leave for at least 30 minutes.

2. Before serving the chicken, drizzle the remainder of the cream sauce and half of the pickled peppers with the juice. Heat for 10 min. Once you take out of the oven, drizzle the rest of the pickled peppers with juice and chopped dhania over .