Tandoori Chicken Bhel

My craziness for tandoor & Indian street food goes a long way back. The craziness for tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, the breads and my love for Pani Puri and Sev Puri made me come up with the crazy idea for this creation. My love for both gives me the chills sometimes! So, one day on my way to work, I thought, "what the hell, let's come up with a dish that combines my love for both these dishes." There would be nothing better than making a dish that combines the flavours of the street with a hint of smokiness and spiciness you get from. So I said to myself, "what would be good? A bhel that contains crisp puffed rice, potatoes, spices, and chutneys or would a sev puri be better?"

In the the mix!!!

I decided bhel would go perfect since it gave me more room to play with the dish. 

I haven't dismissed the idea of making a tandoori chicken sev puri though, and that's my next attempt on the wonderful craze of Indian street food i have got recently...

And so began the craziness!

So to begin with the dish, i firstly looked into the original dish; the ingredients that go in it and after that, I decided to redesign it up with my creation. I decided to add the regular stuff that goes into a bhel, and some other stuff that would make it different to make it a tandoori bhel. The chutney was going to be made using a tandoori marination that was used to marinate the chicken. So, I cooked the marination in oil until all the spices were cooked and gave it that tandoori smell and smokiness. With a touch of water and oil, I adjusted the consistency of the chutney. I also decided to add some mustard oil and of course the main highlight was the tandoori chicken with its smokiness and charness. I then gathered all the ingredients and it was time to re-invent this street food! I mixed my crispy rice puff with boiled potatoes, mustard oil, onions, thin sev, finely chopped cilantro, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and to bring everything together...I couldn't forget the two main things, one was the chicken, and the other was the tandoori chutney. I then added a little bit of spicy chana dal.

Old skul with a twist!!!!

There was only one way i was gone serve this street food, even though it was a bit fancy than your regular, I did not want to serve it on a plate or glass, hence, I told Bhavika; one of my best servers (can't disclose real name due to political reasons), to get me some paper from old magazines. Made a cone out of the old paper and filled it with the bhel. I garnished it with a little bit of chopped coriander and gave a puri to scoop out the bhel. Made little cones and gave the entire staff of the restaurant to try out my new experiment.

                                 My God, what a re-invention of something so simple, or I'd rather say what a great twist to the old school street food we all crave for. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post as much as I did while writing it. So get your butt and go make some for yourself, and enjoy!  You could also make it with paneer if you're a vegetarian, or could add your own little twist to the dish! Do let me know how it turned out!! 

Ciao!