Everyone loves sizzlers and I am no exception. Anything barbecued is my weakness compared to anything curried. When you barbecue anything it retains the original flavor and taste of the element. Just grill, char or sauté the meat and vegetables according to your liking, add the sauce of your choice to it and ta-dah! You have a wonderful dish ready in few minutes.
Quoting from the internet "The word "sizzler" comes from the sizzle that one hears when, after heating the dish under a grill. The dish started in US (Culver City, CA) in 1958 when the restaurant of the same name, started serving steak and veggies together on a hot plate with gravy poured on. This would keep the meat and vegetables hot for a longer time than the traditional method of serving on a china plate."
Though how much I like it, I never tried to make it at home. Because I always had this thought that how can I make a sizzler without its signature sizzler plate? So we usually went to some sizzler joint in the town for enjoying a good sizzler. This time around when we were in Mahabaleshwar, a quaint little hill station of Maharashtra and it was raining pretty hard so much that the buildings in the town had vanished among the thick blanket of fog we craved for a hearty warm meal. Sizzler Place- the only sizzler joint of the town seemed like an inviting option.
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| The Sizzler Place |
We grabbed a window seat to enjoy the rains as we had our meals. I had read about their famous butterfly chicken (grilled chicken steak with mushroom sauce, stir fried vegetables and mashed potatoes served with rice) and that’s what we ordered. All I can say about the meal is that it was possibly the best sizzler I ever had. The mashed potatoes were mushy creamy and totally heavenly, crunchy vegetables and a nicely done grilled chicken steak. The USP was the amazing pepper sauce they served to go with the sizzlers.
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| Chicken Butterfly at Sizzler Place |
I was so charmed by this particular sizzler that I finally decided to try my hand at recreating the whole thing in my own kitchen with a bit of my imagination. I decided to use my non stick tawa (frying pan) as a sizzler plate and tell you what it turned out beautifully at the end and earned a lot of appreciation from my family.
I decided to improvise on the existing combination and introduced a few new elements which added to the taste. The possibilities are infinite with what you want to put on the plate. You can use a bit of imagination and serve any combination you like – Baked beans, Chilly chicken, Golden prawns, Stir fried cauliflower, Capsicum julienne , Butter corns, French fries, Fish steaks, Poached egg etc.
Only two things are required for making a perfect sizzler - the ingredients and a whole lot of patience. Here is my version of the butterfly chicken.
- Chicken Fajita in Buttered Mushroom Sauce and Honey Sesame Paneer served with Sauteed seasonal vegetables, Honey onion rings and Cilantro lime rice.
Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Serves: 2
Cuisine: American
Ingredients:
Chicken Marinade -
- Boneless Chicken breast halves - 7-8 pieces
- Lime - 1/2 juiced
- Fresh Cilantro - 1 handful finely chopped
- Chipotle peppers/ dry red chilli whole - 2
- Refined Oil - 1 1/2 tsp
- Cloves of garlic - 4 grated
- salt as per taste
Fajita Seasoning -
- Ancho Chili / Normal Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp
- Cumin Powder- 1/2 tsp
- Paprika - 1/2 tsp
- Crushed Black pepper - 1/2 tsp
- Dried Oregano power - 1/2 tsp
- Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
Honey Sesame Paneer and Onion Rings Marinade -
- Paneer cubes (Cottage Cheese) - 7-8 pieces
- Onion sliced horizontally to make packed rings - 2 small onions
- Honey - 2 tbsp
- Soya Sauce - 4 tbsp (increase according to taste)
- Sesame Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Buttered Mushroom Sauce-
- Mushroom - 7-8 diced
- Garlic cloves - 4-5 chopped
- Butter -32 tsp
- Green chilli - 1 slitted
- Chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp
- Peppercorns - 7-8 coarsely ground
- Parsley (or any herbs you like) - 1/2 tsp
- Soya Sauce - 2 tbsp
- Sugar - 1/2 tsp
- Salt as per taste
Mashed Potato with burnt garlic -
- Good quality Potato with skin - 2 medium
- Garlic cloves - 6-7 chopped
- Fresh Cream - 2 tbsp
- Whole Milk - 4 tbsp
- Crushed black peppercorns - 9-10
- Butter- 1 tbsp
- salt as per taste
Cilantro Lime Rice -
- Basmati rice - 200 gm
- Fresh Cilantro - 1 handful minced
- Lime/Lemon - 1/2 juiced
- Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp crushed
- Butter - 1 tsp
- Bay Leaf - 1
- Salt as per taste
Sauteed Vegetables -
- Carrots - 1 big sliced into two inch long pieces
- French Beans - 8-10 cut into two inch pieces
- Green Peas - 1 handful
- Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp crushed
- Butter - 1 tsp
- Salt as per taste
For Plating -
- Cabbage leaves - 5-6
- Butter - 1 tbsp
- Refined oil - 1 tsp
- Water
1. Prepping the chicken: In a mixing bowl combine the chicken and its marinade. In another bowl combine the ingredients mentioned under Fajita seasoning with the refined oil. Add this fajita seasoning paste to the chicken and toss everything to coat the chicken evenly. Cover and refrigerate for an hour or more. For more pictures and details checkout my Chipotle chicken burrito bowl recipe.
2. Cooking the Chicken: Heat 2 tsp of butter in a skillet. Add the marinated chicken in a single layer. Cook on high flame for about 5-6 minutes each side taking care the chicken doesn't get burnt. You can keep the chicken with the bone or can discard the bone by making pieces out of the cooked chicken. Make sure to keep the chicken warm till you are ready to assemble. If the chicken turns cold it will become chewy.
3. Preparing the Rice: Heat the pressure cooker. Add butter, coarsely ground pepper powder and bay leaf. Add rice. Add double the amount of water. Adjust salt and sugar. Cook the rice for necessary whistles. When vapour escapes add finely chopped cilantro and dash of lime juice and fork the rice evenly.
Since we add lime juice after the rice is cooked hence salt has to be added to balance the taste.
4. Making the Mashed Potato: Take a pan and stir fry the garlic pieces in some butter till they are golden in color. Keep aside.
Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker with the skin on till two whistles or depending on the time it usually takes for boiling the potato. Drain the water and peel the potato while its still steaming hot. Mash the potato evenly with a fork. Add the ground black pepper, salt, sauteed garlic, fresh cream and milk. Whip them with a hand beater or a electric beater into a smooth, creamy mix. You can again add some more peppercorn if you wish.
The potatoes need to be boiled with skin on to prevent entry of water as much as possible. So pressure cook them till the point that they don't break.
Also mash the potatoes when hot. because if they become cold the mash will become lumpy as potatoes would not break evenly.
5: Preparing the Sauteed Vegetables: Par boil the vegetables and remove from the water till they still have a slight bite in them. Take a pan, add a tsp of butter and crushed peppercorns. Toss in the vegetables. Add salt. Stir fry for a couple of minutes. You can use any seasonal vegetables for this.
6. Preparing the Mushroom Sauce: Add butter in a pan. As the butter melts toss in the chopped garlic, ground peppercorns, chopped green chilli, chilli flakes. Saute for a couple of minutes till the garlic sizzles and is fragrant. Toss in the diced mushrooms. Add salt and sugar. Fold everything in and stir fry on high heat till the mushroom begins to sweat. Add a little more butter and the soya sauce. Lower the heat. Mix everything well taking care not to burn the sauce. Sprinkle the herbs and toss once again.
Mushroom has high water content. So while stir frying make sure you dont cook the mushroom for more than 2-3 minutes as we dont want the mushroom to loose the water and shrink.
7. Preparing the Honey Sesame Paneer and Onion rings: Heat some water in a bowl and add 1/2 tsp salt to it. Take the Panner cubes and put it in the hot water till they become soft and ready to cook. Take a bowl and add the honey, soya sauce and sesame seeds. Mix them to make a marinade of semi liquid consistency. Coat the Paneer cubes and the onion rings in this marinade and keep it for 10 minutes. Take a pan and add some butter for frying. When the butter is hot place the panneer cubes one by one and fry on high heat to retain its moisture while it cooks. Cook the paneer till it chars a bit at its ends. Take them out and keep them warm. Repeat the same steps with the onion rings. Take care not to break the rings. Char the rings till they look browned.
You can also grill the paneer in a sandwitch griller instead of frying it. I did it that way because using a griller would give you the beautiful barbaque lines on the paneer.
8: Final Assembling: Take the cabbage leaves and lightly pound them with a pestle to flatten them out. This will make it easy for placing them uniformly in the tawa.
Take a large tawa big enough to hold all the ingredients of the sizzler. Switch on the gas on high and heat up the tawa considerably. Be real quick with these steps. Add the butter on the tawa and spread it uniformly. The butter will start sizzling. Lower the heat. Place the cabbage leaves so as to coat the entire surface of the tawa. Now place the sauteed vegetables, mashed potato, chicken and paneer like shown in the picture. Pour the Mushroom sauce over the chicken. Place the onion rings over the paneer.
Mix 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp water. Add this emulsion by the side of the leaves into the pan. The smokey sizzling will start immediately. Take a lid and cover the pan so that the steam heats up all the ingredients evenly.
You can also add the rice on the tawa but since we had too many ingredients on the tawa already there was no place for rice. Once everything is hot and sizzling do the plating. In a serving plate serve any portion of the sizzler on a bed of cilantro rice and enjoy!
