Its the weekend and as I sat down to write a recipe, I thought why not give it a try to make it a story. That captures the food and your mood. So bare with me as I take you on a trip of how the dinner and breakfast were built out of the same dough.
I picked up a perfect whole skinless chicken that weighed in at just a whiff over a kilo. I love this size as its the right size for my family of 4 Hoomans and 2 Cats.
The marinade was a lot of grated garlic with some bright Deghi mirch. Seasoned with salt and diluted with vinegar and some olive oil. This was rubbed all over the chicken and it was to remain in the fridge overnight.
Meanwhile I started work on my favorite preferment. The Biga, This time I built it with 440 grams of all purpose flour with 350 ml of water and a pinch of yeast. The Biga remained in a covered steel dish overnight.
By morning the Biga had doubled in size with its long strands of gluten. To up the flavor game, I added into the Biga, 250 grams of Whole Wheat Flour, a half cup of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of yeast. I started kneading and kept adding water as I went along and depended on it feel.
It was ready for resting when it became a soft and non-sticky dough ball. Since it was early in the afternoon, I popped it into the fridge.
Dinner was planned at 8 PM. So at 4 PM, both the chicken and dough were out to start the warmup. The chicken was of course long dead but the dough came to life and grew and grew till it was doubled in size.
My plan was to roast the chicken in the oven, but I saw a friend post a whole chicken recipe that was cooked on the stove top. So I simply copied that technique. I heated butter in a large pan. Placed the chicken along with all its marinade in the hot butter. Let it sear it on all sides. Then covered the pan and let it cook on low heat for about 30 minutes. When I opened the lid, the chicken was almost done but there was a lot of water as well. High heat and a little stirring was all it needed to get it crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.
The dough, I made into long flat breads. Cooked them on a tawa and added a little butter as they were done.
A side of chopped onions, tomatoes and coriander.
After dinner, as I got ready to take care of the dishes, I realized there was still a good amount of dough left over. Rolled it into a batard and hoped there was still some hope of it coming together and growing in size. It did. A bit of scoring to release the gases as it baked and yummy soft bread for breakfast the next day.
Uncomplicated Cooking 