Pepper Garlic Baked Chicken

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” -                     

                                                                                                                                                                                   Julia Child

My hubby has been pining for some home baked chicken for some time and with our new entrant ( an oven) we decided to try some luck with baking chicken. We had been to Nandos the day before and were disappointed with their chicken which was promised to be spicy but ended up on the tangy side. We are chilli lovers and and wanted something explosive. In the recent times I haven't had anything irresistibly spicy that has defeated my taste buds and we are still in the Man vs Food hunt of ours.This recipe is our own and has a lot of ingredients that has created a wonderful burst of flavors but the  key ones are garlic powder and pepper sauce. Pepper sauce was not spicy to my expectations but it had a distinct pepper flavor and it's the first time I got to experience the flavour pepper carried without being overwhelmed by the spicy part and so I loved this sauce. Garlic powder is a must in every kitchen according to me. It tastes very different from minced garlic or the garlic paste usually used. And our fish fry has  improved a lot after this powder entered our kitchen. So that's few tips on some spices that's been rocking my kitchen recently.

Ingredients for Pepper Garlic Baked Chicken

Chicken- 1 kg

Garlic powder- 2 tbsp

Pepper sauce- 2 tbsp

Barbecue sauce- 2 tbsp

Soya Sauce- 1 tsp
Olive oil - 2tbsp
Ginger garlic paste- 2tsp
Salt- 1 tsp
Apple cider vinegar- 1 tbsp
Basil- 2 tbsp
Thyme- 2 tbsp

Directions

Clean and cut the chicken into 10 pieces, you can marinate the whole chicken if you like it that way.

Make slits on the pieces so that the marinade reaches inside.Marinate the chicken with salt and leave it for 20 minutes.In a bowl mix all the ingredients mentioned above.



I added a tbsp of kashmiri chilli powder for colour.



This is optional. Marinate the chicken and cover the pan with a cellophane sheet and refrigerate the chicken overnight. Before you bake the chicken thaw it at room temperature for an hour. Bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes. I grilled it for 10 minutes after the chicken was cooked which actually took 45 minutes in my oven.



 Add few slices of potatoes into the pan before baking if you prefer having potatoes.The gravy that comes out of the chicken in the process of baking can be used for making pastas later or served with the chicken. It makes an excellent stock for rice too.

This began as my hubby's treat for me on my birthday but eventually he roped me in but I did enjoy our little experiment and I am so tempted to name this the 'birthday bake'. My hubby says he does not remember the ingredients that went into this chicken. I hope he checks it here before he tries his hand at baking again :)
But honestly my cousin bro and I think this was way better than Nandos  and I take his comments quite seriously. Stay tuned for more recipes I had a blast with the oven this time :)