We have a habit here in the US of blindly attaching the name of a country, region or even culture or religion as a name to describe a dish. Mexican rice. Cajun fish. Jewish Coffee Cake. I think I’ve posted all of those recipes here. I’m not sure what to think of that practice.
How does a simple name like that give the dish justice. Mexican rice? How many different flavors of Mexico are there? What about the various regions? What about it is Mexican that is not Southwestern or Spanish? Do other countries do this with “American XXX”? I’d love to hear from my international readers if they see that description at all with food. (I know about cafe americano for straight black coffee).
Unfortunately it is an easy way to get across a general set of flavors or ingredients very quickly. Here is the Indian Chicken Wrap.
I have not had much success in making anything Indian that I would make a second time. I attribute that to my taste preferences rather than the recipe or the cook (me). This was an exception. I’d easily make this again…soon.
The week I made this there was another recipe that required rotisserie chicken. I got them both home and my youngest asked me expectantly when he could dive into the delicious smelling chicken. He was not happy with my reply…”tomorrow”.
The yogurt sauce getting blended.
Into the food processor.
And into a paste like sauce.
Frying it up.
Great flavors and pretty easy to make.
Indian Chicken Wrap
Prep Time:Â 0 hours 15 minutes |Â Cook Time:Â 0 hours 10 minutes |Â Makes:Â 4 servings |Â Difficulty:Â Easy
Ingredients:
- 1 1-inch piece ginger, peeled
- 1 serrano chile pepper, halved, seeded and roughly chopped
- 1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- Kosher salt
- 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
- 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken, skin removed
- 2 medium carrots, shredded
- 4 pieces naan bread or pocketless pita, warmed
- Potato chips, for serving (optional)
Directions:
Combine the ginger, chile, onion, cumin and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a mini food processor and pulse to make a thick paste. (Or finely chop and mash with the flat side of a knife.) Mix the yogurt, lime juice, cilantro and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Cover and chill until ready to use.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ginger-chile paste and cook, stirring, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is slightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chicken, carrots, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup water and continue to cook, stirring, until the sauce is thick and the chicken is heated through, about 2 more minutes. Season with salt.
Spoon one-quarter of the chicken filling down the middle of each piece of bread. Drizzle with some of the yogurt sauce and roll up. Serve with chips.
Per serving: Calories 483; Fat 19 g (Saturated 5 g); Cholesterol 115 mg; Sodium 955 mg; Carbohydrate 43 g; Fiber 5 g; Protein 37 g
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
Awesome, I had a similar though process on my blog last week. Also, I LOVE Indian food. I’m going to make this!!!!!!!!!!!
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This looks incredible! I’ll be trying this tonight. Thanks for the recipe
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Looks delish. With me, I add the name of a country to a particular recipe when it is in the spirit of that type of cuisine without exactly being a traditional recipe. So, in essence, “Cajun Fish” I expect to have used Cajun spice mix or use a typical cooking method associated with Cajun cooking, such as using the trinity of vegetables, which makes it different from using a mirepoix. Also, a recipe like that might not exactly be like blackened fish, which does use the spice but it has a traditional cooking method. But I think it is a good idea to include in the title the traditional name if someone knows it. Now I am hungry for Indian (anything) on flat bread. Off to lunch! Cheers- ~Sue
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I happen to be in one of the groups you mentioned at the start. I am Cajun. I’ve never had a “cajun” dish that reflected the fare we grew up on. LOL We had rice and gravy, gumbo (a watery soup over rice with either chicken and sausage or shrimp and okra and jambalaya (a rice and pork or chicken dish usually cooked for large gatherings in an iron pot). There was very little variation in our dishes. We had chicken rice, and gravy; steak, rice and gravy; pork, rice and gravy and sometimes wild game like quail or duck but with rice and gravy. LOL We did have boiled crawfish and crabs but only in season and that dish is very peppery. Rice and gravy, not so much. Then there is always the fresh fish and seafood caught in and around the south Louisiana coasts. We didn’t usually have rice and gravy with fish but we cooked fish in a court bouillon, etouffee, or sauce piquant which is a different kind of gravy than the standard brown roux-based gravy we used in our meat gravies. We had various a sundry vegetables like greens and cabbage, potato salad, and such which were influences from the Germans, Irish, and African Americans who are also apart of our Cajun heritage. By and large, Cajuns ate whatever they could get their hands on and put it over rice and gravy. I never even heard of blackened anything until Paul Prudhomme came up with that dish in the 80s. That’s another thing. Cajun is not the same as Creole, which is New Orleans food. That is much more French influenced than the simple Cajun food I grew up with.
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Hello. I am from Australia and we don’t eat many hot dogs so when they are sold they are named ‘American Hotdogs’. I have heard of lots of recipe called cajun chicken, fish, lamb, steak but I have never tried one. That is something that I will have to get onto.
Elly
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Reblogged this on khrystleraineduste and commented:
I must be hungry today… another tasty offering! (I’m going to be so fat by the end of the weekend…)
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USA has distinct culinary heritage developed from successive waves of immigration that has been developed over the years. Very similar here in the UK. When I think of US food I think: garlic fries, chili con carne, hamburgers, pork ribs, Maryland crab cakes, club sandwich, jambalaya, waldorf salad, big steaks, king crab, Mac and cheese, hot dogs…. The list goes on. Like us, I suspect you guys may not realise what you’ve got.
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Over here we call processed plastic cheese “American Cheese”. Ha.
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