Chicken, Fish & Turkey Spice Mix
This isn’t sand art! It’s my home made spice mix! Thanksgiving is in SEVEN days and the biggest dilemma lately is how to season a turkey to please the South Asian palate; because God knows, the only thing we eat bland is cake rusk with our chai. Turkey is delicious but tends to be on the dry side, is quite big even when one picks the smallest bird and a little bit of a mystery to many desi households. Therefore, some tend to ‘pardon the turkey’ and opt for its more popular but less celebrated cousin, chicken!
For as long as I can remember, my family has been making turkey every year on Thanksgiving. Over the years the technique and seasonings were perfected by my mom and has become a hit in our family. Now, with the permission of my ever generous mother; I present you to you…Mom’s Masala! Move over, Shan Masala! Now you too can make your own spice mix and proudly say it’s not boxed.
My mom and I keep this spice mix in our pantry year round as it goes great on grilled or baked chicken, turkey and even on fried fish with two additional ingredients.
Simply put, this spice mix consists of:
- Red Chili Powder (duh, we’re brown!)
- Salt
- Garlic Powder
- Carom Powder
- Turmeric Powder
- Coriander Powder
Mix with yogurt and rub this generously or to taste onto your chicken or turkey several hours to one day before you plan to cook. It will turn out excellent, pinky promise!
I mixed roughly one cup of this spice mix into one and half cup of yogurt and rubbed it onto my 18 -21 pound Thanksgiving turkey. Chicken is much smaller, so requires less of the mix. More or less of it can be used based on your taste. The yogurt helps make the meat more moist. For extra flavor enhancement, make lengthwise cuts on the meat to help the masala penetrate a bit more for better margination.
For Fried Fish Masala; use this same mix and coriander seeds as well as gram flour (besan). For each half cup of spice mix, add approximately ¼ cup gram flour and 2 tablespoons of coarsely smashed coriander seeds. Gram flour quantity can be decided depending on how crispy you want the fish to be. More = crispier, less = less crispy.
My thanksgiving turkey with the exact recipe and instructions will be posted on the blog on Wednesday, Nov 21st; just in time for turkey day!
Enjoy!