Pizza or something like it

Pushpesh Pant

‘When in Rome, do as Romans do,’ goes an old saying. The pizza from Italy seems to have kept this dictum uppermost in mind ever since it stepped on Indian soil. Its toppings keep changing according to the Indian palate and food taboos. So much so that during the navratras, salami and sausage take the backseat and sweet corn kernels, broccoli, colourful bell peppers, etc. announce the dawn of a health-conscious vegetarian age. What we are talking about today is a desi version of pizza, truly a jugaad, which does away with the foreign pizza base and substitutes it with a tandoori roti or lachcha parantha. We first savoured TCCP at the Cyber Hub where the original recipe uses leftover or bought for this purpose tandoori chicken to prepare the chaat by shredding the bird. However, we feel the chicken chaat can be easily prepared at home, from scratch, on a tawa.

To be honest, the name is bit of a misnomer. This dish is mostly ‘assembled’ and, interestingly, cheese too is dispensed with. It is a deeply satisfying DIY recipe. A great thing to feed the kids who have just come back from school! If you are worried about the maida content in the tandoori roti, you may use a thick whole wheat roti instead.

Tandoori chicken chaat pizza

Ingredients

Chicken (boneless, boiled and cut in stripes) 300g

Tomato (medium sized, chopped) 2

Onion (medium sized, peeled, thinly sliced) 1

Green chillis (diced) 3-4

Ginger-garlic paste 1 tsp

Cumin seeds 1 tsp 

Kashmiri red chilli powder      1/2 tsp

Pepper powder 1/2 tsp 

Clove powder 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon powder 1/4 tsp

Cardamom powder 1/4 tsp

Tomato puree 1 tbsp

Lemon juice 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Ghee/oil 1/2 cup

Method

Place chicken in a bowl and sprinkle the lemon juice, powdered spices and a little salt on it and keep aside after mixing for 15 minutes. Heat ghee/oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds to it and when they begin to crackle, put in the tomatoes and onions along with ginger-garlic paste. Stir fry briskly for a minute before putting in the chicken. Add salt, reduce the flame to medium and continue to stir fry. Add tomato puree to moisten. Sprinkle a little water if the masala sticks to the bottom. Remove after two-three minutes. Don’t overcook the chicken. Serve hot on a roti/kulcha base.