I love barbecues. To me they signal a carefree summer day filled with fun and laughter in the garden, followed by a scrumptious meal afterwards. In my personal experiences barbecues in Sri Lanka don’t really go as planned, either it’s too hot, there is a haphazard rain shower and the intrusion of flies or other annoying insects just kills the mood. Also you sometimes would like a bit of barbecue without going through the whole process of coals, fire, smoke etc. A quick barbecue meal for dinner is extremely enjoyable. So my new method, introduced to me by a friend, and thoroughly loved by my children offers the same tastes and smells of a real barbecue..but without the hassle and the fuss. Extremely easy and delectably delicious to eat, the stove top barbecue has revolutionized the way in which our family will barbecue from now on!

Ingredients

Minced garlic
Minced ginger
Ketchup
Soy sauce
½ teaspoon of crushed chilli
Kithul pani
Salt and pepper
Chicken

Method

Take your choice of chicken pieces and carefully marinate in the above rub. If you have your own spice mix that would also work, but these are the flavours that my family love and I can never go wrong with it. Let the spices marinated for a while. Once the juices have thoroughly permeated the meat, take a non-stick wok and heat the chicken in it. There is no need to put any oil and the flavours get intensified during this process.

If you like your meat a little burnt around the edges then cook for as long as you like. There is no need to cook the meat all the way through, just too only crisp and brown the outside. Now place the half cooked chicken in a covered dish until thoroughly cooked, take the lid off for the last ten minutes and enjoy your no fuss stove top barbecue chicken!

By Mayuri Jayasinghe