Since the first episode of MasterChef Australia 13 went on air on 19 April 2021, the contestants, especially Depinder Chhibber and Kishwar Chowdhury, have been constantly winning several hearts for their culinary skills and the delectable flavours of Indian cuisine.
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These two hardly ever miss an opportunity to impress not just the judges, Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo, but even special guests and the audience watching from home. Here’s a quick introduction of these two strong contenders and potential winners of MasterChef Australia 13 and their must-try recipes.
Depinder Chibber
Hailing from New Delhi, Depinder Chibber moved to Newcastle at the age of 11. She lives in Sydney now and considers herself a Novocastrian yet her heart and soul remain in India. Inspired by Indian and South-East Asian flavours, she loves cooking pastry and desserts.
She says she grew up watching the cooking of her grandmother, mother and aunties, which fascinated and pushed her to start cooking at a very young age. Nurturing her style of cooking and learning various traditional recipes from her mother, her passion for cooking came from her father.
The 29-year-old pharmacist didn’t just make it to season 13, but now stands among the top 10 contenders. She is leaving a mark on the show with her Indian style of cooking. Let’s take a look at one of the mouth-watering chicken dishes prepared by Dipender, ‘butter chicken’.
Butter Chicken
Originating in the 1950s from Kundan Lal Jaggi, ‘butter chicken’ is nothing but a divine delicacy. One bite into the juicy chicken dipped in tangy spiced tomato gravy with creamy butter and your heart would long for more. Here’s how you can prepare butter chicken at home:
To start with, marinate chicken with lemon, chilli powder and salt, and refrigerate it for 15-20 minutes
Make finely ground Punjabi garam masala powder
Then make tomato puree and blend cashews until smooth.
Prepare the second marination. Marinate the chicken that was kept aside with fresh yoghurt, ginger-garlic paste, crushed Kasuri methi, oil, turmeric and garam masala, leave it to refrigerate for at least 12 hours.
Then grill the chicken in the oven (preheat to 240 degrees celsius for 15 minutes) or stovetop. Skew the chicken onto soaked wooden skewers or place it on a greased tray and grill for about 20 to 30 minutes. In between, keep flipping it so that both sides are well-cooked.
Keep cooking the chicken until all the moisture evaporates.
After that, heat butter in a pan, add cloves, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Saute them for a min or so.
Add ginger and garlic paste along with green chillies and fry for 2 to 3 minutes till the raw smell vanishes.
Then add tomato puree, red chilli powder and salt according to your taste, and keep stirring it until it becomes thick and begins to leave the pan.
Pour a cup of lukewarm water and the cashew paste. Boil and simmer it for 3 to 5 minutes
Then add chicken and simmer for around 5 to 7 minutes, so it becomes tender.
Add garam masala and crushed Kasuri methi, and mix it well. After 2 to 3 minutes, add chilled cream and switch off the heat.
Finally, garnish butter chicken with cream and coriander leaves.
Kishwar Chowdhury
Born and raised in Melbourne, Kishwar Chowdhury credits her parents for finding the Bangladeshi community in Victoria.
With the dream of sharing Bengali cuisine with Australia, Kishwar is offering her delicious recipes to the world through the platform of MasterChef Australia 13. Recently, she received a lot of praises for her ‘hariyali chicken’.
Hariyali Chicken
If Kishwar’s juicy ‘hariyali chicken’ makes your mouth watery, try it out at home. Here’s the recipe:
Start by making a paste and add coriander leaves, mint leaves, green chillies and onions to a blender jar. Keep the paste aside.
Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Once they sizzle, add ginger-garlic paste and fry for a minute till the raw smell goes off.
Add coriander powder and garam masala, one teaspoon each, and then add the chicken. Saute until it becomes pale.
Then add the paste that was kept aside, and saute for 3 to 4 minutes
After that, pour water or coconut milk and give it a good stir after adding salt
Simmer it for some time so the chicken becomes tender
When done, serve it with rice or roti
