Last weekend at the Farmer’s market, I was kicked to see cut banana leaves on sale. With nary a thought in my head, I ventured forth and bought a dollar’s worth of leaves. It was only after getting home that I wasn’t sure what I would do with them. For one, they were cut the wrong way for serving food Onam style. For another, I don’t trust myself enough to make traditional Kerala wrapped-in-banana-leaves food without my mom’s specific guidance.
So a rummaging on the internet we went, & out popped this delicious recipe from Kitchen unplugged. We were intrigued by the process – meat wrapped inside banana leaves, being cooked with trapped steam, infused with flavor & juices. But we didn’t want to go out to buy ingredients, and felt a little lazy for post grill cleaning. So tried a baked variation with what we had – & it turned out succulent, nutlike, with a faint banana leaf inspired flavor.
Here’s our version of it for two. Total Time taken = 8 – 10 hours (this includes the marinating time too 
)
What We Used:
For the marinade:
Sriracha hot sauce (Rooster sauce) – according to taste Peanuts – 30 Dates – 10
Green Chillies – 8 Garlic paste – 1 tsp Ginger paste – 1/2 tsp Cilantro – 1 tbsp
Bay leaf – 2
Banana Leaves – enough to wrap the chicken. If banana leaves are unavailable, Cook’s Thesaurus suggests substituting with parchment paper or corn husks
Bowl – 1Baking dish – 1
How We Did It:
- Grind all the ingredients for the marinade in a spice blender.
- Marinate the chicken with the ground ingredients overnight.
- Wrap the chicken in banana leaves, place in a greased baking dish and bake in a pre-heated oven (350 °F) for over 2 hours (use a meat thermometer to check if chicken is done).
- Unwrap & enjoy. I threw in some eggplants & sweet potato in there to make a veggie mash to eat with it.
