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Greek Casserole Recipe - A Grecian Bake, with an Indian twist

Keeping the spice-heavy Indian palate in mind, I added an Indianness to what is termed as Greek Chicken Casserole. After all, authentic Grecian cuisine would taste bland to a typical Indian foodie, unless accompanied with Tzatziki dips and the local Ouzo drink.
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Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 1 hr
Total Time 1 hr 30 mins
Course Mains
Cuisine Greek
Servings 4 persons

Equipment

  • OTG (oven)
  • Corningware rectagular baking dish

Ingredients
  

Indo-Greek Ingredients for Greek Casserole

  • 400 gms boneless chicken (diced into cubes)
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 tbsp garlic (finely chopped, not crushed)
  • 2 large onions (diced into medium squares)
  • 4 tomatoes (blanched and pureed “thick”, not “thin”)
  • 400 gms zucchini (200 grams each of yellow and green coloured ones) - sliced into rounds
  • 1 inch long cinnamon (to be removed soon after cooking)
  • 1-2 bay leaves (to be also removed soon after cooking)
  • ½ tsp (or a pinch) garam masala powder
  • 3-4 tbsp bread crumbs (from 1 or 2 toasted slices of bread)
  • 6 cubes grated cheese (my choice is for Amul or Mozzarella)
  • 1 tsp paprika (¼ + ¾ teaspoon)
  • 3 tsp salt (2 + 1 teaspoons)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions
 

The Making of Greek Casserole

  • Heat the olive oil in a wok, taking care not to overheat the oil.
    (Olive oil, as you know has a certain smoking point and when overheated, defeats the purpose of its monosaturated fats which break down to the level of regular oils).
    Greek Casserole Ingredients
  • Add the “whole” masalas, and then remove them too. 
    (We merely use them briefly, to render a mild flavour).
  • Add the chopped garlic, onions and season till pinkish. Do not overfry the onions as that would add sweetness which we don't want.
  • Blanch and puree the tomatoes to a thickish, somewhat grainy consistency.
  • Add the cubed chicken, cook on “high gas” until cooked halfway.  Let's leave the cooking of the other half to the oven.
  • Sprinkle a pinch of garam masala powder, add two teaspoons of salt followed by paprika and mix in lightly.
  • Now is the time to pour in the tomato puree and stir a bit. Turn off the stove within a couple of minutes. Here's your "chicken mix".
  • Separately blend the eggs, a fourth of a teaspoon of paprika, followed by a teaspoon of salt.  To know if you've reached the right consistency, time the blending to last 5-7 minutes
  • Then cool the mixture (note that most of the items in this recipe must be cooled)

Filling the Corningware Dish

  • Layer the bottom of a Corningware dish with the "chicken mix". Sprikle the bread crumbs over the chicken mix.
    Greek Corningware Dish
  • Next, layer it with the zucchini rounds.
  • Pour the blended egg liquid mixture over the zucchini slices.
  • Top with grated cheese, then sprikle with remaining paprika.
  • Bake in a standard OTG at 175 degrees for 10-15 minutes, with no pre-heating required. Use the central filament to enable even cooking on both sides.