Chicken in Banana Leaves

                      Chicken in Banana Leaves 

We live in Florida. We have Banana Trees in our backyard. Husband and I watch a lot of 
cooking shows and they use Banana leaves to wrap stuff in it all the time. Basically everything
you would wrap in Aluminium Foil you can wrap in a Banana leave. Its more economical and 
gives it a slight earthy flavor. The meat stays juice too. If you don't have Banana Trees in your backyard or someone with Trees, you can find them in the frozen section of your grocery store.

You can use whatever recipe you like and wrap it in the Leave. For a start, you can try this chicken recipe.

This is what you need:

- Chicken drums

- 1 TBSP Annatto Seeds (or Chili powder)

- 1 TSP whole Peppercorns

- 4 Allspice

- 1/2 TSP dried Oregano

- 1/4 TSP cumin seeds

- 1 TSP finely shredded Orange Peel

- 3/4 cup Orange juice

- Salt

- 2 cloves Garlic

- 1 cup chopped Onions (1/2 big one)


This is how you do it:

Put all the spices in a spice grinder (like a coffee bean grinder) . Add the Orange juice, peel, onion and garlic along with the chicken drums in a large zip lock bag. Add the spices and marinade it for 6-12 hrs..

Remove the chicken from the marinade and wrap them in Banana leaves. You can put up to 2 in one leave. I put just one in though. Lay them on a oven tray.

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit bake for 1 hrs 

I served Peanut Butter sauce with it and rice. Was very tasty.

Guten Appetit