Saturday, 9 June 2012

Chicken kasha (Chicken curry) - bengali style


Chicken- 600gms
Onions- 2 big onions chopped
Ginger paste- 1 tbspn
Garlic paste- 1 tbspn
Whole garam masala- cardamom(4), cloves(4), cinnamon stick(1)
Tomato- 1 (paste)
Curd- 1 tbspn
Coriander leaves
Cumn powder- 1 tspn
Coriander powder- 1 tspn
Mustard oil- 4 tbspn
Green chillies- 3-4 depending on your taste
Water

Method
Wash and clean the chicken. Add 1 tspn salt, 1 tspn turmeric powder, 1 tbpsn curd to the chicken and keep it aside for at least 30 minutes (Can be kept overnight). Heat 2 tbspn mustard oil in a pan, add the chopped onion, and fry till it gets golden brown. Let it cool. Grind it in a blender, with green chillies. In the same pan, heat the other 2 tbspn mustard oil. Mince the garam masala, and add to it. After a few seconds add the onion paste , add ginger and garlic paste. After sometime add the tomato paste to it and fry till the oil separates. (Keep sprinkling some water to it, if it sticks to the pan- the more you fry the masala, the tastier it gets) Add cumin and coriander powder to it. Once the masala is fried very well, add the marinated chicken to it, mix well , put the stove on high, and cover the pan with a lid, till the chicken pieces start changing colour (they start getting opaque). Keep stirring it once in a while, so it doesn’t burn. This will take 2-3 minutes. Now put the stove on medium, fry the chicken for 2-3 minutes more, keep stirring. Add ½ cup water to it, and cook till the chicken is done. Adjust the salt. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with steamed rice, mishti polao, veg pulao or roti.

(You can add more water depending on the consistency you want. But chicken emits its own juice/water while cooking, so don’t put too much water initially)

Some people add potato to it. Cut the potatoes in 4 pieces and fry till they are golden brown, and add them with the the chicken.

If you don’t want to add tomato paste to it, you can double the curd. But adding tomato paste gives it a better colour and taste.