Railway Style Chicken Curry

I have to be honest, this recipe isn't completely my own. It was a recipe for mutton, which I found here, and I adapted it for chicken. It's a nice spicy curry, that you can try out for Sunday lunch. Looks a little elaborate, but it isn't very difficult. 

INGREDIENTS

Boneless chicken – 350 gms approx

For “Railway Masala Powder”

Coriander seeds ~ 2 tsp

Cumin Seeds ~ 2 tsp

Fennel seeds or Saunf ~ 2 tsp

Whole black Peppercorns -- 15

Dry Red Chilli – 8

For marinade

Plain yoghurt – 100 gms

Salt – 1 level tsp

Turmeric powder - 1 level tsp

Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 heaped teaspoon

Ginger paste – 1 heaped teaspoon

Garlic paste – 1 heaped teaspoon

Mustard Oil – 1 tablespoon

For phoron (tempering)

Black cardamom – 1, crushed

Green cardamom – 2, crushed

Cloves – 2, crushed

Cinnamon – 1 inch piece, crushed

Bay leaf – 1, medium size

For gravy

Onions – 2 large, finely chopped

Potatoes – 2 medium sized, peeled, and cut in half

Mustard Oil

Hot water

Salt

METHOD

Cut the chicken into medium sized pieces.

Take a dry kadhai, and put it on a burner on full flame, but without any oil. The kadhai should be adequately hot in a couple of minutes. Take all the ingredients for the “Railway Masala Powder” and gently drop them into the dry kadhai. Stir constantly to avoid anything burning. Turn off heat and take the spices out of the kadhai as soon as they start getting a little fragrant. We’re not really roasting the spices, just making them a little crisp, driving the moisture out of them so they can be powdered easily.

Once the whole spices for the “Railway Masala Powder” have cooled, run them in a blender, and turn them into a fine powder. Put the powder in an airtight container and set aside.

Run all the ingredients for the marinade, except the mustard oil, in a blender and turn it into a fine paste. Mix this marinade and the chicken well, sprinkle the mustard oil on top and set aside for atleast an hour. For best results marinate overnight.

Heat mustard oil to smoking, and fry the potatoes till the edges start turning light brown.

Keep enough oil in the kadhai to fry the onions, and once the oil is smoking hot, add the ingredients for the phoron, before they have a chance to burn, add the onions, half a teaspoon of salt, and half a teaspoon of sugar.

Fry onions on high heat, stirring frequently, until onions start turning brown, but don't brown them too thoroughly.

Add the chicken, marinade and all, stir for a minute or so on high heat. Once that’s done, you can lower the flame, and cover the kadhai, and allow the chicken to cook. It will release a lot of water, and continue to cook slowly.

During this stage, do keep checking every 10 minutes, and giving the chicken a stir, otherwise all the masala pastes will settle and stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once all the water has evaporated, and the oil comes out from the sides, add two heaped teaspoons of the “Railway Masala Powder” and stir well. You may raise heat to medium at this stage if you feel like it, but be careful. There is almost no moisture in the kadhai, so everything will have a tendency to stick to the kadhai and burn.

Add the potatoes, two cups of hot water, bring to a boil, cover and cook till the potatoes soften.

You can figure out if the potatoes are cooked through by poking them with the handle of steel teaspoon. The spoon should go right through a potato if it’s well cooked. Once that’s done, raise heat and reduce gravy to desired consistency.

Taste the gravy. Check the salt. The thicker the gravy, the saltier it gets, so if you find there’s slightly less salt but you intend to thicken the gravy further, don’t add any salt just then. Remember, with salt, it’s always better if there’s a little less, you can just add more later. Once you put in too much, you’re pretty much screwed.

Serve with steamed rice.

NOTES

Remeber to crush the whole spices a little, particularly the cardamom, or it'll explode when you put it in hot oil.

Kashmiri Red Chilli powder is just for colour and does not have much potency, so you don’t need to be too scared to use it.

Potatoes tend to absorb a lot of water when left in gravy. So if you leave this dish sitting for a long time, you’ll find it’s dried out a bit. Just add a little water and reheat in the microwave.

For the water, keep an electric kettle handy. You could of course use cold water, and it'll work. BUt adding cold water lowers the temperature of the kadhai, and some say it affects the taste of the dish.

Serves 3
Preparation time - 1.5 hours
Cooking time - 1 hour