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

Headbanger’s Delight Chicken Curry

This dish was inspired by India’s only heavy metal chef, Sahil “Demonstealer” Makhija, and is my take on his Black Label Chicken Curry. You can check out the original recipe here…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7RyN6n8-RU

Both Sahil’s show and band, Demonic Resurrection, are very very cool, and I find his cookery show, Headbanger’s Kitchen to be tremendously inspiring.

Now, if you’re ready to cook with me, we shall begin by preparing the ingredients

INGREDIENTS

Boneless Chicken –350 grams (approx), cut into medium sized pieces.

FOR THE MARINADE

Plain yoghurt (non sweetened) – 150 grams

Ginger paste – 1 teaspoon

Garlic paste – 1 teaspoon

Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon

Garam Masala powder – 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon

Salt – 1 teaspoon

FOR THE PHORON

Whole cumin seeds – ½ teaspoon

Whole black pepper – 1 teaspoon

Bay leaf – 1 large

FOR THE GRAVY

Onion – 1 large, finely chopped

Tomato – 1 large, finely chopped

Green chillies – 2, medium sized, slit but not deseeded

FOR GARNISHING

Fresh Coriander leaves, finely chopped – a handfull

Oil for cooking

Salt

Hot water

METHOD

Blend together all the marinade ingredients into a smooth paste, mix well with raw chicken and set aside for atleast an hour. For best results, marinate overnight. Just mix the chicken and marinade, cover well, and leave in the refrigerator (not freezer)

Heat about 4 tablespoons of oil to smoking. I use rice bran oil. You can use any white oil, not olive oil. If you’re using ghee, do not heat it to smoking, just ensure it is hot enough so that the phoron ingredients sizzle.

Once oil is heated, add the phoron ingredients, give them a quick stir, and before anything has a chance to burn, add the onions.Phoron is also known as "chhok".

Add a spoon of salt, and fry onions till they just start turning brown. Don’t wait for them to completely turn brown though.

Now add the chopped tomato and green chillies and stir, lower heat to low, cover and let it cook for 5 minutes atleast.

Once the onions have sort of broken down, and begin to look kinda mushy, raise heat to high and add the chicken, marinade and all. Stir well for a couple of minutes, lower heat to low, cover and let it cook for about half an hour.

While the chicken is cooking, do remember to stir it at 5 or 10 minute intervals. We’re using a lot of masala paste, and those will have a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pan and get burnt if you aren’t careful.

While all this is happening, heat 2 cups of water to boiling and keep ready.

This process of cooking on a low flame, with the cover on, is called “kosha”, it gives a very rich flavor to the dish, and the sign that the process has been completed is that the oil separates at the sides. Once you see that happening, raise the heat, quickly add the water, stir thoroughly, and bring the curry to a boil.

Lower heat to medium, cover and allow the curry to cook for another 5 minutes.

Taste a spoon of gravy at this point, and make sure you added enough salt. Remember two things. One, if you added less salt, you can always add more later, but once you add too much, it’s difficult to correct. Two, the more you thicken a gravy, the saltier it gets, since it’s getting more and more concentrated.

Raise heat, and reduce gravy to desired consistency, add the chopped coriander, give it a quick stir, and take it off the flame.

Serve with steamed rice.

Serves 4

Prep time – 30 minutes

Cooking time – 45 minutes

CREAMY CHICKEN CURRY WITH VEGETABLES

Here’s a slightly spicy chicken and vegetable curry with a creamy gravy. This dish will taste especially nice in winter if you’re in India, because that’s when we get the best vegetables. As with most of the chicken curries I make, preparation takes more time and effort and the act of cooking in itself is fairly simple.

INGREDIENTS

1. Boneless chicken – 600 grams
2. Onions – 2 large
3. Garlic – 6 cloves
4. Ginger – 1 inch piece
5. Green chillies – 3 medium sized
6. Carrot – 1 medium sized
7. Baby corn – 6 medium sized
8. Button mushrooms – 6, large
9. Yoghurt (non-sweetened) – 100 grams
10. Whole black pepper – 1 teaspoon
11. Bay leaf – 1 large
12. Coriander powder – 1.5 teaspoons
13. Garam masala powder – 1 teaspoon
14. Corainder/Cilantro leaves – a handful, roughly chopped.
15. Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
16. Salt
17. Sugar
18. Oil for cooking
19. Ghee/clarified butter (optional)
20. Hot water – 1.5 cups

METHOD

PREPARE THE CHICKEN

• Cut the chicken into medium sized pieces.
• Blend into a fine paste the yoghurt, one of the onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic, turmeric, garam masala, coriander powder, and two level teaspoons of salt. Pour this mixture over the chicken, mix well, and allow it to sit for atleast half an hour. The longer you marinate, the better it tastes.

PREPARE THE MUSHROOMS

• Quarter the mushrooms lengthwise, making sure to slice off the end of the stems, which are usually dry, black and hard.
• In a kadhai, add about two tablespoons of oil, turn heat to full and with a spatula, coat the entire kadhai with the oil.
• Once the oil is smoking hot, add the mushrooms, a teaspoon of salt, stir, reduce heat, and cover.
• The mushrooms will release a lot of water, and as the water boils off, they’ll turn a darker colour. Once all the water has dried, the mushrooms are done.
• As the water evaporates, remember to stir every once in a while or the ones at the bottom will get burnt.

PREPARE THE VEGETABLES

• While the chicken is marinating, and the musrooms are cooking, chop the other onion. Take the time to chop it really fine, as it will mix into the gravy and add to it’s creaminess.
• Cut the carrot into large cubes. I do it by slicing the carrot lengthwise, then slicing each slice lengthwise again, and finally slicing horizontally a couple of inches apart.
• Slice each baby corn in half lengthwise, then slice those halves into 2 inch long pieces.

COOKING

• In a kadhai, heat up 3 tablespoons of oil and 1 tablespoon of ghee/clarified butter. Once it has begun smoking (don’t wait for too long, or the kadhai will go brown and it will affect the taste), add the bay leaf and black peppercorns, give it a quick stir, and add the chopped onions.
• Add half a level teaspoon each of salt and sugar, and continue frying the onions on high heat till they begin to turn golden brown.
• Once the onions have started changing colour, add the chicken, marinade and all, and stir well for a couple of minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for around ten minutes.
• After ten minutes, open the lid and you will find the chicken has released a lot of water. Into this, add the baby corn, stir, cover and let the chicken continue cooking for another five minutes.
• After ten minutes, open the lid, and add the carrots. Once again, stir, and cover and let the chicken bubble away for another ten minutes.
• After ten minutes, add the mushrooms, stir, cover and continue to cook. Check back in another ten minutes or so.
• Once the water has almost disappeared, and the oil starts to separate at the sides, raise the heat, give the chicken a stir, add the hot water and bring to a boil.
• Boil the curry on medium heat if the vegetables are still not soft enough, with the lid on, and check every few minutes or so by poking the veggies with a spoon.
• Once the veggies have cooked through, raise the heat and reduce gravy to desired consistency, while stirring frequently.
• Once gravy has reached desired consistency, add the chopped cilantro, give it a quick stir, and take it off the flame.

Serve with hot steamed basmati rice.

NOTES

• The potency of green chillies varies widely, so please exercise caution.
• You can add broccoli or other vegetables if you want, but make sure to add only small quantities. Too much of vegetables will make the dish soppy and tasteless. Remember, this is primarily a chicken dish, with a few vegetables for flavor/texture.

Serves 4

Prep time – 1 hour
Cooking time – 1 hour