Murgh Musallam (Chicken Curry) Ingredients
1 chicken
1 ginger piece, fresh (about 3/4 inch, of a ginger root)
14 garlic cloves (or less)
1 large onion
1 cinnamon stick
2 brown cardamom pods, whole
4 green cardamom pods, whole
1 star anise, whole (use all 8 arms a, nd the seeds insid
14 black peppercorns (or less)
8 cloves (or less)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chili powder (or substitute fre, sh red chil
2 green chilies
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 cup oil (preferably ghee, if available)
1 salt to taste
1 coriander leaves, fresh (optional)
Murgh Musallam (Chicken Curry) Directions
Clean and joint chicken. If you don't like the skin, remove it.
Mash the ginger into a paste (or chop finely) and mince the garlic.
Heat oil in a large frying pan. Use "medium-high heat".
Break apart the star anise to release the seeds inside the arms. To
the frypan, add onions, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, star aniseed,
peppercorns, cloves, garlic and ginger. Be careful not to burn the
garlic. Saute until the onions are cooked but not browned.
Add the chicken, turmeric and chili powder and cook on a medium heat,
stirring often.
When the oil starts to separate (the gravy will have oil floating on
its surface), add the yogurt and cook till the chicken is done and
the gravy is thick. Finally, add the fresh coriander leaves.
This is the basic recipe. Try varying the whole spice combinations
until you find a favorite. The recipe doubles well.
NOTES:
* Chicken curry -- This recipe is the real thing. Throw out your
curry powder: you'll never use it again once you've tried this
recipe. Chicken curry using the real spices cannot be beat!! Yield:
serves 2-3.
* A cardamom pod is not the same thing as a cardamom seed. Make sure
you get the pods. A pod is about the size of a pea and contains seeds
inside it. Don't substitute the ground version of any of the whole
spices, the effect will not be the same. And don't use white cardamom
pods.
* You may want to remove the smaller whole spices prior to adding the
yogurt so that unwitting guests don't eat them. Try the recommended
quantity of garlic. The flavour is surprisingly subtle. More yogurt
makes more gravy. Also a longer cooking time. Vary the amount of
chilies to suit your taste. This recipe is medium-hot. I hope this
satisfies your mouth-hunger. The spice quantities may be varied to
suit your preferences.
: Difficulty: easy, though timing matters when cooking the onions.
: Time: 20 minutes preparation, 1 1/2 hours cooking.
: Precision: measure the oil.
: Joseph Sotham <joseph@ubc-medgen.cdn>
: University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC
: It is better to travel happily than to arrive
: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Serves: 2
Murgh Musallam (Chicken Curry) Recipe brought to you by Recipes To Go
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