Chicken Shorva
| August 2, 2008 | Posted by usha under Chicken, Curries & Fries, Daily Recipes, Event Entries, Gravies, Meats & Poultry, Non Vegetarian, Non Vegetarian, Shorva/Gravy |
I started drafting this post awhile ago and never got to finish it. I was stuck at describing what a shorva is. Many people are not aware of it and even back home, some of my friends didn’t know what it is, until i described it. Once i described it, some called it khorma and some called it pulusu. Pulusu is a tamarind based sauce or gravy and khorma has a thicker consistency than a shorva. I looked up wikipedia to see what it has to say and its description was vague. Some Indian restaurants have shorba on the menu and describe it as a soup. It is a soup with big chucks of meat or vegetables, but the consistency of shorva is not as thin as a soup and it is not as thick as a curry either. It’s consistency is somewhere in between that of a soup and a curry. Unlike a soup, it is served with rice, roties or any Indian bread, just like a curry.
Traditionally, shorva is prepared by cooking meats or vegetables in a yogurt and onion base with spices such as graram masala, dry coconut powder and khus khus aka gasa gasalu aka poppy seed powder. In last 10-15 years, most of us stopped using poppy seeds in daily cooking due to the health risks associated with it and resorted to alternatives such as onion paste or onion tomato paste. I usually fry onions and whole garam masala spices in some oil and grind it to a fine paste. Once in a while, when I am bored with the recipe I usually follow, I use poppy seed powder or/and coconut powder.
When I prepared chicken shorva this time, I was out of my magic onion paste, which I used in my mutton shorva, and shrimp curry. I was not in a mood to prepare the onion paste and instead, substituted it with finely chopped onions. It turned out fine.
Total Time: 30 minutes
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Serves: 4-5
- ½ cup Oil
- ¼ tsp Methi/Fenugreek Powder (opt)
- 1 cup finely chopped Onion
- 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
- Garam Masala Powder (grind 2 cloves, 3 cardamoms, ¼” cinnamon)
- 1 ½ tbsp Coriander Powder
- 2 tsp Chili Powder (adjust to taste)
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 Green Onion chopped
- 2 lbs cleaned and cut Chicken pieces marinated with 2 tsp chili powder+salt to taste + ¼ – ½ cup yogurt
- 1 green onion chopped (opt)
- ¼ cup of chopped Cilantro
- In a sauce pan, heat oil, add onion, methi powder and fry for a minute.
- Add ginger garlic paste, garam masala and cook for a minute or 2 until the ginger garlic paste is fried.
- Add coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric and fry for a minute.
- Add marinated chicken and green onion and cook med high – med flame until chicken is tender. This should take about 10 – 15 minutes.
- Add 1- 1 ½ cups of water (forgot to measure the amount of water I added) and bring it to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve hot.
- Serve it with rice, roties, parathas or puri. Some one once suggested serving it with dosas. I am yet to try this combination
.
- I use whole chicken cut up. I recommend you use boned chicken rather than a boneless chicken.
- If you like green chili flavor, when you add water to cooked chicken, add 2-3 jalapeno peppers cut in half or long green chilies slit up and continue to cook. Don’t forget to adjust the chili powder accordingly.
Abba Noru ooripotundi Usha… I will invite myself to your place to have it!
you are welcome, dear…
that picture looks really very tempting as padma says!..thanks for the entry!
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