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    Home » Daily Recipes

    Published: Apr 17, 2012 · Modified: Oct 1, 2020 by Usha Rao

    Badami Murgh

    For the second day of the marathon, cooking with alphabets, I made Badami Murgh or Almond Chicken Curry. This curry is prepared by making a base with onion, tomato & almond paste and then cooking the chicken in this base until the chicken is fully cooked. This curry pairs well with Vegetable Pulao, Naan, Rotis and even white rice.

    I came up with this recipe year and half ago, when I was going thru “I don’t want to cook chicken shorva” phase. Chicken shorva is most often cooked curry in my house. I cook it so often that sometimes, just the thought of cooking it turns me off. When I was going thru such phase, I wanted to try something different, that has lots of gravy and not very heavy either. I searched for few curry recipes online and came up with my own version of badami murgh. It turned out pretty good! I am glad I experiment with the almonds and now I make it once in a while, whenever I need a break from our favorite chicken shorva.

    Badami Murgh in a small vessel.

    Total Time: 35 - 55 minutes
    Preparation: 10 - 20 minutes (excludes marination and it takes about 15 minutes to clean whole chicken)
    Cooking Time: 25 - 35 minutes
    Serves: 4 - 6

    Ingredients:
    Marinade:

    • 650 grams / 1.4 lbs. (approx.) Chicken, skin removed and cut into pieces
    • ½ tbsp. chili
    • ¾ Salt
    • ½ cup Yogurt

    Paste:

    • ¼ - ⅓ cup sliced Almonds (I started with ⅓ cup and while roasting them I ate a few. That is why I mentioned ¼ - ⅓ cup almonds)
    • 2 Cardamoms
    • 1-2 Cloves
    • ¼ “Cinnamon
    • ¼ cup Water

    Gravy/Curry:

    • 4 tbsp. Oil
    • 1 cup firmly packed chopped Onion or 2 small Onions chopped (depends on how small the onions are)
    • 1 – 1 ½ tbsp. Ginger Garlic paste (always use homemade and if using store bought, use less)
    • ¼ chopped Mint Leaves
    • ½ cup Tomatoes finely chopped or 1 medium Tomato chopped
    • ¼ tsp. Salt
    • Pinch of Turmeric (can skip it for almond color gravy)
    • 12 Green Chilies (adjust to taste)
    • 1 cup Water or as required

    Preparation:

    1. Remove the skin of the chicken and cut it into desired size pieces. I usually buy a 3 – 3.5 lbs. whole chicken, cut it into small pieces and use half the chicken. The other half, cut into small pieces goes into the freezer for later use. Yesterday I could not find a small bird and ended buying 3.9 lbs. chicken. Since it was a big bird, I cut the drumsticks into. The quantity mentioned in the ingredient list is half chicken.
    2. Marinate the chicken with chili powder, salt and yogurt for at least 30 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the fridge. Before cooking the chicken, leave it on the counter top for at least 30 minutes to bring it to room temperature. Yesterday I marinated the chicken for 1 hour at room temperature.
    3. Dry together roast almonds, cardamoms, cloves & cinnamon until almonds are lightly roasted. This step can be skipped and the almond paste needs to roasted/sauteed a little longer when preparing the gravy in step 8. I prefer to dry roast it just to make sure I don’t get the raw almond taste in the gravy.
    4. Let the almonds cool and make a fine paste using some water.
    5. Take oil in a sauce pan and sauté onions until light brown.
    6. Add ginger garlic paste, chopped mint and sauté until raw smell of the ginger disappears.
    7. Add tomatoes, salt, pinch of turmeric if using and sauté until tomatoes are mushy. Cover and cook on medium flame for another 2-3 minutes until oil separates from the onion & tomato mixture.
    8. Add badam or almond paste, green chilies and cook until oil separates from the mixture. Keep stirring it to avoid burning of the paste and also evenly roasting of the paste. This should take 2-4 minutes. The aroma of roasting almond paste is amazing! Hmm.. If using un-roasted almond paste, cook the paste a little longer, until almond paste cooked.
    9. Add marinated chicken and give a good stir until the almond paste coats the chicken pieces. Cover the pan and cook on medium flame until the chicken is tender. This should take about 10 minutes. The chicken in the US is tender and cooks very fast.
    10. Add water, taste the gravy and adjust seasoning accordingly. My family likes thin gravies hence I add water. You can adjust water depending on how thin or thick gravy you want.
    11. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes and turn off the heat.
    12. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with pulao, roti or with steaming rice.

    Note:

    • I usually prefer grinding fried onion to get a smooth creamy gravy. In this recipe, The few times that I have made it, I did not grind the onions. If I were cooking it for a party or for a when I have guests at home, I would grind the onion tomato mixture after cooking the tomatoes in step 7. GRind the mixture, transfer it back to the pan and continue with step 8.


    Event Entries: This is my first entry to my own event, Chicken Feast.

    Chicken Feast, myspicykitchen, my spicy kitchen

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    1. Lakshmi says

      March 16, 2016 at 1:36 pm

      Hi, I have tried your receipes for chicken biriyani, lamb biriyani, vegetable pulav and badam murgh. I would like to say a sincere thank you for posting all this wonderful receipes, on my phone One window is always ur blog!! I am a person who follows recipe to the the t and ur recipes are so accurate the taste comes out as perfect as you mention in your recipe!! Once again thanks very much!!

      Reply
      • MySpicyKitchen says

        March 20, 2016 at 4:09 pm

        Oh, thank you very much for such a wonderful comment! You made my day!! I am glad you like my recipes and the recipes are coming out perfect. 🙂

        Reply
    2. Kimmy says

      July 17, 2012 at 2:07 am

      We love hot, spicy curries. Is this curry hot and spicy?

      Reply
    3. Notyet100 says

      April 19, 2012 at 10:24 am

      Curry looks good,luv the presentation too,..:)

      Reply
    4. Rasya Srinath says

      April 18, 2012 at 5:26 pm

      I am a vegetarian.. liked the badam so will try with paneer base 🙂

      Reply
    5. sayantani says

      April 18, 2012 at 12:36 pm

      lovely recipe and great presentation. the fish scale plate is gorgeous.

      Reply
    6. Priya says

      April 18, 2012 at 9:11 am

      Yummy rich looking badami murgh,i dont mind eating them with some rotis for tonite..

      Reply
    7. Kalyani says

      April 18, 2012 at 7:51 am

      lovely presentation.. and it could easily pass for a panner based dish, just by the sheer looks 🙂

      Kalyani

      Reply
    8. Gayathri Kumar says

      April 18, 2012 at 4:19 am

      Looks nice...

      Reply
    9. Rajani says

      April 18, 2012 at 1:40 am

      Nice presentation!

      Reply
    10. Mireille says

      April 18, 2012 at 1:12 am

      I am not vegetarian and will def. be sending in lots of chicken recipes..as I eat chicken more than anything else...almost daily..

      Reply
    11. aarthi says

      April 18, 2012 at 12:43 am

      Wow..this is my style of chicken curry..i love it

      Reply
    12. preeti says

      April 17, 2012 at 11:20 pm

      look awesome.....

      Reply
    13. Divya Prakash says

      April 17, 2012 at 10:35 pm

      Love this delicious and rich chicken gravy.
      Wonderful presentation..

      Reply
    14. Priya says

      April 17, 2012 at 10:06 pm

      Yummy,mughalai chicken curry..its been ages i had this

      Reply

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