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.

Before I get to the recipe, I am very excited to let you all know that I am hosting my first food event here. This event is called Chicken Feast. I hope you all will participate in the event and make it a huge success. The idea behind this event is to have collection of chicken recipes in one place. I was going to announce the event yesterday but Mr.U disappointed me by letting me know that he is going to eat only vegetarian food for the next few weeks! He is the meat lover in the house and if he doesn’t eat, what I am I going to do with all that cooked meat?? I debated if I should even host the event now, when I might not be able to sending in as many entries as I would like to. But you see my husband’s resolution to eat only vegetarian food does not last very long. I am taking a chance and going ahead with the event. Please check the event details here.

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.

Recipes I posted this month in 2009, in 2010 and in 2011.
Blogging Marathon: To know more about the various themes and participating bloggers for this marathon, checkout the blogging marathon page on Srivalli's blog.
Event Entries: This is my first entry to my own event, Chicken Feast going on here until May 31st.