Bangladeshi Rustic Style Chicken Curry

For the second day of around the world in 30 days with ABC cooking, we travel to Bangladesh to taste this rustic chicken curry. Bangladesh was once part of India and the food is similar to Indian food, to be more precise the food is similar to Bengali cuisine. The recipe I chose for this country is rustic chicken curry that does not require any sautéing or too much of preparation. All the ingredients are mix and cooked together to make this curry.

This recipe uses ground onion paste and I was not sure how that would be as the chicken in the US cooks very fast. I thought of sautéing the onions and then grinding it to paste. In the last minute I decided to stick to the recipe and used raw onion paste. This is such an easy recipe that even a novice cook can do it. This is an excellent recipe for bachelors or college students who are staying away from home. It does not taste exactly like the chicken shorva(curry) I am use to but it was good. I made this curry twice. First time I could not take pictures and had to make it again. First time I used only onions as the recipe called for and the second time I added some ground tomato as we like more gravy in the curry. Both tasted fine and Mr.U liked the one with tomato better.

Source: Khadiza's Kitchen
Total Time: 35 – 40 minutes
Preparation: 15 – 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 580 grams cleaned and cut Chicken (I usually get whole chicken and cut it into desired pieces)
• 1 tbsp. Ginger Garlic Paste
• 1 ½ - 2 ½ tsp. Chili Powder (adjust to taste. Check note below)
• 1/16 – ⅛ tsp. Cardamom seeds (Seeds of 3 cardamoms were approx. 1/16 tsp.)
• ½ - ¾” Cinnamon Stick
• 4 Black Peppercorns
• 3 Cloves
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1 medium sized Onion ground to paste (approx. 1 cup chopped onion or little over ½ cup onion paste. Check note)
• 1 medium Tomato ground to paste, approx. ½ - ¾ cup ground tomato paste (opt. Check note below)
• 2 ½ tbsp. Oil
• 2 tsp. Coriander Powder
• 1 medium sized Potato peeled and cut into 8 - 12 pieces (I used a red potato but any variety can be used)
• ½ tsp. Cumin Powder

Preparation:

1. Remove the skin from the chicken and cut it into 1 ½ - 2” pieces.
2. Grind cardamom seeds, cloves, black peppercorns and cinnamon stick to fine powder. This is approximately ½ tsp. powder.
3. Take chicken in a sauce pan and mix all the ingredients together except cumin powder and potatoes.
4. Marinating chicken is optional and I prefer marinating it at least for 30 minutes.
5. Cook the chicken on medium to medium low flame until chicken is half cooked, approximately 10 minutes. Chicken will release some juices but if it dries up, add some water.
6. Add potato pieces, cover and continue to cook for another 10 minutes until the chicken and potatoes are full cooked. Stir in between and add water if the juices evaporate. We prefer more gravy in chicken curry and I added about ¼ cup water. Taste the curry and adjust salt and chili powder as per taste.
7. Add cumin powder, mix well and cook for couple of minutes.
8. Turn off the heat and keep the pan covered until ready to serve.
9. Serve hot with warm rice.

Suggestions:

• I would not recommend boneless chicken for this curry. In general we prefer chicken with bone for curries as the chicken with bones releases more juices and makes flavorful gravy.
• The second time I made this curry, I added more onion paste and some tomato paste. I also added ½ - 1 tsp. of extra chili powder. Also, I added additional ¼ cup water in step 6. Adjust water as per desired consistency of the gravy. Husband like the curry better the second time around.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44