Bengali Roast Chicken Recipes

Steps:

• Place the chicken in a medium Dutch oven, and season with 1 teaspoon salt. Thinly slice 1/4 of the onion, and set aside. Roughly chop the rest of the onion, and purée it in a blender with the ginger, garlic and 3 tablespoons of water, until smooth. Add splashes of water to keep it moving, if necessary.
• Combine the onion purée with the chicken, yogurt, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon and peppercorns. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring. Cover the pot until the chicken releases its juices, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Uncover the pot, and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring and flipping the chicken occasionally, until tender and the sauce is gravylike in consistency, about 35 minutes. Adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding water or cooking it down. Stir in the sugar. Pierce the chiles with a knife, then add them. Season to taste with salt. Keep warm over low heat.
• Heat the butter and oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. After it foams, add the sliced onions, and cook, stirring, until they are richly browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt. Add the onion mixture to the korma. Serve with steamed basmati rice.

Steps:

• Put the chicken in a bowl, add the marinade spices and yogurt with ½ tsp salt and mix well. The chicken can be left to marinate for a few hours, or cooked straight away - leaving it to marinate will make it more tender.
• Melt the ghee in a non-stick frying pan. Fry the chicken for 5 mins on each side until golden. Remove from the pan and transfer to the bowl, leaving the ghee in the pan.
• Keep the pan on the heat and scrape it to release any caramelised bits stuck to the bottom. Add the bay leaves, cinnamon and cardamom pods and fry until they start to smell aromatic. Add the onions and garlic, followed by the ginger and 1-1½ tsp salt. Stir, cover and cook until soft and translucent, about 8-10 mins.
• Stir in the rest of the spices and fry over a low heat for 5-8 mins. Add 200ml water, cover and cook for a further 3-4 mins, or until the ghee separates from the masala (it should be bubbling around the edges of the pan).
• Add the chicken back to the pan, including any meat juices. Spoon some of the masala over the chicken and cover. Cook for a futher 10-15 mins or until the chicken is cooked through. Stir through the sliced green chillies and chopped coriander and serve immediately.