Chicken curry and rice was a Sunday afternoon ritual while growing up in Calcutta. Years later, the rare Sunday chicken curry and rice lunch at home at Mumbai takes me back to those ‘Secret Diary of a Teenager’ days. Last night I came home to chicken curry and roti and soon forgot the hair tearing moments which happened earlier in the day. That’s comfort food for you.
I’d earlier written about how to make rice. Here’s how to make a simple chicken curry or murgir jhol as we say in Bengali.
Prep:
- 500 g chicken – you can buy portions in Supermarkets or cold storages. This is enough for one person for one meal plus a little extra to make a sandwich with the next day.
- 1 potato skinned, cut into two
- Spice mix : mix 1.5 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon each of turmeric powder, jeera/ cumin powder, dhania/ coriander powder, sugar and half teaspoon each of chilly powder and garam masala powder in three teaspoons of curd OR 1 teaspoon of water
Cook:
- Heat 1.5 tablespoon oil in a pressure pan. Medium flame
- Add 1 finely chopped onion
- Fry and stir till onion becomes brown
- Add 1 tablespoon ginger paste + 1 teaspoon garlic paste. Stir till brown
- Add 2 tablespoons tomato puree/ tomato ketchup OR, if not lazy, 1 finely chopped tomato. Stir till it becomes dark orange, bordering on brown
- Add masala paste. Stir
- Add chicken and potatoes. Stir till chicken skin becomes a darker colour
- Add a cup of water
- Shut pan. High flame.
- Let three whistles happen.
- Reduce flame to low. Keep for twelve minutes. Switch off burner
- Open pan once the cooker cools and steam goes off (you won’t be able to open it till then)
- Garnish with some chopped coriander, split green chilly, garam masala powder
Have it with rice, bread or roti if you can get hold of it.
Here’s a more elaborate post of mine on the same curry
