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I started a discussion on Sunday lunches sometime back on Facebook. Quite a few people wrote about Sunday lunches that consisted of dishes they had grown up. Comfort food on the day of rest.

For me Sunday lunch would be murgir jhol bhaat or Bengali chicken curry and rice.

Meat on Sundays after a week of fish and eggs was the done thing for most Bengali families at Calcutta in the 80s and 90s. Mutton actually. I remember the neighbourhood uncles queuing up at the local mutton shop every Sunday morning. We moved from mutton to chicken in our family just as I entered my teens thanks to my mom’s health awakening. Every Saturday I would go to the local market and buy chicken. The guy would take out a chicken from the cage, weigh it, behead it, pluck the feathers, cut it  and put it into a plastic bag while I waited stoically. Nothing fazed me after that.

The chicken would be cooked at night. Potato and curry on Saturday night with roti… curry with chicken and rice on Sunday afternoon. I would make a sandwich with left over chicken liver from the curry to take school and then college on Mondays.

I made a chicken curry or murgir jhol this Sunday afternoon. Now the murgir jhol is very different from the mutton kosha mangsho. Kosha mangsho is slow cooked, is more garam masala heavy, browner and spicier than the yellowish jhol or curry. The mutton in kosha mangsho is served in a spice paste that is thicker and drier than the sauce in the murgir jhol. I make both in the pressure cooker. Saves time and allows the spices to mesh into the meat.

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I got an opportunity to conduct a murgir jhol Master Class with Banu this time. Chicken curry is something she just can’t get right without supervision. I leave the spice mix out for her and come back to find a rather rustic under cooked curry where the spices are raw and not in harmony. Figured out the problem as I showed her the various steps today. She switches of the hob of the gas burner once 2 whistles come out of the pan. I explained to her that she has to wait for 4 whistles then reduce the flame and let it simmer for 12 minutes.

Hopefully no more murgir jhol disasters from her in the future.

I have posted my chicken curry recipe before. Is what I did today any different? I am honestly too lazy to go back and check.

Which of these are authentic?

None. I have not read up any recipe books or posts for this curry. But I am fairly sure that it will pass muster with most Bengalis.

So I am sharing the recipe once again.

And why don’t you tell me what’s your favourite Sunday lunch dish?

Murgir Jhol or Bengali Chicken curry recipe

Marinated chicken: 1 kilo chicken (700 g without feathers) in (1 teaspoon each of turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, sugar, salt + 1/2 teaspoon each of red chilli powder and garam masala powder) mixed in 2 tablespoons of curd or milk + 2 potatoes skinned and cut into 2 (essential)

  • Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pressure pan/ cooker
  • Once hot add 2 dry red chillies, 2 dry bay leaves and a teaspoon of whole garam masala
  • Once this crackles add the paste of 2 medium sized onions. Finely chopped would do too
  • Stir till this becomes brown
  • Add a tablespoon of ginger garlic paste. Stir till the colour is consistent (Ginger garlic DOES NOT go in AFTER the meat unlike what I saw Sanjeev Kapoor do with mutton the other day on TV!!!!!!!)
  • Add the 2 tomatoes pulped in a blender to this. Finely chopped or packed tomato puree would do too. Stir till colour is consistent
  • Add 1 kilo (700 g without feathers, skin. Smaller the better) of marinated chicken and potato.
  • Add some peas if you have them around. Not essential
  • Stir for a while till chicken looks a bit cooked
  • Top this with a pinch of garam masala powder

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  • Add half a coffee mug of water to this and shut pressure pan.
  • Increase the flame to full
  • Wait for 4 whistles. 3 if you don’t want your chicken to be too soft
  • Reduce the fame to simmer and keep the pressure pan on for 12 minutes
  • Switch off flame. Wait for 5 minutes. Open pan.
  • Garnish with some fresh coriander leaves and split green chillies
  • Serve with steamed rice

The end result is fairly light and not too hot despite the colour. The tomato pulp leaves a slight tartness in the aftertaste

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No Comments

  • Anjali says:

    Hi, going to try this tom, what do you mean by 'stir till color is consistent'? Thanks, Anjali

  • Anonymous says:

    Hi, I am a punjabi, born in Liluah,Howrah but grew up in UK. I was looking for a bengali chicken recipe and bumped into this one after browsing through loads of em. Cooked it today and honestly turned out to be quite good and truely authentic, lacked a bit of salt but overall extremely pleased!! will add to my list of favourite now.
    Now looking out for a good Bengali Prawn or Lamb recipe,
    Thanks for sharing this recipe.
    Jaz

  • @Jaz thanks for writing in with your experience. Glad it worked for you. Honestly i like my food to heavy on the salt quotient too. Hope you added some

  • Hi I am a detective and private investigator from Mumbai. Yeah one of those rare female breeds in the Indian private investigation scene! I have often cooked the chicken curry for my husband in the exact way that you have mentioned and it's come out marvelously well so much so that the aroma escaping from the pressure cooker fills the entire floor of my apartment wing and the neighbours have come calling for a taste many a times! I also added a teaspoon of Kissan tomato ketchup to give it that extra zing once in a while. The male human palate needs variety always to keep the interest up! Keep it up. Your blog rocks!

  • hi…Sunita…thanks for dropping by…has to be the most riveting comment I got on the blog 🙂

  • Shubh says:

    After reading the recipe out, Anvita has PROMISED to make this as I've been whining and moaning about chicken curry these days – our version of Banu has resorted to how they make it at her home … nice but flavour is lost due to the nuclear blast level of chillies!

  • Priyanka says:

    Awesome recipe Kalyan! Can I use same recipe for mutton? I know that the cooking time will increase a little. I love chicken, but somehow thought this would be tastier with mutton! (I'm from kolhapur, we love mutton) 🙂

  • Priyanka says:

    Awesome recipe Kalyan! Can I use same recipe for mutton? I know that the cooking time will increase a little. I love chicken, but somehow thought this would be tastier with mutton! (I'm from kolhapur, we love mutton) 🙂

  • thanks Priyanka…a maharashtrian friend did tell me that in kolhapur meat means mutton 🙂 you could try this with mutton too or you could try kosha mangsho which is a mutton dish here's the link http://www.finelychopped.net/2008/12/kick-kosha-manghsoeven-if-i-say-so.html

  • Avishek Das says:

    While marinating..i use to put Mustard oil and Onion Paste also…….in my kinna 'Collage Hostel waali Murgir Jhol'……

  • Anonymous says:

    Wow…i have just finished cooking this recipe…its easy and tasty…found this site while searching in google.Adding this site in my favourites.

  • soumyava says:

    I made it today..tasty murgir jhol in very small time..thanks

  • Thanks for the feedback. Great to know the recipe worked for you

  • Anonymous says:

    Awesome recipe.. Was feeling homesick n missing my Maa s murgir jhol.. Than fr d post..my fiancee just loved it..than a lot..keep posting..
    Mohana gupta

  • twinkle says:

    doesn't the yoghurt/curd curdles.. i tried your recipe the first time and it was amazing, but the second time, the yoghurt curdled.. don't know what i did wrong.. can you help

  • Unknown says:

    I have just cooked it.The recipe is an excellent one.The preparation tastes good which can be proudly presented not only to the family members but also guests. One more thing, it took less time is cooking it. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.

  • @Mohana…happy to play cupid 🙂

    @twinkle…the curd norally forms a sticky marinade and doesn't curdle

    @Saheli thanks for writing in with your experience. Cooking time could also be a function of freshness of meat and vary by the pressure cooker. Glad it didn't over cook 🙂

  • anumita says:

    @Kalyan: this brings back a lot of memories! Can you specify the marination please… (learning to cook) 🙂

  • Thanks for pointing this out. I must admit this bit. I marinated the chicken in curd. 2 tablespoons and 1/2 a teaspoon os turmeric, red chilli and cumin powders

  • Monika says:

    I think I am gonna try this recipe. Sunday afternoons are always special 🙂

  • rita roy says:

    This is how I make it. The one you have posted later for 2016 post has more water added I think. The one that didu makes is where she let's onions fry a bit to become translucent and then puts chicken and evening else and let it cook along with salt. Then let's the water ( lots of it apparently comes out) and dry up and kosha korto taarpore. I can still taste it ….

  • Unknown says:

    Dev and I are trying this now. Cooking in progress. Murgir Jhol khabar khub mon holo.

  • Unknown says:

    Dev and I are using your recipe to cook murgir jhol.

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