Cream Chicken

A creamy chicken curry with Indian spices

serves 4 people

Ingredients:

1 kg boneless thighs fillet cut into medium pieces or 1 chicken with bone cut into medium pieces

5 tbsp cooking oil

1 cup sliced onions

1 cup pulverised tomatoes

2 tsp ginger paste

2 tsp garlic paste

1tbsp yoghurt

1 tsp cumin seeds

3tsp coriander powder

½ tsp haldi powder (turmeric)

1-2 tsp red chilli powder 

2 tsp kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves)

½ cup double cream

Salt to taste

For garnishing

3-4 round slices of onions 

3-4 round slices of pepper

¼ cup Coriander leaves chopped

Method:

In a pot, heat oil and fry the onions pinkish (not too brown). Add cumin seeds and then the chicken and ginger garlic paste. Fry on high heat, while stirring constantly until the water released from the chicken dries. Now add tomatoes, yoghurt and all the dry spices - coriander powder, haldi, chilli powder, kasuri methi and salt. Mix and stir for couple of minutes until you can see the oil beginning to separate. Add 1 cup water (approximately), cover with the lid and steam cook the chicken for about 25 minutes or until it’s tender.

This will help retain the moisture of the chicken and keep it soft and juicy from inside. You can always add some water during this process if needed. 

Check, when chicken is tender take off the lid and fry for few minutes. At this point we want to dry out any excess water in the dish.

Once we can see the oil being separated, add cream and mix in gently. Stir carefully as the chicken would be tender now and we don’t want to break apart the pieces. This should be done on medium to high flame and shouldn’t take longer than 4-5 minutes. Once you have added cream, cook for another few minutes until it starts bubbling, it should be the right consistency at this point.

Switch off the flame and add garnishing whilst it’s still steaming hot. Cover with the lid and keep aside. Do not cook with the garnishing as it will make the dish watery. They will soften enough with the steam inside the pot.

Serve with parathas, naans (Indian bread) or zeera rice!