Crafts and Life

Ingredients

2 tablespoons fat (if there is fat on chicken, render it down; if not, use ghee)
1 chicken, approx. 1.8kg, jointed from its carcase
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 red chillies, chopped
1 teaspoon each fenugreek seeds and garam masala (alternatively use two teaspoons curry powder)
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly pounded
6 green or black cardamom pods
1 teaspoon turmeric
small piece of tamarind
1 pickled lemon, chopped (optional)
600 ml stock from the carcase

Method

Heat the fat, brown the chicken joints and transfer to a cooking pot.  Fry the onions, garlic and chillies in the remaining fat.  Add all the spices (including cardamom pods, turmeric and tamarind) and allow the onions to soften.  Stir, so the spices are well mixed in.  Add the spice mixture to the pot with the chicken, along with the pickled lemon, if using.  Pour on the stock, stir well and bring to the boil.  Cover and simmer gently for about one hour or until the chicken is cooked.  Uncover for the last ten minutes of cooking, so that the sauce reduces slightly.  You may want to remove the cardamom pods before serving.

Serves 4 – taken from Clarissa's Comfort Food by Clarissa Dickson Wright

Labels: Chicken