Chicken Rezala
Submitted by Ashfaque Manzer
About the cook: Ashfaque Manzer is a 36 year old IT professional, whose real passion is cooking. He also loves to travel to new places, take lots of pictures and entertain people with good food and company. His dream in life is to become a successful restaurateur. For now, he dotes on his two daughters by taking them hiking and cooking their favorite dishes. He is also trying to combine his love for cooking and photography by capturing mouth-watering pictures of the food he makes and posting them on his social media platforms. On a relaxing day, he can be found leisurely spread on his couch, watching and learning from food videos.
About the dish: An exquisite dish from the cultural state of West Bengal, India. This dish is perfect to easily prepare and impress your guests and family members.
National Origin: Indian
Serves: 4
Estimated Time: Over 2 Hours
Ingredients:
10-12 Cashew nuts
2 tbsp Poppy seeds
1 kg Chicken (tastes better with bone-in chicken)
1 tsp Ginger paste
1 tsp Garlic paste
1 cup Yogurt
2 tbsp Oil
3 tbsp Ghee
3-4 Clove
6-8 Black pepper corns
2-inch Cinnamon
2 Green cardamom
2 Black cardamom
4-5 Dry red chilies
1 tsp White pepper powder
1 tsp Red chilli powder (Optional)
1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
1/2 cup Onion paste
1 tbsp Ghee
2-3 drops Kewra essence
Salt to taste
Preparation:
• Soak cashew nuts and poppy seeds in warm water for 10 minutes.
• Make a smooth paste in a blender.
• Mix chicken, ginger paste, garlic paste and yogurt in a bowl and marinate for at least an hour. Preferably overnight.
• Heat ghee mixed with a little oil in a pan.
• When the ghee is hot, add cloves, black peppercorns, cinnamon, green cardamom, black cardamom and dry red chilies.
• Fry for 5-10 seconds.
• Pick chicken pieces from the marinade and fry on high heat for 4-5 minutes.
• Add the remaining marinade, cashew nut and poppy seeds paste, white pepper powder, salt, red chilli powder and garam masala powder in the pan.
• Add the onion paste and 1 cup water.
• Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 40-50 minutes.
• Add ghee and kewra essence and mix well.
• Serve hot with rice or rumali roti or lachha paratha.