Chicken chaap

Course: Main course

Cuisine: Indian

Preparation time: 30 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 500g chicken (2 leg pieces)
• 1 cup hung curd (greek yogurt)
• 1 onion, ground to paste
• 1 tablespoon of ginger paste
• 1 tablespoon of garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon of coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon of red chili powder
• 6 cashewnuts
• 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds
• 2 tablespoons of charmagaz (melon seeds)
• 1 inch cinnamon stick broken into pieces
• ¼ teaspoon of sahi jeera
• 5-6 cardamom pods
• 7-8 peppercorns
• 7-8 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 star anise
• 1 pinch of nutmeg(jaiphal) powder
• ¼ teaspoon of  mace(javitri) powder
• 2-3 green chilies
• ¼ cup of ghee
• ¼ cup of vegetable oil
• ½ teaspoon of kewra water
• 1 teaspoon of rose water
• Salt to taste

Directions

1. Clean the chicken and pat it dry with kitchen towel.
2. Make small cuts or incisions on the chicken pieces. These cuts allows all the spices to go inside the chicken legs.
3. Add salt and the hung curd to the chicken and let it marinate for 30 minutes. This is the first marination.
4. Roast the cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, star anise and sahi jeera and grind them to a fine powder. This is the garam masala powder that will be used to cook the chicken chaap. You can also use store-bought ones but I prefer them making at home.
5. Soak the poppy seed, cashew nuts, charmagaz for about 30 minutes.
6. After 30 minutes make a paste of the above along with the green chilies.
7. To the chicken, add the onion paste, ginger and garlic paste, turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, javitri and jaiphal powder, the paste of cashew nuts, poppy seeds, charmagaz and green chili, rose water, kewra water.
8. Mix the spices properly with the chicken and specially in the cuts of the chicken.
9. Marinate the chicken for 4-6 hours to preferably overnight. This is the second marination.
10. Take a flat bottomed pan or a wide kadai. To the kadai, add the oil and the ghee.
11. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken gradually along with all marinade.
12. Now, cover the kadai and cook the chicken on a mid-low flame.
13. Ocassionally, stir the chicken and spices.
14. Once the chicken is cooked well, turn off the flame. The cooking takes about 40-45 minutes
15. Serve the chicken chaap with either  mutton biriyani, kulcha naan, plain rice etc.