Chicken Bharta in Bengali Style

Chicken Bharta aka bhorta, is a Dhaba style dish in which the chicken slices are cooked in a rich and creamy sauce of egg yolks, cashew nuts and flavorful spices. This is absolutely not a dish of Bengali origin but Kolkata has added its essence to this dish to make a Kolkata style or a Bengali style Chicken Bharta. Jalpaiguri, my hometown is a place of momo, chowmein and dimsum. But, whenever I had to travel to Kolkata for any official work, having less money in my pocket at that time, used to often finish my dinner off with street food or dhaba food. Chicken Bharta is one of those dishes which I had in one of the street shops of Sealdah. After trying it for the first time, I remember to have chicken bharta for my dinner for every night of my remaining days during that stay in Kolkata.

Other dhaba style recipes available on my site is dim torka. Chicken bharta can be served with naan, roomali roti, lachha paratha or with simple roti.

Step by step instructions to prepare chicken bharta

Cut the chicken in long thin strips.

Make a paste of the soaked cashew nuts and charmagaz.

Take a kadai and heat oil in it. Temper the oil with cumin seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and cloves.

Once you get the aroma of the spices, add the sliced onions.

Saute them till they turn translucent.

Make some space in the centre and add pureed tomato, ginger and garlic paste and continue sautéing

After about 2-3 minutes add the turmeric powder, cumin powder, green chilies, red chili powder and salt.

Now, add the chicken and saute them for 2 minutes.

Cover and cook on medium flame. Gradually you will see that lots of water oozes out from the chicken. Therefore, you need not add any water.

Meanwhile cut the boiled eggs in thin slices. We will use this egg white later for garnishing. Mash the egg yolks and keep aside.

Once the chicken is cooked and you see oil leaving the sides of the pan, add Punjabi garam masala powder, tandoori masala, hung curd, paste of cashew nuts and charmagaz, kasoori methi, mashed egg yolk along with ½ cup of water.

Let it simmer for 5-6 minutes till it reaches the desired consistency.

Garnish the chicken bharta with coriander leaves and egg white rings.Serve the chicken bharta with naan, roomali roti or lachha paratha.

Thank you for stopping by. If you like the recipe do not forget to hit like. If you prepare this dish and publish your photos on Facebook and Instagram do tag #theepicureanfeast. Also for queries you can mail me epicureanfeast2019@gmail.com