Ingredients required:
1. Chicken thighs/legs with or without bone (300-500 gms)
2. Lemon Juice (less than half a cup, just enough to coat the chicken)
3. Green Chillies (optional) (3-4)
4. Ginger garlic paste (can get from grocery store) (need 1-2 tablespoon)
5. Ginger (1 inch, peeled)
6. Garlic (3-4 decent sized pods)
7. Ground Turmeric. (1 pinch)
8. Ground Coriander. (1 tablespoon)
9. Deggi Mirch/Kashmiri Mirch (chilli powder). (1 tablespoon)
10. Plain Curd/Yogurt (3-4 tablespoons, just a little bit for marination,
curd/yogurt shouldn't have too much water in it)
11. Butter (5-6 small cubes)
12. Cashews (can skip if you're allergic) (1 for every Tomato you use, don't put in
too many cashews)
13. Bay Leaves (2-3)
14. Black Peppercorns (5-6, can use ground black pepper too 1/4th tablespoon)
15. Cloves (4-5)
16. Green Cardamoms (5-6)
17. Cinnamon strips (2-3 less than your index finger in size)
18. Tomatoes (4 medium sized tomatoes)
19. Red Onions (1-2 small, don't use too many onions)
20. Toasted Kasuri Methi (Dried Fenugreek Leaves) (a little bit maybe 1 tablespoon,
if you only get dried fenugreek leaves, you can toast it at home in a pan)
21. Cilantro/Parsley for garnish (whatever you prefer)
22. Sugar/Honey (i prefer honey) (adjust based on taste)
23. Heavy whipping cream (can skip if you're lactose intolerant)
24. Salt
25. Optional: Kewra Water/essence or Rose water/essence. (just to give it a nice
flavor totally optional)
Marination 1 (Short Version: 1 hour, Long version: 5-6 hours)
1. Wash the chicken and cut it into small pieces, drain excess water.
2. Add the ginger garlic paste, lemon juice and slit green chillies with the
chicken and mix everything together.
3. Cover it and leave it to rest in the fridge.
Marination 2 (Short Version: 2 hours, Long version: Overnight)
1. Remove green chillies, drain excess water from first marination by squeezing the
chicken.
2. Add Curd/Yogurt (3-4 tablespoons), a pinch of Turmeric, Deggi Mirch (1/2
tablespoon), Ground Coriander (1/4th tablespoon) with the chicken and mix
everything together.
3. Chicken should be coated properly with the mixture.
3. Cover it and leave it to rest in the fridge.
Prep for chicken pieces:
1. Fry the marinated chicken on a pan with butter or cook in a tandoor or broil the
chicken after the marination steps.
2. Chicken should have a little bit of charring.
Prep for sauce:
1. Add roughly cut up tomatoes, onions, Deggi Mirch (1/2 tablespoon), Cloves,
Cinnamon strips, Bay leaves,
Black Peppercorns, Butter cubes, Ginger, Garlic and Cashews in a saucepan and
salt to taste.
2. Toss everything together.
3. Add Green Cardamoms.
4. Add a little bit of water to cover everything in the saucepan.
5. Cover it and heat it over low to medium heat for 15-20 minutes.
You can stir everything together once or twice (after 5-8 minutes) to not let
stuff stick to the bottom of the pan.
6. Keep it aside and let it cool completely. If you're impatient you can add couple
of ice cubes to let it cool faster.
7. Blend everything together in a blender till the sauce is smooth. You can add a
little bit of water if you didn't use ice cubes
if you don't like thick sauce.
8. Strain the sauce through a food strainer, throw away the chunky bits.
Final Steps:
1. Heat up some butter in a saucepan on low heat.
2. Add Deggi Mirch (1/2 tablespoon) and Ground Coriander (1 tablespoon) and mix it
a little bit for 30 seconds.
3. Add the sauce, turn the heat to medium and heat it a little bit.
4. Optional: add heavy whipping cream slowly (3 tablespoons). The taste should be
from the sauce and not the cream.
Mix the cream into the sauce together.
5. Add Honey/Sugar to make the sauce a bit sweeter. The overall sauce flavor should
be slightly on the sweeter side.
You can add salt too to get the right flavor. Do it carefully though.
6. Add the chicken pieces whole or shredded.
7. Optional: Add 1 drop of Kewra/Rose water/essence. Don't add it too much or it'll
mess up the flavor.
8. Add 1 tablespoon of crushed and toasted Kasuri Methi.
9. Garnish with Cilantro/Parsley and you're done.
