Bengali-style chicken curry

Butter chicken lovers can add a spoonful of butter chicken paste to add extra flavour, advises Urvi Majumdar. For those who aren’t fans of heat, reduce the chillies and chilli powder for a milder curry.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 800 g chicken drumsticks, scored
• 1 tbsp ground turmeric
• 16 g fine salt, divided
• 3 dried red chillies, stem removed, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes
• 2 tsp roughly chopped ginger
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• ½ cup (125 ml) mustard oil
• 2 Indian bay leaves
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced into half-moons
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
• 2 tbsp natural yoghurt, plus extra to serve
• 300 g hot water
• Cooked rice or garlic naan, coriander leaves, lemon wedges, to serve

For the gorom moshla

• 1 cinnamon quill (around 3 cm)
• 6 whole cloves
• 4 green cardamom pods

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, turmeric and half the salt. Mix well to combine, then set aside.
2. In a mini food processor, combine the soaked chillies, ginger and garlic with 1-2 tbsp chilli soaking liquid. Blitz to a smooth paste.
3. Heat the mustard oil in a large wok or frying pan until it changes colour and is gently smoking. Add the chilli paste mixture, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for 2 minutes, or until fragrant. Add the bay leaves, onion and sugar, stir to combine, then cover and cook for 3 minutes further.
4. Add the remaining salt, chilli powder and yoghurt to the pan, stirring well to combine. Add the chicken, stir, then cover and braise on medium heat for 10-15 minutes.
5. Add the hot water to the pan and cook until the chicken is cooked through.
6. Use a sheel nora (Indian flat stone grinder) or a mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients for the gorom moshla, mixing with a little water to form a smooth paste.
7. Stir the gorom moshla through the curry and season to taste with salt. Serve the Bengali-style chicken curry with rice or naan. Sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve with lemon wedges and a dollop of natural yoghurt.

Photography by Jiwon Kim.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.