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CHICKEN KORMA
Indian braised chicken with onions, cloves, and ginger
serves 4
4 chicken breast pieces (boned)
1/2 cup safflower oil
1/4 cup clarified butter
(the Indians call this ghee )
6 medium yellow onions
3 garlic cloves
1 1/2 Tbsp ginger
10-12 whole green cardamom seeds, cracked. Or use
2 tsp of ground cardamom.
20 whole cloves
5 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp coriander (ground)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
8 oz plain yogurt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
Cut the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces and set aside.
Peel the onions and chop them fine.
You should have about 3 cups of onion.
Mince the garlic
and add to the bowl of chopped onions.
In a big frypan that has a lid, heat the butter and oil,
then saute the onions and garlic for about 10 minutes,
until the first hint of browning.
Use ``medium high heat.
Crack the cardamom seeds between your fingers, just to get the shell open.
Add them to the pan.
Add the ginger, cloves, bay leaves, and salt.
Saute until the
onions are nice and brown, about 5 more minutes.
Mix the coriander and red pepper with the yogurt.
Add the yogurt to the frypan, stirring as you pour,
slowly enough that the onion doesn't stop bubbling.
It could take several minutes to do this, depending on the diameter of your frypan.
When the last of the yogurt dries up, add the chicken pieces and brown them.
Add 1/2 cup water, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20 minutes.
Stir in the milk and turn off the heat.
It needs to sit a few minutes to let the flavours blend.
The longer you let it sit after cooking, the better it will taste
While the chicken is sitting, cook some saffron rice to go with this dish.
Fish out the bay leaves, and as many of the whole cloves as you can find, before serving.
Check to make sure it is moist enough (it should have the consistency of applesauce).
Reheat over low heat. Serve.
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