Mock Chicken Korma

This chicken dish is inspired from the famous chicken korma. However, one can debate the term korma has various interpretations from the thick white gravy to a brown gravy or be it vegetable or meat. The usual meat korma recipe require cashews/ almonds, double frying onions and sometimes even coconut. In my effort to make it a tad easier and lighter (though we all could debate this with the amount of fat that goes in!) I decided to leave out the almonds and the tedious process of double frying the onions and surely the coconut (which I run miles away from!). So here goes my version of a yummy chicken recipe - I hope you enjoy it as much as everyone in my house does.

 

Ingredients

10 chicken drumsticks

Khara Masala

8 green cardamoms
2 black cardamoms
10 pieces of cloves
4 inch stick of cinnamon

2 ½ cups finely sliced onions

5-6 tbsp vegetable cooking oil (you could replace this with ghee as well if you prefer)
2 tbsp ghee
½ tsp garam masala
2 green chilies, split in half length wise
1 tbsp ginger julienned finely1 tbsp kewra (screw pine water)

Finely chopped coriander for garnishing
Salt to taste

 Marinade

1 ½ tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
¾ cup yoghurt
1 tsp garam masala
3 tbsp dhania powder
2 tsp deghi lal mirch
2 tsp salt


Method

Wash the chicken well and pat dry. Make to slashes with a knife on each leg, this helps the marinade seep in better. In a bowl marinate the chicken legs in the marinade above for an hour

In a heavy bottomed pan, pour 5-6 tbsp of vegetable oil and heat it. Add the khara masala and let it crackle. Add the sliced onions and sauté it till it turns light to dark brown. Do this on a low flame to ensure you don’t burn the onions.

 

Add the marinated chicken legs to the pan. Do not add the excess marinade as yet. Once the chicken has cooked a bit for about 4-5 minutes add the marinade, green chillies and ghee and continue to stir on a low flame. Cover the vessel and cook for 10 min till the sauce starts to bubble. Continue to stir and toss the chicken till the gravy starts changing colour -turning brown and has reduced to half (this could be another 15-20 min). You will notice that the masala starts leaving oil as well.

 

Once the chicken has cooked, sprinkle in the remaining garam masala, add kewra and adjust the salt. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with fresh green coriander.  

 

Serve with any Indian bread (roti, paratha or naan) and onion rings.