Bhuna Murg Masala

Bhuna Murg Masala

Last Sunday when my mother in law arrived for a visit, I cooked up a sumptuous Mutton Biryani and with that concluded a week of having quite a few rich dishes.I had plain vegetarian dishes for the next two days but the vigour and taste of the Mutton Biryani lingered all the time.So when I decided that I had enough of  vegetarian dishes I looked to prepare some tasty chicken dish. So, I set forward a criteria - it should be tasty but not rich and it should go with Rotis/Paranthas.Thought about for quite sometime and decided on Bhuna Murg Masala with Sliced Boiled Egg and Potato."Bhuna" means cooking the chicken under slow fire with ghee and garam masalas and ensuring that the moisture is totally absent in the final product. The chicken should become lightly shredded and extremely tender.

In the morning I bought 600 gms of Chicken - the leg and thigh pieces and marinaded it in Papaya paste,Salt ,vegetable oil and some turmeric powder .The marinade will remain for the entire day and tenderize the chicken and the cooking will be done at night after I come from office.
The hectic office schedule ensured that I was finally able to reach home at 9 and got down to business.
Here goes the recipe:

Serves: 2

The Marinade:

• Chicken - 600 gms. Leg and Thigh pieces
• Papaya Paste - 3 tb sp
• Turmeric Powder - 1.5 tsp
• Vegetable Oil - 1 tb sp
• Salt - To taste.

Suggested Duration of Marination - 2 hours.If left in the open. 10 hours - if you put it in a refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• Part I - Cooking
• Onion - 200 gms. Half of it made into a paste and remaining half made into longitudinal slices.
• Garlic - 10 cloves.Crushed
• Ginger - One 1/2 inch slice.Crushed.
• Tomato - One medium sized(50 gms)
• Potato - 100 gms. 2 medium sized potatoes.Peeled.
• Coriander Leaves - 2 tb sp.
• Vegetable Oil - 3 tb sp.
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - To taste

Powdered Spices:

• Coriander Powder - 2.5 tsp
• Kashmiri Mirch Masala - 1.5 tsp
• Black Pepper Powder - 1.5 tsp

Part II - Bhuna

• Melted Ghee - 1.5 tb sp
• Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp.
• Whole Spices:
• Green Cardamon - 3
• Cloves - 5-6
• Cinnamon Stick - One 1 inch piece

Part III - Garnish.

• Boiled Egg - 1.Sliced into 4 pieces.
• Coriander Leaves - 1 tb sp.
• Lemon Squeeze - 1/2 tsp

Cooking Procedure - Part I:

• Heat the vegetable oil required in a wok/kadai under oven heat set to medium high.
• Once the oil is hot, add the crushed Garlic and Ginger pieces.
• When the smell of the ginger-garlic evolves, add the sliced onions and the sugar.
• As soon as the onion slices turn brown, add the onion paste, tomato paste and coriander leaves.The mixture will sputter for quite some time until the moisture content reduces.
• Then add the chicken along with the contents of the marinade. Stir continuously for 5-6 mins to ensure that the ingredients of the mixture are mixed uniformly with the chicken.
• Then add all the powdered spices, and continue stirring the mixture.Add the potatoes also.Incase the mixture becomes too dry then add 50 ml of warm water. The chicken will gradually turn brown. This should require another 12-15 mins.
• Once the mixture dries up reduce the heat to low and add around 100 ml of warm water.Check the amount of salt and add more if required.Cover the wok with a lid and let the mixture simmer for 45-50 mins.
• Check every 10 mins, incase the water dries up.Add more water if required.The chicken should become soft  and tender at the end of 45-50 mins and it should be left with very little thick gravy.

Part II The "Bhun-na":

• Heat the ghee in a pan and add the whole spices as mentioned above.
• Add the chicken slices.Stir the chicken pieces until it turns into small "flakes" and becomes shredded.This should require 8-10 mins.
• Add Garam Masla powder at the end and a drop of ghee(but it is optional)
• Ensure that the chicken contains very little moisture.

Garnishing:

• Lay out the Bhuna Chicken 
• Sprinkle the lemon juice and garnish with some coriander leaves and the sliced egg

Enjoy with Roti.