CHICKEN-KORMA(M)         USENET Cookbook         CHICKEN-KORMA(M)

CHICKEN KORMA

     CHICKEN-KORMA - Indian braised chicken with onions, cloves,
     and ginger

     I learned to like Indian food in London, where delicious
     Indian food can be had in simple restaurants at hamburger
     prices and the fare at fancy places ranks among the finest
     food on Earth.  Back in America, to satisfy my new craving
     for good Indian food I had to learn to cook it myself. This
     is a Friday-night supper dish in our family-too complex for
     a weekday meal, and too plain to serve to company.

     Indian food is often quite elaborate, so by their standards
     this is a fast and simple dish. It is a classical Indian
     recipe, found in many cookbooks.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)
     4         chicken breast pieces (boned) In other words,
               split and bone two breasts)
     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

PROCEDURE
          (1)  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.

          (2)  In a big frypan that has a lid, heat the butter
               and oil, then sauté the onions and garlic for
               about 10 minutes, until the first hint of brown-
               ing.  Use "medium high" heat.

          (3)  Crack the cardamom seeds between your fingers,
               just to get the shell open.  Att them to the pan.
               Add the ginger, cloves, bay leaves, and salt.
               Sauté until the onions are nice and brown, about 5
               more minutes.

          (4)  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.

          (5)  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.

          (6)  Stir in the milk and turn off the heat.  It needs
               to sit a few minutes to let the flavors blend.
               The longer you let it sit after cooking, the
               better it will taste (up to several hours).

          (7)  While the chicken is sitting, cook some rice. I
               make saffron rice to go with this dish.

          (8)  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.

NOTES
     Indians put a lot more salt in their cooking than this
     recipe calls for; if you want to make it more authentic you
     should double or triple the salt.  Indians also don't like
     chicken skin, and will go to great lengths to prevent even
     small pieces of chicken skin from getting into the food. I
     rather like chicken skin myself, and I don't try very hard
     to keep it out of this dish.

     If you can't find green cardamom seeds, don't bother using
     white ones-they've been bleached and processed and don't
     have much flavor left.  Use ground cardamom instead.

RATING
     Difficulty: moderate (timing is somewhat important) Time: 1
     hour plus "sitting time." Precision: Approximate measurement
     OK.

CONTRIBUTOR
     Brian Reid
     DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto CA
     reid@decwrl.DEC.COM -or- {ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,sun,pyramid}!decwrl!reid
     Path: decwrl!recipes
     From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
     Newsgroups: alt.gourmand
     Subject: RECIPE: Crispy lemon chicken
     Message-ID: 
     Date: 10 Jul 87 06:08:39 GMT
     Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
     Organization: Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Holland
     Lines: 90
     Approved: reid@decwrl.UUCP

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