Lehsuni Murgh / Rosun Diye Mangsho / Garlic Chicken Curry

A little birdie comes at my window every afternoon. Its tiny and looks like sparrow. But it has shiny green feathers on its back and a sharp curvy beak. It comes and sits o the window pane. Then watches the surrounding premise. If everything is okay...then it slowly comes near the A.C machine and starts to bathe under the water that drips from the pipe connected to the A.C. It cleans its body by rubbing its beak all over the feathers, and chest. Then it flies away!!!

I tried click some photos but that bird never sits still for even a moment and my heavy curtain always almost blurs the view. So...I have given up clicking, now a day I just watch her chirping and bathing. Oh...yes, it’s her chirping that makes me realize that she is here.

As the name suggests, Rosun Diye Mangsho / Garlic Chicken Curry is too much garlicky!!! It is very minimalistic in terms of spices and that is the gateway to have the strong garlic flavour in the chicken curry.

I have added only the turmeric powder for some colour and skipped everything. I wanted to have the warm roasted garlic flavour to ooze out from every strip of the chicken pieces. And that is what makes this Lehsuni Murgh so soooooo delicious!! Simple roti or plain rice is a good combo to have the most of this Garlicky chicken curry, but none of them comes a bit closer with the butter naan. Garlicky Chicken and buttery naan....are you willing to try them out???

Rosun Diye Mangsho / Garlic Chicken Curry

Serves 3-5

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken (you can use boneless chicken also)

1 onion – chopped

1 cup thick yogurt

2 heads of garlic / 15-20 garlic cloves

1 inch stick of ginger

8-10 cashew nuts (optional)

6-8 whole black peppercorns

1 small stick of cinnamon

3-4 green cardamoms

3 cloves

2 tsp turmeric powder

3-4 green chillies – paste / 1 tsp red chilli powder

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt

2 tbsp oil / You can use mustard oil too

Method:

Whisk the yogurt to make a smooth paste like consistency.

Dry roast the black peppercorns and grind them to a fine powder.

In a small sheet of aluminium foil place one head of garlic. Drizzle 1 tsp oil over them and wrap them up with the foil. Put it into an oven and roast for 10-12 minutes at 300F. Once done, carefully take out the foil and unfold. Let the garlic come to room temperature and then peel the garlic cloves.

Make a paste out of those roasted garlic cloves.

Or, if you can't roast the garlics, you can dry roast them. In that case, first you make paste of 1head of the garlic cloves.

Then dry roast the garlic paste in a tawa, without any oil for half a minute, or until you start to smell the garlic flavour. As soon as you start to smell it, put off the flame.

In a large bowl take all the chicken pieces. Add in the whisked yogurt, lemon juice, roasted garlic, salt, turmeric powder and ground black peppercorns. Mix everything with your hand so that each and every piece of the chicken gets evenly coated with the yogurt and spices.

Marinate the chicken for 30 minute to 1 hour.

Put 1 tbsp oil in a kadai and add in the sliced onions, whole chillies and ginger.

Slowly heat up the oil and sauté till the onions become translucent.
Now take everything out of the kadai, put them in a blender and blend until smooth.
Mince the rest of the garlic cloves.

Now in the same kadai, put the rest of the oil and add in the minced garlic and whole spices, i.e. cinnamon stick, green cardamoms and cloves.
Slowly heat up the oil, this will help the oil to become infused with the beautiful garlic flavour.
Do not let the garlic become totally brown. As soon as you see the garlic changing its colour, immediately add in the prepared onion paste and mix everything.

Now take the chicken pieces one by one, shaking off the excess marinating paste, and put them into the kadai.

Mix the chicken pieces with the onion paste and cook till the chicken pieces are lightly golden in colour.

Then add in the kept aside marinating paste. Mix again and let the chicken cook. You can put cover also. But do keep a watchful eye and stir in between to avoid any kind of burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Meanwhile take the cashew nuts and make a smooth paste of it using little water.

Keep cooking the chicken and if the chicken tends to dry always add a dash of water.

When the chicken is almost done, which generally takes 15-25 minutes,  add the cashew nuts paste and mix everything.

Cook till the chicken is done.

If you want a dry curry then do not add any water. But if you want some gravy add in 1 – 1 and ½ cup of water. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes or until the gravy reaches your desired consistency.

Once the gravy is perfect, switch off the flame and serve hot with roti / naan / plain steamed rice.