Dhone Pata Mangsho / Dhania Chicken / Coriander Chicken Curry

Lucid winter nights used to spike up with this delicious Dhania Chicken cooked by my father in our Kolkata home. Winter meant a lot of things....abundant red plumpy tomatoes, ripe fresh aubergines, fresh green peas and a lot of fresh coriander leaves. So to use the perfect opportunity father used to make Dhania Chicken often in the night after he came home from work. Ma used to make rotis after father finished cooking. And as we used to tear a part of the roti to eat a chicken morsel with its gravy...father winked at us to acknowledge that he also can cook.

When Baba used to be in the kitchen none of us had the right to enter there. It became his area then and going there and looking at him while he cooked or asking questions were sheer distractions for him. But still I and my sister used to creep there silently and watched him cooking.

A few days ago the girl who comes to my house to sell vegetables sold me a big bunch of coriander leaves. I usually make Green Chicken with mint and coriander leaves, but these fresh coriander leaves left me all reminiscing about the past and I could think of nothing better than the Dhania Chicken.

So I put every bit of those fresh leaves in the blender with the other ingredients and whizzed up the blender to make the paste. And it worked.  Plus the addition of mustard oil and tempering with dry red chillies along with the other whole garam masalas added a kick to the dish too. It became so sooo Bengali. I loved every bit of it.

Dhone Pata Diye Mangsho / Coriander Chicken Curry / Dhania Chicken

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken on bone

2 cups of chopped fresh coriander leaves

½ cup thick curd

1 tbsp roasted gram flour / besan

6-7 garlic cloves

1 inch stick of ginger

8-10 green chillies - slitted

Juice of 1 lemon

2 medium onion – finely chopped

1 tbsp + 2 tsp mustard oil

1 medium cinnamon stick

1 medium bay leaf

3 green cardamoms

3 cloves

5-6 black peppercorns

2 dry red chillies

Salt

Method:

In a shallow frying pan heat 2 tsp oil. Add in the whole garlic and ginger. As the garlic starts to change colour add in the chopped coriander leaves, 5 slitted green chillies and roasted gram flour.

Sauté for 2 minutes or until you start to get a fine aroma. Then put off the flame and pour everything into a blender. Add in the curd, lemon juice, 2 tsp mustard oil and salt. Blend until it becomes a smooth paste.

Take the chicken pieces into a bowl and rub the prepared paste over them. Let them marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Once the marination is done, heat the rest of the oil in a kadai and add in the whole cinnamon stick, dry red chillies, bay leaf, green cardamoms, cloves and black peppercorns.

Stir for 30 seconds or until the oil becomes aromatic and then throw in the chopped onions.
Saute the onions until golden and then add in the chicken pieces one by one, such that each of the pieces touches the surface. Let them cook for 3-4 minutes and then flip them over, so that the other sides can get colour too.

Put cover and let the chicken cook into its own juices. After 5 minutes uncover the lid and pour in the rest of the marinating paste.
Stir everything and cook until the oil seperates.
Pour 1 cup of water and mix well.
Put cover and cook until the chicken is cooked properly.
Then open the lid and simmer until the gravy thickens and the oil starts to float on top of the curry.
Taste and adjust the seasonings.
Switch off the flame.

Serve hot with some rice / roti / paratha / naan.