Grandma's Country Captain Chicken

Country Captain Chicken is a popular chicken curry owing its root to the Raj Cuisine. Raj cuisine is mainly a fusion of Indian and British food developed by the Indian cooks to suit the taste of the British officers, which was later carried forward by the Anglo-Indian families. Country Captain Chicken is one such recipe. This curry mainly is cooked with the well fed, plump country chickens rather than the regular poultry, which requires long time to cook, giving this curry a smooth thick gravy and soft chicken pieces literally falling off the bones. As per the history, this curry was created by a grandmother for her youngest grandson, when he returned from the war...and hence giving the name, Grandma’s country chicken. The other story is, one of the Mug Cook created this curry in a boat for his fellow officer. Whatever may be the reason, this curry when cooked with country chickens is a fabulous affair. With only a little spice, Country Captain Chicken is finger licking good!!

Grandma’s Country Captain Chicken

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken on bone (preferably country chicken)

2 onions – sliced

4 fat cloves of garlic – minced / paste

4 fat cloves of garlic – roughly pounded

2 medium cinnamon sticks

4 green cardamoms

4 cloves

3-4 dry red chillies

1 tbsp whole black peppercorns

1 and ½ tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp red chilli powder

Salt

¼ cup of white oil

A handful of fresh coriander leaves

Method:

Heat oil and add the chopped onions and pounded garlic into them.

Sprinkle some salt over them.

Sauté for a minute or two or until the onions become translucent.

Now add the chicken pieces and lightly fry until they change their colour from pink to white.

Now sprinkle some more salt and add the garlic paste to the chickens.

Mix them well and add in the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, whole cinnamon stick, green cardamoms, cloves and dry red chillies.

Gently mix them together with the chicken pieces so that they get covered with the spices.

Cover and let them cook for 2-3 minutes.

Open the lid and add 2 cups of water.

Give a good stir and cook until the chicken is tender and soft from inside and the curry thickens with oil floating on top of it.

Do not leave the curry on its own, do check every 3-4 minutes and stir to prevent any kind of sticking to the bottom of the pan. If the curry tends to dry do add some water to continue the cooking.

Finally sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves on top of them and switch of the flame.

Serve hot with rice / chapatti.