Bhuna Chicken with Bengali Five Spices aka Panch Phoron

Our cats are just gifts to their catkind!!! As days are passing we are heavily pressurized with the demands they are curatively putting on us. As per as their recent behaviour, they need a bed. There used to be old worn out table in our balcony, which I literally piled up with old and torn clothes and pillows to work as a resting ground of my cats. But the table started to crack more and we decided to throw that away. Now my cats have taken refuge on our dinner table.  They are sleeping there, stretching there, making large holes with their nails on my table cloth, while I stay put at my place....and I just bite the corner of my lip and think about the solution.

After a long speculation we have decided to make a bed for them. It will be small stacked bed  and we have to make small fluffy mattresses for them which will fit in there, because my cats love to sleep on fluffy soft beds. L So far...so good...planning is done and I think our carpenter can make that in 1 week. Until then I feel despair and watch my table cloth go into pieces.

Inspired from Bangladeshi Chicken recipes and acahri Chicken, this Bhuna Chicken became an instant hit in my home. Its “bhuna”, cause I made sure that I simmer it a lot and lot lot a lot....and I used the achari masala, which is of course the “panch phoron” for us, and I used mustard oil only, for cooking this chicken.

I have heard about the Bengali mutton curry, which is made with panch phoron or the Bengali five spices, but now I know that it will definitely be awesome too. Paired with the mustard oil, the panch phoron, left a distinctly nice aroma, which is a little achari and a seductively sizzling due to the heavy usage of the mustard oil, in every bite of those chicken pieces. Bhuna Chicken is very similar to the Chicken Kosha or Kosha Mangsho as in both the process we use the method of bhuna or koshano to enhance the flavour of the dish. In India, different places have their own kind of bhuna chicken, and you get to try different flavours each time. If you are not familiar with the taste of mustard oil and panch phoron, I will definitely recommend making this Bhuna Chicken with Bengali spices, as when you put together both of the ingredients....the flavour you create is just out of the world delicious.

Bhuna Chicken with Bengali Five Spices

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

500gm chicken on bone

1 medium onion – chopped

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp red chilli powder

2 tsp coriander powder

2 tsp cumin powder
3-4 green chillies

2 dry red chillies

6 cloves of garlic

½ inch stick of ginger

1 tsp panch phoron / Bengali five spices (mixture of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds)

1 small cinnamon stick

1 large bay leaf

2 green cardamoms

2 cloves

1 and ½ tbsp mustard oil

Salt

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai and put in the cinnamon stick, green cardamom, cloves, dry red chillies and panch phoron.

Saute for half a minute or until the oil becomes aromatic. Then add in the chopped onions.

Saute and cook the onions for 5-7 minutes on medium flame or until the onions become slightly golden brown.

In the mean time, put the garlic cloves, ginger stick, and green chillies in a grinder. Add in 1 tbsp water and grind them to a fine paste.

When the onions become golden brown add in this garlic-ginger paste and sauté till the raw flavour of the garlic is gone.

Then add all the chicken pieces, salt and all the spice powders, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder.

Mix and let the chicken cook in its own juice. If you want you can put cover also.

Cook in this way for 10 minutes or until all the moisture is evaporated, and then add in 2 cups of water.

Put cover again and let them cook, until the chicken is perfectly done and is soft from inside. Check and stir in between to avoid any kind of sticking to the bottom of the pan.

If the water dries in this process, do add in some water to keep the cooking going on.

Once done, simmer till you get your preferred consistency of the gravy and put off the flame.

Serve hot with rice or roti or naan.