Sylheti Chicken Curry

Although my mother and my late grandmother had a strong Bangladesh connection, I never ever went to Bangladesh. I grew up only listening to their “Bangal Bhasha” in home and eating their excellent food. They belonged to Dhaka and they used so say so many things and some local proverbs about different places of Bangladesh. One that I remember vividly was about the place “Borishal”, and the saying was like “aayite shal jaite shal, tar e naam borishal”, which literally meant the people of Borishal liked to trouble others. About Sylhet they said, their language was distinct. Only a sylheti could understand what another sylheti is saying. But now when I listen to a proper Banglal Bhasa, I can’t understand even that also!!

That said enough...sylhet is popular for their yummy cuisine as well...which comprise mainly of chicken, rice and meat. Very spicy and heavy use of onions and garlic...is their speciality. I was searching for the recipe of Goalondo Chciken Curry, when somewhere in the comment section I found this recipe. This recipe is as good, as it can get. The magic trick is the addition of garlic in the end, which makes all the difference, and gives just another rustic regional chicken curry a drastic makeover!!

Step by step process:

Make a paste using some garlic cloves, ginger and the dry red chillies.

Marinate the chicken with this paste, chopped / sliced onions, turmeric powder, salt, vinegar / lime juice and mustard oil.

Heat the oil and fry some pounded garlic cloves.

Add the marinated chicken and cook covered until all the moisture evaporates.

Then add water and cook covered again until you have soft and tender chicken pieces.

Simmer until you have the right consistency and then add the paste of the remaining garlic paste. Mix and simmer for a minute and then put off the flame.

Sylheti Chicken Curry

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken on bone

3 onions – finely chopped / sliced

1 head of garlic / 12-15 fat garlic cloves

1 inch ginger – minced

6 green chillies – paste

2 tsp turmeric powder

¼ cup of pure virgin mustard oil

2-3 tsp vinegar / juice of 1 lime

Salt

Method:

Make a fine paste using all the dry red chillies, 4 garlic cloves and the ginger.

In a big bowl take all the chicken pieces and add in the turmeric powder, salt, vinegar / lime juice, half of the mustard oil, vinegar and the prepared dried red chilli paste.

Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes to one hour.

Take 4-5 garlic cloves and roughly pound them with mortar and pestle.

Heat the remaining oil in a pan / kadai and add the pounded garlic in it.

Sauté the garlic on low flame until lightly brown and then add the marinated chicken into it.

Put cover and cook on low to medium flame until all the moisture is evaporated.

Now add 2-3 cups of water, because this curry generally has very thin gravy.

Put cover again and cook until the chicken becomes soft and tender.

Stir every 3-4 minutes, so that nothing can stick to the bottom of the pan /kadai.

When the chicken is cooked, open the lid and simmer on medium flame until the curry has your desired consistency with oil floating on top of it.

Take the rest of the garlic cloves and makes a smooth paste of it.

Add this garlic paste to the curry and gently stir to mix well.

Simmer for another one minute and put off the flame.

Serve hot with steamed hot rice.