Punjabi Chicken Masala Recipe

When I posted the Garlic Naan recipe I had this curry picture along with the Naan and got so many requests for the recipe. I had intended to post this soon after but somehow couldn’t. This is a Lakshmi Nair recipe from the Magic Oven show. I like her recipes and whatever I have tried has turned out good. I make this Punjabi chicken recipe regularly as it goes very well with any kind of Indian flat bread or mildly spiced rice or pulav.  As always we prefer boneless chicken with small pieces for our curries, but you can use chicken pieces with bone in and bigger pieces if you prefer. 

Punjabi Chicken Masala Recipe

(Source: Lakshmi Nair’s Magic Oven)

Preparation time – 20 minutes

Cooking time – 30 minutes

Serves -6-8

Ingredients:

Chicken – 1kg, cut into medium pieces (I used boneless chicken pieces)

Onion – 3, medium

Garlic – 10 cloves

Kashmiri red chilly powder/ Mulaku podi – 3 tsp

Coriander powder/ Mallipodi – 3 tsp

Turmeric powder / Manjal podi – 1 tsp

Cumin seeds / Jeerakom – 2 tsp

Grated coconut – 2 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp

Cashew nuts – 20, soaked in little water for 15 minutes

Tomato – 1 ½ cups, chopped fine

Ginger – 2 x 2” piece, chopped fine

Cardamom / Ealakka – 6

Cloves / Grambu – 6

Yogurt – 1 cup

Coriander leaves- 2 tbsp, chopped (optional)

Oil – 2 tbsp (original recipe½ cup of oil, but I always try to reduce oil in my curries, so use accordingly)

Method:

• Grind garlic and mix it with yogurt and keep it aside.
• Grind coconut and soaked cashew nuts to a fine paste and keep aside.
• Grind 1 onion, ginger, chilly powder, coriander powder, cumin seeds together to a fine paste.
• Thinly slice remaining 2 onions.
• Heat oil in a frying pan, add sugar and let it brown. Into this add cardamom and cloves and sliced onion and sauté until onion becomes golden brown.
• Add turmeric powder and ground masala paste and stir fry nicely until the raw taste of masala goes. Now add yogurt mixed with garlic paste and sauté well till the water dries up. Into this add tomato pieces and sauté well.
• Now add chicken pieces and coconut- cashew paste and sauté well until raw smell of the masala goes. 
• Add enough salt and ½ cup water and cover the pan with a lid and cook chicken on medium low heat until the gravy thickens and the chicken pieces are cooked well. Mix in coriander leaves and serve hot with Indian flat bread or rice.