Manpasand Chicken Korma

What do you call a dish that’s lovable to all? Yes, ‘ManPasand’. ‘Korma’ or ‘Kurma’ is a very popular dish you can find in the menu of almost every restaurant in North India. This dish which finds its roots in the Mughal cuisine means braised chicken in assorted ingredients. To be more specific the dish took birth in central Asia from the Turkish word ‘kavurma’ meaning ‘cooked meat’. Like most of the North Indian dishes this too got introduced to the Indian palate via the Mughal kitchen. It was a ‘Shahi’ dish for the Mughals meaning something special which did not feature in the day to day cooking. It was imperative that the dish had a satin smooth richness of nut paste, cream, yogurt, coconut and an accompaniment of Pilaf or pulao for a special dawat/meal.

I have made an effort to make the dish not too rich, a bit mild without doing away with the ‘shahi’-ness, a dish that should be able to strike a chord instantly with all. For this, I made some minor changes like using tomato puree instead of yogurt, coconut instead of fresh cream, white oil instead of ghee/clarified butter, toned down the spices a bit etc. but the dish didn’t taste anything less than awesome. Believe me, it’s ‘manpasand’ all the way. Serve this with pulao or tandoori roti/naan it’s a winner any day!!

Manpasand Chicken Korma

The way I made it:

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken
4-5 onions chopped
2 tsp ginger paste
2 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp green chili paste
3 large red tomatoes blanched in hot water and then pasted after taking off the skin
2 tsp posto/khuskhus/poppy seeds
14-15 cashew nuts
½ tsp coriander seeds
2 dry whole red chilies
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
4 green cardamoms
2 sticks of cinnamon
4-5 cloves
½ a coconut grated
Salt and sugar to taste
White oil as per requirement

Manpasand Chicken Korma

Preparation:

Step 1:

Marination:

Wash the chicken pieces and marinate with ginger garlic paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, 1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder, turmeric powder and green chili paste for about an hour.

Step 2:

Pasting:

Soak poppy seeds and cashew nuts in a little water for 15 minutes and make a smooth paste.

Step 3:

In a cup of warm water soak the grated coconut.

Cooking:

Step 1:

Heat oil in a wok and splutter whole garam masalas, coriander seeds and dry red chilies. Add 1 tsp sugar. Now add the chopped onions and fry them golden.

Step 2:

Add the marinated chicken pieces and sauté on high heat until the chicken loses its color. Add the remaining red chili powder and salt to taste.

Step 3:

Add the tomato puree, sauté and mix well with the chicken. Now add the cashew and poppy seed paste. Continue to sauté. After 2-3 minutes add half a cup of warm water and let the chicken cook on slow fire covered. Stir in between.

Step 4:

When the chicken is done add the grated coconut with the water, mix well with the gravy. You will see that the gravy thickens in a minute. Turn off the flame.

Step 5:

Garnish with onion rings and serve with any pilaf/pulao of your choice or even jeera rice. I have served it with peas/mutter pulao which seemed to be a match made in heaven!!