Chicken Rezala My Style

                            Chicken Rezala

 

Rezala is an Awadhi yogurt based dish, an speciality of Kolkata. How rezala became a part of culinary history... “The story goes that when the Nawabs of Awadh and descendants of Tipu Sultan were exiled in Bengal, they carried their cooks along. They were responsible for the Islamic touch to Bengali cuisine, namely the use of spices, ghee and mutton. Awadh cuisine also liberally used essences like kewra. 

 The rezala is fabulous, coated with a layer of ghee that can be unsettling for some, so it is a good idea to give the gravy a toss before serving. It has stew-like consistency and is fragrant with whole spices. The mutton or Chicken is tender. “The rezala owes its taste to the 20 ingredients that go into it," says Chatterjee.

These include whole spices, kewra water, condensed and regular milk, mawa, sweet attar and coconut. 

But here, I have skipped the sweet ingredients and too much ghee, trimmed the recipe and made it for my husband for routine dinner...too much rich food is not appealing to him any more! He only eats 3 small pieces, so I just made 6 small boneless chicken breast pieces which he would finish in two days!

 Ingredients:

1. Boneless chicken pieces-6
2. Curd-1/4 cup
3. Onion-2 thinly sliced
4. 4- Onion thick cut-3-4 petals open
5. Green chilies-8-9
6. Red dry chillies-2
7. Ginger-garlic paste-3 tsp.
8. Cashew-Poppyseeds paste-2 tbsp.
9. Saffron-3 strands
10. Whole spices--Clove-1, black cardamom-1,mace-1 strand, bay leaf-2, cumin 1/2 tsp.
11. Garam masala powder-1/2 tsp (Black pepper-6-7, black cardamom 1/2,green cardamom 1, cinnamon 1/2" stick....grind these fresh if possible)
12. Cilantro-2 tsp.
13. Salt
14. Ghee and refined
15. Coriander powder-1 tsp.

 

Procedure:

• In 1 tsp. ghee, saute onion petals and 3-4 green chillies for 2 minutes, add red chilies and stir, keep this aside for garnishing.
• Marinate Chicken in 1 tsp. curd and 1 tbsp. ginger-garlic paste and salt.
• Cut rest of green chilies in halves, also finely chop cilantro.
• Soak saffron in hot water or milk.
• Soak cashew poppy seeds in thick curd.
• Now heat ghee and refined in a pot and add bay leaf, cumin and other whole spices.
• saute for a moment and add thinly sliced onion, cut green chillies and chopped cilantro.
• When onions are light brown, add chicken pieces and seer on high flame till those are brownish.
• Add curd, salt, coriander powder, garam masala powder. ( If you are using store bought garam masala powder, also add 1 tsp. black pepper powder at this time.) 
• Add cashew poppyseed paste which we soaked in curd and cook this covered till ghee starts floating on surface.
• Now add saffron.
• Also add 1/2 cup water and when it boils, turn off the flame.
• Garnish with fries onion-chillies and serve with rumali roti or chapatis or puris.

Note: In the original recipe, barista or fried onion is used and blended with curd, but here i made it simple and quick for weekday dinner and it turned out good too!