“Shahi Chicken Korma” is another delicious recipe from my earlier collections. Though I jot down the recipe long time back, I made it for the first time and as the name reveals the outcome was really “Shahi” or royal in taste. What sets this recipe apart from the other chicken curries is the usage of cashew nut and poppy seed paste. In fact these two ingredients add a richness to its gravy without making it too spicy. Since it is a korma preparation, one expects it to be drier than the normal chicken curry, with a thick gravy. In fact it dons a rather whitish look with a taste quite of its own. Goes very well with chapatis or paratha and even with Pulao.

Ingredients to serve 4 :

1. Chicken with bone – 600 gm.
2. Onion – 2
3. Ginger – 1.5 inch piece
4. Garlic – 4 to 5 cloves
5. Plain yogurt – 4 tbspoon
6. Poppy seed paste – 1 tbspoon
7. Cashew nut paste (using 10 – 12 cashew nuts)
8. Mace powder – ¼ teaspoon
9. Nutmage  powder- ½ teaspoon
10. Sajeera (white cumin) powder – ½ teaspoon
11. White pepper powder – ½ teaspoon
12. Green cardamom – 5 pods
13. Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon
14. Black peppercorns – 7 to 8
15. Dry red chilli – 2
16. Saffron – 2 to 3 strands
17. Milk – 1 tbspoon
18. Sugar – 1 teaspoon
19. Salt to taste
20. Ghee or clarified butter – 1 tbspoon
21. Cooking oil – 2 tbspoon

Procedure :

Wash and cut the chicken into big pieces.

Make a smooth paste with oinon, ginger and garlic.

Marinate the chicken with this onion-ginger-garlic paste, yogurt and red chilli powder for 2 hours.

In a small ovenproof bowl take mace, nutmeg, sajeera & white pepper powder and dry roast them in microwave for 1 minute.

Take out the seeds from the green cardamom pods and make a powder of them.

Soak the saffron strands into milk.

Now heat oil & ghee in a pan over medium flame. Add black peppercorns, dry red chillies, marinated chicken, salt and sugar to it. Give it a good stir, cover with a lid and let it cook over low flame.

As the chicken gets cooked and most of the water released from it, eventually dries out, add poppy seed paste, cashew nut paste, dry roasted spices, cardamom powder and the milk with saffron.

Cook for another few minutes and put the gas off as the gravy thicken as per your desire.

Again put the lid of the pan and let it stand for few minutes.

Note :

1. You can add “charmagaz” paste along with poppy seed and cashew nut paste. I didn’t have that, so I had to skip it.
2. It is better if you take whole nutmeg, mace, sajeera and white pepper, dry roast them in a pan and then make a powder out of them.
3. The preparation will be richer and tastier if you use only ghee instead of adding oil to it.