Ideally the chicken curries are prepared with lot of spices and known for its thick gravy. However, deviating from the usual preparations of chicken, here I am sharing with you a simple recipe with lemon juice known as ‘Lebu Murgir Jhol’. The speciality of this dish is the use of lime leaves and juice in the gravy which adds a nice flavour to it. The whole preparation doesn’t require any spice and cooked in little amount of oil. Thus it is perfectly suitable for children and  for those who prefer a light chicken dish.

Generally I am fond of limes and love to have a piece of it on my plate during lunch. Adding few drops of lime in steamed hot rice along with dal/lentils, fish curry (macher jhol) or few veg curries enhances the taste twice for me. But it is quite new even for me to use lime juice and its leaves in the gravy of a chicken dish.

Ideally one should use Gandharaj lime and its leaves for this recipe. As I didn’t find that particular lime, I used Kaffir lime and its leaves. The out come was really light, flavourful and enjoyable. 🙂

Ingredients to serve 2-3 :

1. Chicken with bone (cut into medium size pieces) – 500 gm.
2. Chopped onion – 1
3. Ginger paste – 1 tbspoon
4. Garlic paste – 1 tbspoon
5. Chopped green chilli – 2-3
6. Soya sauce – 1 tbspoon
7. Gandharaj lime/Kaffir lime juice – 1½ tbspoon
8. Gandharaj lime/Kaffir lime leaves – 7-8
9. Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
10. Salt to taste
11. Corn flour – 1 teaspoon
12. Cooking oil – 1-2 tbspoon

Procedure :

Clean the chicken pieces and boil with ½ tbspoon ginger paste, ½ tbspoon garlic paste, soya sauce and 1½ large cup of water.

As the chicken becomes tender remove the pieces from the stock and keep aside. Also preserve the stock for future use.

Cut 3-4 lime leaves into julienne strips.

Heat oil in a pan over medium flame. Add onion and fry till they get translucent.

Then add remaining ginger-garlic paste, green chillies and turmeric powder.

As the onion turns light brown add chicken stock into it along with salt and strips of lime leaves.

Boil the mixture for 3-4 minutes and then strain the juice through a strainer.

Now put together the boiled chicken and strained juice into the pan. Cover the pan and let it cook over low-medium heat for few minutes.

Then remove only the chicken pieces from the gravy and transfer to a serving bowl.

Stir the corn flour in 2 tbspoon of water and add to the gravy. Also add lime juice and remaining leaves into it. Let the gravy boil for another couple of minutes and then put the gas off.

Then pour the gravy over the chicken. You can also garnish the dish with thin slices of lime.

Serve with steamed rice.