Murg Musallam (Stuffed whole chicken in rich gravy)

For long, I have been fancying to prepare a whole chicken recipe and finally decided to zero on Murg Musallam, a delicate Mughlai dish. For those who are not slightly aware of the recipe, it is a whole chicken dum cooked in rich and thick gravy, with its belly stuffed with mutton or chicken mince and eggs. Does not it sound audaciously mughlai ? Soaked in the glory of awadhi gharana, musallam still spreads the rich, exquisite fragrance of sub-continental cuisine which still enthralls food lovers. Before embarking up on the recipe, let me remind that it is a long and laborious process handling with a long list of ingredients. However when the journey ends, you reach a fascinating destination full of aroma and deliciousness which worth every bit of effort. Absolute blinder with pulao and parantha, a must try for non-vegetarians.

Also find two more recipes of Mughlai dishes with chicken in my blog : Chicken Lababdar & Kolkata style Chicken Biryani .

Preparation Time : 45 minutes

Marination Time : 3 hours (preferably overnight)

Cooking Time : 1 hr. 30 mins.

Difficulty Level : Difficult

Ingredients to serve 4 :

Whole Chicken weighing around 900 gm.
Mutton mince – 100 gm.
Boiled egg – 1
Block of a cheese – 50 gm. (optional)
Onion – 2 (medium size) + 1 (large)
Ginger – 2 inch piece
Garlic – 12 – 14 medium sized cloves
Green chilli – 7
Cashew nut – 15 nos. (soaked into water)
Almond – 15 nos. (soaked into water)
Poppy seed – 1 tbspoon
Whole garam masala (1″ cinnamon stick, 2 green cardamom, 3 cloves)
Yogurt – 6 tbspoon
White Vinegar – 2 tbspoon
Kewara water – 1½ teaspoon
Pinch of saffron (soaked into 2 tbspoon of warm milk)
Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
Red chilli powder – 2½ teaspoon
Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder – 2 teaspoon
Garam masala powder – 1½ teaspoon
Salt and sugar to taste
Mustard oil – 8 – 10 tbspoon
Thread and few toothpicks or wooden skewers to tie the chicken

Procedure :

Step 1 : Marination of the Whole Chicken

At first, wash the whole chicken well. Make sure its stomach is clean and empty. Now with a sharp knife make some tilted slits on the breast and leg portions of the chicken.

Then make a smooth paste with ginger, garlic and 3 nos. of green chilli.

Now in a large bowl take some salt. Pour the vinegar into the salt and mix well. Aapply this salt mixture inside and outside of the whole chicken. Leave the chicken for 30 minutes.

After that, prepare a marinade with 3 tbspoon of yogurt, 1/3rd portion of the ginger-garlic paste, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon red chilli powder, ½ cumin powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, ½ teaspoon garam masala powder and 1 teaspoon of kewara water.

Next coat the chicken with the prepared marinade very well and leave for at least 2 hours (or put into the refrigerator for over night marination).

Step 2 : Preparing the Stuffing

First, finely chop 1 large onion and 2 green chilli.

Then, roughly chop 5 cashew nuts and 5 almonds.

Now heat 2 tbspoon of oil in a kadai over medium flame.

Coat the previously boiled egg with little salt and pinch of turmeric powder. Lightly saute the egg into the hot oil and the remove from the oil, keep aside.

Now add half of the remaining ginger garlic paste into the oil. Saute till raw flavour of garlic goes away.

Then add chopped onion and fry till it becomes light brown.

After that add ¼ teaspoon of turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon red chilli powder and salt. Beat 1 teaspoon of yogurt and add to the spice mixture. Cook till raw flavour of spices and yogurt goes off.

Now add the mutton mince and mix well with the spice mixture. Cover the kadai with a lead and let the mutton cook over low flame till it becomes tender. There is no need to add additional water as mutton will release water by itself.

After 15-20 minutes, as the mutton gets cooked, put the flame on medium-high. As oil separates from the mince add chopped nuts, chopped green chilli and ½ teaspoon of garam masala powder. Mix them well and cook for a minute.

Then switch off the flame and transfer the mutton mince to a dish. Let it come to room temperature before stuffing the chicken.

Step 3 : Stuffing, Sealing & Frying the Whole Chicken

If you marinate the chicken over night then take it out from the refrigerator 2 hours prior cooking so that it can attain the room temperature.

Cut the cheese block into small pieces and mix with mutton mince.

Now put half of the mutton mince inside the stomach of the whole chicken. Also place the egg in the middle and then again put the remaining mince. Press the fillings a bit with your hand to tightly stuff the chicken and make sure there is no empty space left inside.

After that, first tie the legs of the chicken with a piece of thread. Then seal the open portion of the chicken with few toothpicks or wooden skewer (break the skewers into small pieces). Also tuck the wings of the chicken with its legs.

Heat 3 tbspoon of oil in a large kadai where you can fry the whole chicken (The kadai must be deep enough and should have a lid so that later you can dum cook the chicken in it).

Then fry the stuffed chicken into the hot oil over low-medium flame till light brown. Cook the chicken evenly from all sides by flipping it.

After that remove the chicken from the kadai and keep aside.

Step 4 : Preparing the Gravy & Cooking the chicken in it

Firstly, cut 2 medium sized onion into large chunks and boil with water till they get soft.

Secondly, cool the boiled onion and then make a smooth paste with poppy seeds, remaining almond and cashew nuts.

Now add remaining mustard oil into the kadai in which chicken was fried. Heat the oil over medium flame.

Then add whole garam masala into the hot oil, saute for a while.

Next add remaining ginger-garlic paste and cook for a minute.

Add onion-poppy seeds-nuts paste and stir well. Cook over low-medium flame for 2-3 minutes.

Add ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon red chilli powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder and ½ teaspoon cumin powder. Cook the spices for 1-2 minutes.

Beat remaining 2 tbspoon of yogurt and add to the spice mixture. Cook till raw flavour of yogurt disappears.

Now add 2 large cup of water, salt and sugar to taste. Wait till the water starts boiling.

Put the flame on low and add ½ teaspoon of kewara water, saffron milk and ½ teaspoon of garam masala powder. Mix all the ingredients well.

Now put the fried chicken into the middle of the kadai and coat it with the gravy. Add 2 slit green chilli into the kadai.

Cover the kadai with a lid and dum cook the chicken on low flame for 25-30 minutes. In between keep flipping the chicken so that it gets cooked evenly from all sides.