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Swetha's Fusion
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Murgir Jhol | Bengali Chicken Curry (with slight south Indian fusion - added coconut milk) -REVISITED

Friday, December 29, 2023

Bengali style Chicken curry [Murgir Jhol] is actually on the watery side with bright red color. Which goes well with rice. However, in our house it has morphed a bit with influence of south-Indian twist (specifically Mangalore style). We also add coconut milk to the curry - resulting thicker and lighter color gravy. Which goes well with Roti/chapati. This curry is our daughter's one of her favorites and hence she has named it “Pappa's Chicken” curry. Though my husband is a Bengali, he seem to have adopted south-Indian flavor to his cooking. He takes lots of pride in preparing it for our daughter, which she happily enjoys every bit of it. This is my husband’s recipe and I plan to share it as is without making any changes....

Cooking Pappa’s chicken involves several steps. The most important being the way the curry paste is prepared so let start... and how husband makes the curry in two parts in two different pan and finally bring them together for a yummy curry

Notice the word "REVISITED" in the title. I had posted the recipe a year ago. But realized I need to make some changes to the format - by breaking it down to make it more easy to understand the steps.

You may also check out my Mangalore Style Chicken Curry 

Ingredients:
  • 2 lbs. -  Chicken - cut to 2 inch pieces
  • 2 lbs. - Potatoes - cut big pieces
  • 2 cup - Onion - cut thin slices
  • 4 to 5 - Garlic cloves
  • 2 - Green Chilies
  • ½ tsp - Fennel seeds
  • 6-10  - Curry leaves - 1 sprig
  • 2 Tbsp. - Curds or Greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp - Turmeric powder
  • 2 tsp - Red Chili powder 
  • 2 cans - Coconut milk
  • handful - fresh coriander/cilantro leaves for garnish
  • 1 - Lime - use fresh juice
  • Salt - as per taste
  • Ghee
  • Oil
Ingredients for Masala Paste:
  • 1 cup - Onion cut
  • 6 to 7 - Garlic cloves
  • 2" to 3" - Ginger
  • 1 Tbsp. - Fennel seeds
  • 5 inch - Cinnamon stick. 
  • 1 tsp - Cardamom seeds
  • 5 to 6 - Cloves
  • 5 - Green chilies 
  • 1 - Tomato
Preparation:
  • Remove ginger skin, cut it to pieces
  • Remove and discard the garlic skin.
  • Cut onions, set aside
  • Cut tomato, set aside
  • Wash and peel potato skin. cut into big pieces. Put the pieces into bowl of cold water and set aside.
  • Clean chicken once in cold water. Cut them into about 2 inch big pieces or desired sizes and clean them thoroughly with water. Add two tablespoon of salt to the chicken and mix them for further cleaning… [TIP: When you add Salt to clean chicken the meat tends to come alive. Make sure that you rinse the chicken thoroughly to get rid of the excess salt.] Drain out the water completely and transfer to a mixing bowl. 
Method:
  1. To prepare masala paste, transfer cut onion (1 cup), ginger, garlic, clove, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, fennel seeds, tomatoes, and green chilies to a blender and make it into a fine thick paste. 
  2. To marinate: To the cut chicken pieces, add the above masala paste, mix them all thoroughly. Mix-in about two tablespoons of curds to the chicken to help with the marinating process. This marinating process can take about 1-2 hours (Overnight inside the fridge is best) when short on time marinate at least for an hour.
  3. To make the chicken curry.... there are two parts.
  4. PART 1: To prepare the potatoes - Heat a large thick bottom pan.  Add two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of Indian Ghee.
  5. Once the oil is hot add about 6-10 curry leaves, once the leaves starts to crackle, add 1 cup of thinly sliced onion, minced garlic, Green chilies, turmeric powder, and red chili powder. Stir and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. 
  6. Drain the cut potatoes and add it the pan. Add salt. Mix, cover and simmer on medium heat. Stir in-between to make sure the content does not stick to the pan and burn. 
  7. Once the potatoes looks cooked and roasted, switch off the flame and transfer the contents to another container so that you can use the same pan and start the process for cooking the chicken.
  8. [ NOTE: or you may prepare the chicken parallelly in another pan to save time ] 
  9. PART 2: To prepare the Chicken - Put the same pan on the stove on medium flame, add oil + ghee if needed. 
  10. Now add rest of the onion (1 cup) to the hot oil and sauté until translucent.
  11. Next, carefully add the entire content of the marinated chicken to the pan. Stir, cover the pan and let the chicken cook in the masala paste for about 10-15 mins or until most of the liquid is reduced. Chicken also must be tender and cooked by now. 
  12. Now add the cooked potato mixture to the cooked chicken. 
  13. Cut one lime and squeeze it onto the mixture. Stir all together and cover and simmer for about 2 minutes.
  14. Now add 2 cans of coconut milk to the curry. Add bit of water to the cans and clean out rest the contents and pour the water to the curry. 
  15. Stir everything together and do a taste test. Add salt and lime juice ...aand red chili powder as needed. 
  16. Cover and let the chicken and potatoes simmer in the coconut milk. Let the curry come to rolling boil. Stir in-between to prevent the curry to stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. 
  17. Once the curry is cooked and well blended you will notice oil floats on top of the curry. Switch off the stove.
  18. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves and serve hot.
  19. Enjoy Pappa's chicken with your family and friends. 


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~ Murgir Jhol | Bengali Chicken Curry (with slight south Indian fusion - added coconut milk) -REVISITED ~
Posted by Swetha @ 12/29/2023 05:07:00 PM ::
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