Bengali’s are known for their love for fish, but that doesn’t mean that they have any less love for chicken. There are thousands of variations of chicken curry found in different parts of Bengal. Every household has a different formula for their perfect chicken curry. Today I am going to tell you about a not so common chicken recipe, the “Dhone-Pata-Chicken” (Chicken curry in coriander leaves gravy). This extremely tasty chicken curry has a distinctive green color. Although it may seem that this green colors comes from the coriander leaves, but it actually comes from the secret ingredient spinach. Lets get started.
Ingredients:
1. Chicken (500 grams, cut into small or medium pieces)
2. Coriander leaves (100 grams, roughly chopped)
3. Garlic (1 tsp paste and 4 whole cloves)
4. Onion (1 medium size, sliced)
5. Green chilies (2 whole green chili and 2 sliced)
6. Red dry chili (1)
7. Spinach (Boiled for 1 minute, 400 grams)
8. Turmeric powder (1 teaspoon)
9. Coriander powder (1.5 tablespoon)
10. Red chili Powder (1 teaspoon)
11. Oil (3 tablespoon)
12. Salt to taste
13. Panch phoron (1 tsp)
14. Ginger paste (1 tsp)
Method:
1. Before we start cooking, we need to marinade the chicken, for marination add 1 tsp oil, ginger and garlic paste, salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder and red chili powder. Mix them well and keep aside for 30 minutes at least.
2. In a blender, add the coriander leaves, boiled spinach, 2 green chilies and 4 garlic cloves; make a smooth paste.
3. Take a heated pan add 2 tbsp of oil, let the oil heat up.
4. Add the dry red chili and panch phoron mix. Let them splutter.
5. Add the onions, fry them till they become translucent
6. Add salt to taste
7. Add the marinated chicken and give it a good mix. Cook it for 7 minutes in high flame
8. Add water; mix the water and put the lid on; cook it until the chicken becomes soft
9. Add the sliced green chilies
10. As soon as the chicken pieces become soft, add the coriander and spinach paste. If it becomes too thick, add water as per your preference
11. Cook it for another 6-7 minutes
12. Before switching off the flame check the salt
Note:
1. Do not put the lid when you are boiling the spinach
2. For this recipe you can use any type of cooking oil
3. Coriander leaves and spinach are the most important ingredients. Make sure they are fresh.
4. You can cook this recipe less then 3 tbsp of oil, if required
5. You can add little bit of vinegar during marination in case you want to remove the raw smell of chicken
*Panch-Phoron is an authentic Bengali spice mix used in most of the Bengali vegetarian dishes. It includes Cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel Seeds, mustard seeds. All of these are mixed together together to make panch-phoron mix.
You can pair this healthy chicken recipe with steamed rice, chapati, naan-bread or paratha.
Enjoy
Mo.
theorangebowls 