CHICKEN BHARTA

HOME MADE AZAD HIND STYLE SINFUL CHICKEN BHARTA !!

Hello foodies and non-foodies, I am a Bengali and a great foodie by heart. I can eat just anything and so I love to explore the world of different cuisines in my kitchen. I love to cook and I believe cooking food is the ultimate stress buster. You dont need medicine to snap out from depression or persisting stress. . You just need to turn on the gas knob. Even chopping anything with knife gives me peace, which I have no words to describe. I am a foodie but i dont like to cook and eat the typical daal chawal fish chicken platter. I like new cuisines to satisfy my taste buds. That doesnt mean  I can have snakes or fried cockroaches. But I love to experiment with various spices and raw items. One of them is this chicken bharta that i have been eating fr more than a decade now. As a kid I used to have it from Zeeshaan, a very famous Mughlai restaurant in Kolkata. My mom, who herself is a good cook, made it for us at home as well, very much authentic and similar to the outlet one. Then after marriage, I had it from the Azad Hind Dhaba with my husband and i absolutely fell in love with it. But it was not possible and feasible to eat out every alternative week as it might go wayward health wise. So one day I thought of trying to make it myself at home in my kitchen that too completely from scratch. I didnt search for recipeson google or online.. I experimented completely depending on my memory and my taste bud. And Voila!! I cracked it. And it tasted like the original one. From childhood I have been a very pampered single child and that continued in my inlaw house too. Whatever Icook, my mominlaw ,my fatherinlaw or my broinlaw—they never criticised and gulped them down without a blink irrelavant of the fact of being good or bad. But my biggest critics are my husband and my son. They bluntly unashamedly insensitively and unbiasedly will review my hardwork. So my main agenda was to get an A+ from both of them! And when that day I reached my goal I was on cloud 9!!! “Mammam its awesome”said the 7year old kiddo and the hubby said “seriously it tastes like the restaurant one”!!!! What else could have Ii asked for other than this. And my this recipe became a hit and a hot favorite within my family ,friends and social group. My son demanded and pleaded me to cook it everyday and finished his plate asking for more. Happy me!!! So today i thought to share my secret of pure happiness with everyone. One thing i want to mention. I am very bad in measurements so one tip i would like to give is that the amount should always be according to our taste and experience. Here is the recipe… Hope u all like it and enjoy it thoroughly like i did!!!!

Ingredients as follows:-

Chicken -10- 12 whole medium pieces
Onion -4pieces
Ginger paste – 2tbspns
Garlic paste- 2tbspns
Curd- 100gm
Coriander powder-1 1/2tspn
Cumin powder- 1 1/2tspn
Cashew nuts – 25gms
Char magaz-20gms
Posto/Poppy seeds-25gms
Whole Black pepper-10gms
Shahi Garam Masala powder- 1 1/2tspn
White Oil-2/3rd cup
Ghee-2tbspns
Whole green cardomom-3pieces
Whole cinnamon stick-1inch
Whole bay leaves- 1
Whole clove- 4pieces
Rose water-2 tspn
Kewra water-1 tspn
Fresh cream -as per taste and consistency
Salt as pertaste
Sugar as per taste
Boiled eggs-2 pieces
Grated cheese for garnishing
Dried Kasuri Methi as per required.

Method:

✔At first make a fine paste of one onion and marinate the chicken pieces with this paste of onion nd one tbspn each of ginger and garlic paste respectively. Now add some salt and keep it for half an hour.

✔In the mean time,boil the rest of three onions(medium sized). Cool them down and make a paste of them in mixer. Now in the mixer add the remaining ginger and garlic paste. Churn them up a last time. Now take the kaju badam,chaar magaz,black pepper corns in a mixer and grind them to a fine paste adding occassional water.

✔Add the curd in this mixture too. Run it the one last time. Keep it aside. More or less now everything is ready to be included in the main cooking.

✔Now pressure cook those marinated chicken pieces ,in adequate amount of water,till done. Open the cooker lid and strain the chicken out. Keep the chicken stalk aside. It will be needed later on. Now let them cool down. Now finely shred these chicken pieces. Boil two eggs too while shredding chickens.

✔Now in a deep bottom pan,put the white oil and 1 1/2tbspn ghee. Heat it for two seconds and then add bay leaves, cardamom, cloves,cinnamon stick and a pinch of sugar in the pan. Let it splutter.

✔Now add in the onion ginger garlic paste in it. And stir fry it until it leaves oil around.

✔Now add coriander and cumin powder in it and mix it well. Stir fry for another half minute. Add the white cashewnut and other mix paste in the pan and mix it well with the onions.

✔Now cook it for another couple of minutes and then add the shredded chicken pieces. Mix well. Add the chicken stalk in it. Add the rose water and kewra water in it. Mix all well.

✔Now taste it and then only add salt if required as do not forget the stalk do have salt in it. Add half teaspoon sugar in it.

✔Basically i figured one thing. Chicken bharta has a thick creamy gravy and for that you need to add adequate amount of water or stalk. After adding the stalk if u feel the need of more liquid in it then heat some water a bit more and add it in the pan. Now bring it to a boil and let it simmer for five minutes so that all the spices mixed up well.

✔Now mash or crumble one and half boiled eggs and mix it in the pan and stir. Now when you think its almost ready,add the kasuri methi leaves in it and mix well. Now before turning off the gas sprinkle some garam masala powder and the leftover ghee on it.

✔Add the cream on it too along with some grated cheese. Now cover it with a lid so that the fragnant doesnt go out. Leave it for five minutes.

✔Now serve it hot in a bowl. You can garnish it with the remaining half boiled egg, a bit more of cream and grated cheese.

I didnt add any chillies in this recipe due to my son. And usually chicken bharta is not a very hot and spicy thing. I did add the black pepper corn for that added zing. But if you want to make it hot and spicy. You can grind some dried red chillies in that white paste. Or you can add slitted green chillies while cooking.
You can serve it with lachcha parantha, kulcha, baby or butter or normal naan,tandoori roti or romali roti. You can also have it with pulav or jeera rice.

I hope you all try it out. Do follow the recipe and adjust the quantity as per requirements. My recipes click only after frequent trials. So do try out and am sure you will land up with the most yummy and tasty Chicken Bharta. And then you wont need any restaurant to have it because honestly i dont need it anymore as i just cook it up at home.

For any further queries,post them in the comment section and i will be happy helping you out. Thanks and Happy cooking fellows.

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Love and Hugs

Pamela.