This dish can be made either with a whole chicken trussed up for roasting or with a jointed one. Either way will produce good results. People familiar with flavours of Raj cooking will go all nostalgic over this one!
The intermingling of flavours in this pot-roast conjure up images of the British memsahib introducing her bawarchi (native cook) to the nuances of 'refined' tastes and the tug of war that must have taken place with the bawarchi, trying to retain some of the local flavour. A great many of these concoctions have resulted in some truly amazing dishes.
Chicken 1.1 kg, jointed, cleaned and wiped dry
Flour 1 Tbls
Salt to taste
Oil 2 Tbls
Sugar 2 tsps
Onion, chopped ½ cup
Garlic paste 1 ½ Tbls
Ground pepper 2 tsps
Hot water for sprinkling during the cooking process
Method
Prepare the chicken. Sprinkle the flour and salt on to the chicken, rubbing in well. Ensure that the chicken is dry before you add the flour or else it will interfere with even browning.
Heat the oil in a large sauté pan. Add the sugar and allow it to caramelize to a rich dark brown. In the absence of modern day browning agents, which are bad for ones' health anyway, this age old method of colouring food is excellent. I use this method all the time!
Adding the onions next and allowing the natural sugars present to caramelize further enhances the colour of the final product.
The chicken can now be added along with the next three ingredients. Stir until well blended. Sprinkle hot water if you find the spice mixture sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Cover the pan and cook on low heat until the oil separates from the spice mixture which should now be clinging to the succulent pieces of chicken. This process should take about 40 minutes. Remove chicken pieces onto serving platter.
To prepare the gravy
Wine (opt) 2 -3 Tbls
Chicken stock 1 cup
Flour 1 Tbls
Salt and pepper
After removing the chicken onto a platter you need to deglaze your sauté pan in order to make gravy for your roast. I do say in my recipe that the addition of wine for deglazing is optional. However, if you do have access to alcohol it will certainly be worth the effort.
Most western cookbooks suggest the addition of wine or any alcohol for deglazing a sauté pan. Now there is a very valid reason for this.
Alcohol is a powerful flavour extractor. It has the ability to coax out and carry flavours which remain in the food even after the alcohol has boiled off.
If wine is not available, beer or vodka can be used.
After the alcohol has evaporated, pour the chicken stock into the pan and heat gently. Remove pan from heat and strain the stock to filter out any bits of food. Make a paste of the flour and a small amount of cooled stock and blend it into the stock in the pan. Cook over gentle heat, stirring all the time until the mixture thickens and takes on a sauce like consistency. Check seasoning and serve along with the pot-roast.
Buttered vegetables and bread will complement the dish.
Buttered vegetables
Blanch any vegetable of your choice. Drain thoroughly. Toss in a Tbls of butter. Season to taste.
2 comments:
yum . have tried it and family loved it.
Thanks Moumi! Good to know.
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