What a great success it was yesterday...

Yesterday i took a venture of cooking a chicken recipe which i downloaded from the net. It's name was Chicken Pratima. And i was a bit apprehensive about how good will it turn out to be. But dear friends, it was a pretty good success. Being honest i'm generally satisfied with what i cook, but yesterday i was quite overwhelmed. So here goes the simple recipe and i bet any one can try it out for themselves and i guarantee, you are gonna love it!!!!

      Ingredients:

Chicken - 1 kg cut into medium pieces

Onion - 200 g, finely sliced

Ginger - 1 and 1/2  tbsp, grated/paste

Garlic - 1 and 1/2  tbsp, grated/paste

Cilantro/Dhonepata - 1 and 1/2 cups

Green Chillies - 12 mildly hot (vary according to   the quality available)

Doi/Curd - 200 g

Tej Pata/ Bay Leaf - 2 small

Salt - To taste

White Oil - 2 tbsp

Mustard Oil - 4 tbsp

Ghee -1 tbsp                                                                                                                             

Coarsely grind the following together:

Whole Jeera/Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Whole Black peppers - 1 tsp

Cinnamon - 1 inch

Green cardamom - 4

Cloves - 4

Preparation:

Grind doi/curd, cilantro/dhonepata, and green chillies together with 1/4 cup water. In a bowl mix the chicken pieces with the paste made above, ginger, and garlic. Keep aside for 3-4 hours.

 Cooking procedure:

Heat 2 tbsp white oil and 2 tbsp mustard oil in a kadhai. Add the marinated chicken pieces along with the marinating masala and cook on low heat for 25-30 minutes or till the chicken is cooked. There should be enough water to cover the chicken so you may add warm water if required, especially if you have used a sheel nora to make dhonepata and chilly paste. No frying is done at this stage.

Keep aside the cooked chicken. The chicken should not be completely dry at this stage so keep some gravy when removing from heat.

In a kadhai heat 2 tbsp mustard oil and 1 tbsp ghee.

Add bay leaf and the coarsely ground masala.

Add sliced onions and fry on low heat to soften the onions (about 5 minutes).

Add the boiled chicken and cook on low fire for another 7 minutes until oil comes to the surface. Adjust water as per your desire. This is a semi-dry preparation.

When oil comes to the surface, remove from heat and garnish with slit green chillies and chopped cilantro/dhonepata.