By Tript Arora

Playing a host for non vegetarian guests is incomplete without serving a delectable dish of chicken. Today we are making a main course dish- Cream chicken. This is a very sought after recipe. People eat it with bread, buns, paav, chapati, naan…the list is endless. But I like it with bread the most. The cooking process of this dish is so simple that you can easily make this dish whenever you are entertaining guests or for yourself on some special occasions. As it is rich in calories so I suggest you reserve it for special occasions, we all know that burning calories is a Herculean task. Cream Chicken as the name suggests is made with lots of cream and butter. But in my recipe I have substituted it with milk. The taste will differ because of the richness of cream. But milk makes this dish light to digest by cutting those extra calories. It is purely your choice as to whether to use cream or milk. I have given the measure of both. So pamper yourself with this amazing cream chicken.

We Need

600 gm Chicken, 1 Tbsp Ginger garlic paste, 3 Tbs Thick Curd( Dahi), 2 Medium sized Onions, 2  Green chillies( chopped finely) or crush them with ginger & garlic, 10 Cashews, 2 Tbsp Cream Or Malayi and 1 Cup Milk, Or Alternately use  200gm cream only. 1 Tbsp Kasuri Methi, 1 Tbsp freshly crushed Black Pepper, 3 Green Cardamoms, 4 Cloves, 1″ Piece of Dalchini, 2Tbsp Butter, 2 Tbsp Cooking Oil, Salt to taste.

Preparation

–              Clean Chicken and give diagonal cuts with the knife.

–              Chop the onions roughly and pressure cook them along with Cashews and ½ cup water upto 2 whistles. When cooled, Grind them to a fine paste

–              Put the curd in a strainer for 5 minutes to drain extra water. Mix salt and pepper in curd and whisk it .

–              Crush whole spices in mortar and pestle.

Here We go

Put a Heavy bottomed pan or kadhai on flame. When a little warm, add butter and oil. The flame should be on medium so that butter should not get burned.

Add the whole spices to it and saute for 1 min.

When the spices start spluttering, add Ginger garlic and green chilli paste. Saute till fragrant. It will take a minute or so. Now Add Chicken to the pan and saute on high flame for 2 minutes till the pieces turn white in colour. This process is done to seal the juices.  Now add curd mixture and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. The chicken will be well coated with curd mixture. Cover the pan and cook on slow fire for 10 min. Or till the chicken is almost done. Keep on turning it in between.

Time to add the boiled onion and cashew paste. Since both onion and cashew are cooked, saute it on medium flame till the chicken is fully coated with this mixture roughly for 2 to 3 minutes on low flame. Cover the pan and cook till the flesh of the chicken leaves its bone. Yes, that is the test to check that chicken is well cooked. Add Cream or malai and mix thoroughly. If using only cream then switch off the flame immediately after adding it. But if you are using malai and milk, then add malai first and then add milk and let it simmer for 3 to 4 min on slow flame. When done add Kasuri Methi and switch off the flame. Your Cream chicken is ready to serve.

Tips

Avoid browning any ingredient in this recipe. It will spoil the colour of the dish.

When saute-ing Ginger garlic paste, add a little water if it sticks to the bottom of the pan.