Chicken Chaap: Recipe From Bengal

Friday, February 24, 2012, 16:46

You must have heard vaguely about Chicken Chaap as the perfect accompaniment with biriyani. But even on it's own it a classic Indian food recipe. Unfortunately this easy chicken recipe gets overshadowed all the time by its more popular cousin, Biriyani. It is prudent to mention that this spicy chicken dish is not had everywhere with biriyani. It a very region specific Indian food recipe, mainly a Bengali recipe that is popular in the East.

The solid meat of leg pieces or breast pieces is used to make Chicken chaap. If you are trying this Indian food recipe then you must make sure that you get the portions right or else this dish will loose its charm. It is quite an easy chicken recipe with an hour of marination time and 30 minutes of cooking time.

Ingredients For Chicken Chaap:

1. Chicken 500 (leg and breast pieces)
2. Onions 4 (pasted)
3. Garlic 6-8 cloves (minced)
4. Green chillies 4 (paste)
5. Curd 1 cup
6. Red chilli powder 1 tablespoon
7. Garam masala (pepper, star anise, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon) 1 teaspoon
8. Nutmeg powder (bari elaichi) 1 teaspoon
9. Coconut (ground) 1tablespoon
10. Mustard oil 2 tablespoon
11. Salt as per taste

Procedure For Chicken Chaap:

Make some incisions on the chicken pieces so that they absorb the spices and then marinate with all the ingredients mention in the list.
The onions, garlic and chillies can be ground together. Beat the curd nicely before you make the marinade with it. The water content of the curd should be discarded as far as possible.
Marinate for at least 1 hour by refrigerating.
Heat oil in a deep. As this is a Bengali recipe it is better if you use mustard oil. If you do not like the strong smell, stick to white oil.
When the oil is bubbling put the chicken pieces in it first. Saute it for a couple of minutes so that it develops a crisp coating and then pour the rest of the marinade.
Stir occasionally and cook on medium flame for 5-7 minutes until the oil starts floating on the top of the gravy and the dish smells good.
Add 2 cups of water, cover and cook for another 25 minutes for the chicken to get boiled. If there is excess water after the chicken is cooked, increase the flame and dry it off.

Serve Chicken Chaap with hot roties or a side dish for biriyani.