Chicken Bharta Kolkata Style

 Hi All, how have you been, again after a break I am back with one more popular Kolkata recipe. You must be wondering why such random spells of no posts. Blame it on my zodiac but this is how a Gemini works. There are long spells when I feel very passionate about certain things like social media activity, frequent editing posting interacting and then come a spell when I happily give up all these and just enjoy some not rushed time for myself. Just to clarify I am still very much in love with eating and cooking and I quite often experiment with new dishes too, its just that not always I plan to take a picture of it and create a post out of it. Today's post would also not have materialized had it not been for a special person asking me to do so. Having said that when you have to setup the entire backdrop, food prop, food thing after such a long spell of no activity, it seems overwhelming. Especially after slogging in the kitchen for half of my precious Saturday morning in the intense summer heat, when I have to push myself to be creative in food photography too I wondered how I used to put up with this on a regular basis a year back.  But I still do it - the whole 9 yards - adjusting ambient light, setting up backdrops, rummaging through my utensil box for the perfect bowl, fishing out some napkin props from the corner of my cupboard and finally taking 50-60 odd pictures so that I can find one decent photo to edit and post. Phew! And in the middle of all this chaos, I forgot to place the meticulously cut slices of boiled egg on top of my bowl of chicken bharta before taking the shots. The realization came when I was cleaning up everything - I saw those two slices of eggs sitting there like orphans in a bowl I had put aside. For a fleeting second I did think whether I should setup everything again, but then I convinced myself out of it as I was already tired with all the running around. So readers please don't judge the photos based on the missing garnish, it tasted good actually. 

Now coming to the recipe. Kolkata loves all kind of Mughlai food. There is a plethora of Mughlai dishes tailored to the palate of Bengali food connoisseurs which you can find in all small and big restaurants across the city. Chicken Bharta is a one such Mughlai delicacy prepared with shredded chicken and hard boiled eggs cooked in selected aromatics. Usually it is considered as a dhaba style dish which pairs perfectly with roomali rotis or naans. If you are in Kolkata just step out in your neighborhood in the late evenings and you will see a beeline of people waiting outside on the road in front of small food shacks for getting the chicken bharta, chowmein or biryani packed for dinnertime. Especially if its around the weekend the crowd is more. It has almost become part of the culture there to get these delicacies packed for home on the way back to office to start off the weekend food frenzy. And when you get it so cheap in the local restaurant why would anyone slog at home to make it. 

But people like us who are miles away form the city, if we want to enjoy these we have to slog in the kitchen - there is hardly any choice there. What I have understood is that everyone has their own little formula of success for a good chicken bharta. And there are mild variations of the recipe you will find all over the net. Most of the time you will see cashew paste or  poppy seed paste being added to the dish to up the creamy quotient, but since I am making this on a hot summer afternoon, I skipped it to make it a little lighter for the tummy. Taste wise it didn't compromise anything I can say. Also at time I have seen restaurants adding Kewra scent to this dish just to make it more 'Mughlai' but I really don't like it at all. The natural aroma of the spices with the chicken feels much more authentic to me rather than loading it up with unnecessary things. I hope you like this recipe. Do comment if you have nay suggestions to make it better. I had it with homemade naan which my mother made. Maybe i will also talk about the naan recipe sometime, its an absolute hit. 

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 60 minutes

Serves - 2 adult

Ingredients :

• Egg - 2
• Onion - 2 large 
• Tomato - 1 
• Ginger - 1 inch
• Clove - 1
• Cardamom - 2
• Cinnamon - 1/2 inch
• Nutmeg powder - 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
• Kashmiri red chili powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
• Tandoori Chicken Masala - 1/2 tsp
• Refined Oil + Butter- as needed
• Cream - 2 tbsp
• Curd - 2 tbsp
• Salt - as per taste
• Sugar - as per taste
• Chicken Stock - 1.5 cups
• Warm water - as needed

Ingredients for Chicken Stock:

• Chicken - 400-500 gm
• Black peppercorn (crushed) - 5
• Ginger (roughly sliced) - 1 inch piece
• Garlic cloves - 5-6
• Onion (roughly sliced) - 1/2 

Procedure:

1. Start by cleaning the chicken pieces. Take a stock pot or a deep kadai and add 3 cups of water. Place all the ingredients for Chicken Stock in the pot over medium-high heat. Bring it to a gentle simmer. Reduce heat to low heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked. You can check the doneness of the chicken by piercing near any of the bone area and if the juices run clear or just light pink, then the chicken is cooked. Strain the stock and keep it aside. Separate the chicken from the spices and vegetables. Now transfer the chicken into the stock and keep it covered till you are ready to cook with it. Discard the vegetables and spices.

Tip : The key to a juicy succulent chicken is the slow simmer for extended time. If you cook your chicken in a rolling boil water then the chicken tends to dry out.

Tip: Always use chicken with bones, the bones have a lot of flavor which gets added to the stock

Tip : Keeping the chicken submerged in the stock prevents it from drying out till you are ready to cook. You can reserve the stock and use it for making fragrant pulao or soups.

2. Boil two eggs and keep aside.

2. Now get the masala ready. In a small bowl add the turmeric, coriander power, cumin powder, tandoori chicken powder, red chili powder. Now mix a little water and make a masala paste.

3. Make a paste of 1 onion, 1 tomato and 1 inch ginger. Keep it aside

4. In a kadai, heat 50/50 refined oil and butter. Now temper it with cinnamon , cloves and cardamom. When the spices are fragrant add 1 onion (finely chopped). Fry till the onions are a light shade of brown. 

5. Add the onion paste from Step 3. Adjust salt and cook this till the raw smell goes off. 

6. Now add the masala paste from Step 2. Fold in and cook till the oil separates from the masala.

7. Now add about 1.5 cups ( or as needed) of the reserved chicken stock. Add about 1/4 tsp of nutmeg powder. Adjust the salt and sugar. Mix well with the masala and let it simmer for about 5-7 minutes. Occasionally give it a stir to prevent the masalas from sticking.

Tip: If you want to add cashew paste you can add at this step. I didn't add it.

Tip : In Kolkata chicken Bharta is made a little sweet, if you want to skip the sugar you can.

8. I wanted a little tanginess in the bharta so at this point I switched off the gas and added 2 tbsp of whisked curd. Switching off the gas and then only mixing the curd will prevent it from curdling. Once its well incorporated turn the gas on and let it simmer. 

9. While the gravy is simmering, shred the boiled chicken with two forks. Discard the bones. Once the gravy has cooked for about 7 minutes add the shredded chicken and fold in. Let it cook covered till oil floats up.

10. Now chop the hard boiled eggs and add it to the gravy. By this time the gravy would have thickened up a bit. When you add the boiled eggs it will further thicken the gravy. 

11. Add 2 tbsp of fresh cream ( you can add more if you want) and stir in. Let everything simmer for about 5 more minutes. 

12. As a last step you can add some Kasuri methi or just garnish it with some fresh coriander leaves and slices of boiled egg.

Serve it with your choice of Indian flatbread like roomali roti or naan and fresh salad and enjoy!