Quick and easy chicken kosha, a Bengali recipe

Serves: 4 

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

This chicken kosha is low on effort, but looks and tastes deceptively like a more labour-intensive korma. Mix the chicken with all ingredients and cook it slowly until done. If you are in a hurry, you could even pressure cook this in a few minutes. That won’t, of course, give you the deep flavours of slow cooking, but it should still taste delicious.

Ingredients

600 gms chicken

5 tbsp mustard oil

2 pcs dried red chilli

2 pcs bay leaves

2 pcs cardamom

3 pcs cloves

1 pc cinnamon

150 gms (2 medium) onions

5 gms (1-inch) ginger

10 gms (10 cloves) garlic

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder

½ tsp Bengali garam masala (dry-roasted powder made of cloves, cardamom and cinnamon)

30 gms (2 tbsp) yoghurt

3 pcs green chillies

8 gms (1½ tsp) salt

5 gms (1 tsp) sugar

Method

1. Add cubed onions, ginger and garlic to a grinder jar and form a smooth paste.

2. Marinate the chicken with the onion-ginger-garlic paste, turmeric, red chilli, kashmiri red chilli, Bengali garam masala, yoghurt and salt. Also add in 1 tbsp of mustard oil for flavour. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

3. Heat mustard oil in a kadai and temper it with dried red chillies, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.

4. Add the marinated chicken. For the next 20–25 minutes, keep braising the chicken on medium heat until the onions and spices lose their raw smell. Do not add extra water unless necessary.

5. Add slit green chillies and sugar, and continue braising, covered, for about 10–15 minutes until you have a thick, dry gravy and the chicken has cooked through.

Serve hot and enjoy.