Badaami chicken Made Easy

This recipe of Badaami chicken I had learnt from my days working at the then Tanjore (now Masala Craft) kitchen at the Taj. It was this rich gravy with a long and tedious process to make. I’ve kinda simplified this recipe to make it easy and possible for all to have and make as an everyday dish. Of course it is going to be slightly high in terms of calorific content because there is around half a cup of almonds that goes in the dish. However, this doesn’t mean that the dish is not wholesome, delicious and nutritious.

I’ve replaced the cream with yoghurt but if you want to make this dish for guests and you don’t mind the calories then feel free to go ahead and do the same. I’ve also replaced the ghee with a regular vegetable oil (sunflower/peanut/ricebran any will do) so that you can really save on this calories

Ingredients

400 gm chicken

1 cup curds

2 onions

½ cup almonds

4 - 5 tomatoes

2 – 3 cloves garlic

½ tsp ginger paste

¼ tsp green chili paste

½ tsp red chilli powder

2 tsp oil

Salt to taste

Almond slivers and chopped coriander to garnish

You will also need a wide strainer to strain the gravy

§ Marinate the chicken in the ginger paste and salt and keep aside whilst you do the rest of your preparations.

§ Cut the tomatoes, and peel and cut the onions

§ Put in the blender onions, tomatoes, almonds, garlic, green chili paste and yoghurt with 1 cup of water and just whizz it all up to make a paste as fine as you can make it

§ Take some oil in a pan (1 tsp), put this mixture and cook it till the oil separates from the gravy. It will seem like this is a lot of gravy for so much chicken but this gets greatly reduced so don't stress about the gravy bit

§ Take this gravy and strain it with a big holed strainer so that all the grainy almond stuff goes away leaving behind this beautiful rich smooth red gravy for your chicken

§ Take some more oil (like 1 tsp) and on high het put the marinated chicken in till it becomes opaque and white in colour

§ Pour in the gravy and put on low flame till chicken is cooked

§ Serve hot topped with almond slivers and chopped coriander