Chicken Do-Pyaaza

Overview :

A very aromatic, North - Indian style chicken curry. Its famously called as Chicken "Do-Pyaaza" because of the technique of marination of chicken. Its kept in onion-ginger-garlic paste twice(one time in marination and other while cooking) and hence called "Do-Pyaaza". "Do" is Hindi for "twice". It is actually a Mughal legacy.

Cooking Time : 30 mins including pre-cooking preparation.

Marination :  6-7 hours. Plan your cooking accordingly. The chicken needs to be marinated for this much time atleast.

Ingredients :

• 4 lbs ( roughly 2 kilogram) of  your choice of  boneless chicken 

• 2 big onion, one big piece of ginger and 7-8 cloves of garlic, few green chillies blended together.

• flavor spices : 3 big black cardamom(badi elaichi), 2 Bay leaves(tej-patra), 2 small Cinnamon sticks(Dalchini), salt to taste

• dry spices : 4 tbsp coriander powder, 2 tsp red chilli powder

• 2 tbsp cooking oil.
• MDH Chicken curry masala for additional fragrance.
• salt as per taste
• 3 tbsp tomato puree

Recipe : 

1. Wash chicken properly and cut into smaller chunks, say 3X3 inches.
2. In a bowl, take half of the blended onion-ginger-garlic mixture and add 2 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder and 2 tsp chicken curry masala. Add 2 tsp salt and mix well. Now add all the chicken pieces and mix gently. Set aside for 7 hours. So you have to plan the cooking accordingly.
3. Heat oil in a large vessel with cover or a pressure cooker on high flame and add all the flavor spices like black cardamom, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks etc.  Now add the rest of the onion-ginger-garlic paste and saute until dark brown.
4. Lower the flame to medium and add the rest of the spices like 2 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, salt to taste and 1 tsp chicken curry masala to the sauteed mixture. Stir evenly and add the tomato puree.
5. Now add all the marinated chicken and keep the flame on medium low. Add 3-4 tbsp water and cook covered for around 15 minutes, till the chicken has completely cooked. It may take additional 10 minutes to cook it completely.
6. If using a pressure cooker, let go just 1 or 2 whistles and then turn the heat off. By this time you will definitely come to know how aromatic this particular recipe is.

Presentation:

Serve hot garnished with cilantro leaves and green chillies. Enjoy with rice or chapatis.