Kashundi Chicken

Chicken has been my stable diet since I was a kid. If you include just 1 tiny piece of Chicken in my meal, I will eat anything that you serve to me with it without any complaints; I know that quite sounds like our four legged companions, but I am totally lame when it comes to eating vegetables, so even 1 teeny-weeny bit of Chicken makes me smile.

A couple of days back my Sis In Law back in the City of Joy made this scrumptious Kashundi Chicken and shared the photo. Kashundi means a  very Bengali Mustard Dip / Sauce made with Black Mustard Seeds, Green Chilies, Ginger & Garlic which tastes out of this World – mostly to be eaten with Chops & Cutlets.  When you add Raw Mango to it, it is called ‘Aam Kashundi’ (Aam meaning Mangoes in Bengali) which tastes even better in my view; & I am again going weak on my knees thinking about the Aam Kashundi Chingri I once had at Oh! Calcutta – it was indescribable. I sure will post a photo of that dish in my blog if I can find one.

& I found it, that's Aam Kashundi Chingri from Oh! Calcutta, highly recommended!

Coming back to the recipe, my Sis In Law made this following BongMom’s recipe. She added her special touch to it by adding a bit of Curd to this dish – it tasted wonderful. I made it her way and made minor changes to the original recipe.

Here is the recipe for Kashundi Chicken with the minor changes

Chicken – 750 gms, cleaned and skinned it comes to about 500-550 gms

Grated Ginger – 1tsp

Grated Garlic – 1 tsp

Lemon Juice – 1.5 tsp

Salt to taste

Mustard Oil – 1 tbsp – use any other cooking Oil if you do not have Mustard

Put all this together and marinate the Chicken for an hour, covered

Kalonji  / Onion Seeds – ½ tsp

Green Chilies – broken from middle – 10

Turmeric Powder  –  1 tsp

Red Chili Powder – 1 tsp
Kashundi - 3 tbsp

Coconut Milk – 1 Cup (I used Maggi Coconut Milk Powder and mixed the same into 1 Cup of Luke warm water)

Curd – 2 tbsp – beaten with a pinch of Salt (I used homemade Curd)

Mustard Oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp of Mustard Oil in a Pan

Add the Onion Seeds / Kalonji  and let it splutter

Add  5 broken Green Chilies and let them sizzle

Add the Chicken pieces and not the marinade, in case there is anything watery left in there

Cook the Chicken pieces till they change color

Add Turmeric Powder & Red Chili Powder and stir them in – cook for 2-3 mins

Add 3 tbsps of Kashundi and mix well, give it about 2 minutes to settle in

Add the Coconut Milk and Curd and any marinade that was left

Cover and let the Chicken Cook thoroughly, keep the Gas Stove on Simmer

Once the dish is done, garnish with the other 5 broken Green chilies, the gravy will be thick in consistency and not runny

Eat with steaming White Rice