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Recipe for

Murgir Jhol

PictureIngredientsStepsTips

Ingredients

  • 200g chicken thigh per person (or leftover turkey)
  • 2 onions
  • 2tbsp of gigner and garlic paste (or about 1 small bulb of garlic and a thumb of ginger blended together with a lil bit of water)
  • 2 medium tomatoes
  • 400ml chicken stock
  • 1/4tsp cardamom seeds
  • 1 piece of cassia/cinnamon bark
  • 2tsp coriander powder
  • 2tsp chili powder (kashmiri if you can)
  • 1tsp cumin powder
  • 1tsp turmeric
  • 1.5-2tsp of the panch phoran mix below
  • oil for cooking
  • salt and pepper to taste

Panch phoran – sometimes called Bengali 5 spice

  • 1.5tbsp fenugreek seeds
  • 1tbsp cumin seeds
  • 1tbsp mustard seeds
  • 1tbsp fennel seeds
  • 1tbsp nigella seeds

Steps

Make your panch phoran

  1. mix all seeds together, done. keep it in an airtight container for as long as you like, 34 years if you're my grandfather

Making the curry

  1. Prep all your stuff: slice your onions thinly (see tips below), cut tomatoes into wedges, chop your chicken and prep all your other ingredients.
  2. Add 1-2 tbsp of oil into a reasonably sized pan
  3. Throw in your spices and let them sizzle for a few seconds, don't let them get too dark or burn
  4. Now add ginger and garlic paste – mix it all up nice like
  5. Chuck in onions and a splash of stock if you're worried about burning
  6. Cook this until the onions are soft then throw in your chicken and coat the bird with your spicy mess
  7. Add the stock and tomatoes and cook until the chicken is preferred amount of cooked. I recommend enough not to kill you but not so much as to bring back memories of that dusty man from The Mummy.
  8. Season
  9. Serve with rice or some kind of bread (like roti or paratha, not warburtons, but I don't judge)

Tips

  • This is so much more fun if you arrange all your ingredients into little pots or tupperware or corners of a plate ffs, then you can do yer chops and then just whack it in
  • Chicken with the bone in is best – legs or thighs or both – but I keep finding people who are bone averse, so you do you
  • good quality spices are your friends
  • onions chopped in half moons will cook down into your sauce, onions cooked from tip to root will retain shape – the more you know

A project of love and passion Made by Sheppard.