Murg Te Chawal

This recipe describes fragrant and mildly spicy chicken cooked with rice. Its light and delicious. Relatively low calorie. Serve with Raita.

To serve two, you will need the following:

Three tablespoons vegetable oil
Rice: one cup
Chicken Stock: one cup
Chicken pieces: about 400 grams of skinnless and fat-free chicken should do it
Turmeric: 1/2 tablespoon
Cumin powder: 1/2 tablespoon
Red Chilli powder: 1/4 teaspoon
Garam masala: 1/2 teaspoon
Cinnamon: one stick or if powdered a pinch
4 cloves or if powdered, one pinch
ginger garlic paste: 1/2 tablespoon
coriander paste: 1/2 tablespoon
Onion: One medium sized onion finely chopped (you can use either white or red onions- i prefer red for authenticity)
Tomato: One medium sized tomato grated
Salt to taste
One lemon

For Raita:

One cup plain Yogurt
small cucumber/tomato/potato

I know the number of ingredients looks daunting and most of you at this point will say "this-aint-fer-me" or "oi-gives-up". Dont. If you are Indian, most of these ingredients are familiar. Go poke around in your mum's kitchen. If you're not Indian, all of the above can be procured for about $30 at your nearby Indian store (trust me you have one close by!) and once bought will last you over a year even if you cook Indian food once a week. So for the price of one meal out you can get all your essential masalas for a year! fancy that! so theres simply no excuse to not try this one.

Step One: Heat two table spoons of oil in a large pot. One the oil is hot and sizzles, turn the flame on low and add the finely chopped onions. Stir gently and keep an eye out- white onions will start turning transparent and red ones will begin to brown. Once this happens, add the grated tomatoes and prepare yourself for the rush of steam, sizzle and crackling that will greet you. If you have an exhaust or a window, this would definitely be a good time to use that ventilation. Got that? great!

Step Two: Stir the tomato-onion mixture that you have in your pot. Its time to add some of those masalas we talked about- the turmeric, the garam masala, the cumin powder, the red chilli powder, the ginger garlic paste, the coriander paste and salt. Mix it all up well in your pot. If you have not turned on your exhaust or opened your window yet, you will need to now.

Step Three: Add the chicken stock to your pot and mix well. Add the cloves and the Cinnamon. Wait about a minute for everything quiet down and then turn off the flame. You're done with the hard part. congratulations! hurray! :-)

Step 4: Wash and chop your chicken into medium sized pieces. coat with lemon juice. Take out your nicest frying pan, add one tablespoon of oil and heat it up. Once the oil is nice and sizzly, add the chicken and fry it. Be good to your chicken, its an important ingredient. So fry it until its about half cooked. It should not take longer than 3-4 minutes depending on the size of your pieces. The smaller the pieces, the quicker it cooks. Right. Once half cooked, turn off the flame.

Step 5: Its time to bring it all together. So take the half cooked chicken and add it to the contents of your pot (remember the one you set aside in step 3- that very one!). add your rice to this concoction and cook on a high flame. You will need to add a little water so look out. After 3-4 minutes take a good hard look at the contents of the pot. Does the rice need more water? probably yes. add a half cup of water but if you have basmati rice, you may need a little more than 1/2 a cup. If you are unsure add 1/2 a cup and wait to see if you should add more. This is also a good time to taste the semi cooked rice and decide if the flavour is acceptable. Do you need more salt? If yes this is the best time to add it. If its too spicy for you, add a little bit of sugar (a quarter teaspoon should do it) or a half piece of potato (cleaned and peeled). when the water has mostly evaporated from your pot, turn the flame on low and watch the pot like a hawk. when the water looks like its evaporated, turn off the flame. Lo and behold your wonderful Murg Te Chawal. But we still have to garnish it and make the raita.

Step 5: For the granish, you can fry onions and sprinkle on top of the Murg Te Chawal, or, as is more common sprinkle some freshly chopped coriander or mint on top.

The Raita
This is really simple and fun. You need a cup of plain yogurt. you decide what goes into the raita. Commonly added to the yogurt are grated cucumber or finely chopped cucumber and tomato, or half a boiled potato finely chopped.
Beat the yogurt until its smooth (shouldnt take more than a minute). Add a pinch each of salt, cumin powder and chilli. you could also add a pinch of sugar if you like. mix it all up well. Add your cucumber or whatever it is that you decided to add. Mix again. You could choose to have a "tight raita" with a lot of cucumber and stuff in it or you could have more of the yogurt. garnish with freshly chopped mint/coriander and you are done!

See that wasnt so hard now was it? It gets esaier as you practice. Good luck and I'll come up with another recipe for next week!