An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [45]
Murgh mussallam (whole chicken with spices)
SERVES 4
In this royal dish, a whole chicken is first marinated in a paste consisting of garlic, ginger, turmeric, hot green chilies, garam masala, yogurt, and salt for about 2 hours. It is then browned and simmered with a second paste made up of fried onions and garlic, ginger, almonds, lemon juice, and an array of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, etc. Hard-boiled eggs are put into the sauce about 10 minutes before the chicken is done and then arranged around the chicken.
1 whole chicken, about 3½ pounds
1 teaspoon loosely packed leaf saffron
4 hard-boiled eggs
MARINADE
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
A piece of fresh ginger, about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide, peeled and coarsely chopped
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
4 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 fresh hot green chilies, sliced, or ¼–½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
COOKING PASTE
8 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 medium-sized onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
A piece of fresh ginger, about 1 inch long and 1 inch wide, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon blanched almonds, slivered
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Seeds from 4 large black or 8 small green cardamom pods
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground mace
1½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
GARNISH
2 tablespoons finely chopped Chinese or Italian parsley
First make your marinade.
Put the ingredients for the marinade in the container of an electric blender. Blend at high speed until you have a smooth paste.
Peel the skin off the whole chicken. Where it is hard to peel, as on the wing tips, you can leave it on. Prick the chicken all over with a fork, place in a bowl, and pour marinade over it. Rub the chicken well with the marinade, both inside and out, and leave, unrefrigerated, for about 2 hours.
Rinse out your blender container. You will need it again.
Soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons of hot water.
Now make the paste to cook the chicken in.
Heat 6 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a 10–12-inch heavy-bottomed pot over a medium-high flame. When hot, put in the chopped onions, garlic, and ginger. Stir and fry for 8 to 10 minutes or until the onions are brown at the edges but still soft. With a slotted spoon, remove onions, garlic, and ginger and place them in the blender container. Reserve the cooking oil.
Place a small iron or aluminum skillet over a medium flame. When it is hot, put the blanched almonds in it. Stir them around until they turn golden, then add them to the blender container. In the same small skillet put the ground coriander and cumin. Stir, watching, until the spices turn a few shades darker (do not let them burn). They will smoke quite a bit, but don’t worry—it is to be expected. Then put them in the blender along with the cardamom seeds, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, salt, black pepper, cayenne, lemon juice, and ½ cup of water. Blend all to a smooth paste, pausing, if necessary, to push the mixture down with a rubber spatula a few times.
When the chicken has marinated for 2 hours, heat the reserved oil and add 2 more tablespoons of oil to it. Do this over medium-high flame. Lift the chicken out of the bowl along with any clinging marinade and place in the oil. Brown it as well as you can on all sides. You will not be able to do this too evenly, but it does not matter.
When the chicken has browned, turn heat down to low. Take the paste from the blender and, using a rubber spatula, spread it all over the chicken. Add 1 cup of water to the pot and bring to a boil. Cover tightly. Turn heat to low and simmer gently for about 40 minutes or until chicken is tender. Turn chicken 2 or 3 times during the first 15 minutes of this cooking time. After that, leave it breast up and baste it every 5 to 7 minutes with