Ingredients

• 700 g country chicken(young organic chicken)
• 2 medium size potato
• 2 tbsp roughly pound garlic
• 2 tbsp roughly pound ginger and few thinly sliced ginger
• 1 large onion chop
• 2 tbsp garam masala( I use Machal, an authentic Manipuri garam masala)
•  1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander (roughly crush it)
• 2 tbsp paprika(or Kashmiri lal mirch)
• few bay leaves
• 1 tsp hot chili powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp kitchen king masala
• 8-10 thorny coriander leaves(It’s call Awaa fadeegom in Manipuri)
• few coriander leaves
• salt
• 6 tbsp of mustard oil

Kitchen Tools

• Chef’s knife
• Cutting board
• Bowl(small, medium)
• Wok
• Mortar and pestle
• Wooden spoon

Hmmm, Today I just want to get into my kitchen and start doing one of my favorite dishes. When I was a kid, my Dad used to cook the Manipuri chicken on multiple occasions and it has got such a wonderful taste. He usually cooks on natural wood fire which gives the smoky taste. This is a traditional way of cooking Manipuri chicken.  This dish has to come out at least once a month from my kitchen, the craving is humongous. Though not necessary but to get the best out of it, the chicken is preferred to be country chicken or organic chicken.

Step by Step Cooking Method

Wash the chicken properly and keep it aside in a bowl.

Cut the onions in a similar manner as shown below.

Roughly pound ginger garlic and few thinly sliced ginger

In a bowl put ginger, garlic, paprika, hot chili powder (depending on your chili resistance),  garam masala, turmeric, salt and a half cup of water and mix it well.

Take a wok. Pour oil and put on high flames. Heat up the oil till it smokes.  Put bay leaves, crushed coriander, and cumin. Immediately, put the onion (This is to avoid the masala from getting burned).

Continue to cook the onion till it becomes light brown. You can then slow down the flame now. Put liquid masala and continue cooking for 5-6 minutes until the oil separates.

Now put the chicken into the wok, stir it well while keeping at high flames. Keep stirring for  3 to 5 minutes or until the masalas get coated nicely onto the chicken. Now slow down the heat again and cover the wok.

You will have to stir it occasionally. You will see that a lot of liquid is being released from the chicken and eventually oil will get separated. Technically at this point, your chicken is done and is ready for our taste task. For those who like to drink on the go for the rest of this cooking session, cheers !! chicken is all set and we call it “Angouba” in Manipuri. I will do a separate recipe for “Angouba” in a different blog.

Now, towards completing our chicken curry, Add a potato or you can ignore this if you don’t like potatoes. For me, I am not a potato fan but I just find them perfect to have them on this dish.(i love to have big chunk of potato so I cut one medium-sized potato into 4 pieces)   Stir for 2 minutes now add 4 cups of water(if you want more liquid you can add more water).

Cook till the potatoes are done. It may take a good 15 to 20 minutes in low to medium flames. I must say this is very crucial to ensure your chicken gets the right taste. The logic is simple, with low flames for this duration, the oil gets separated from the curry.

Before we kill the flames, Make sure you taste the level of salt.  Put thorny coriander/awaphadeegom (this is optional though) and coriander.

Serve

Your Awesome Manipuri chicken is all ready !! Yeah. This goes best with rice. I hope you are able to produce the same and hope you love

This goes best with rice. I hope you are able to produce the same and hope you love it, Please do let me know the experience, I am so eager to hear back.