Chicken Dopiaza

28 April 2020 By

I have pinched this recipe from my Eastern Indian Table – Bengal cuisine cooking class and have modified it to make it even more delicious with the addition of my Butter Chicken concentrate paste. Dopiaza curries are big on flavour.

Bengali cuisine is perhaps the best known of the foods from this part of South Asia. There is a vast range of rice dishes and various preparations of freshwater fish, however, the food is generally big on flavour with lots of nuts and mustard oil used.

In Hindi “do” means “two” and “piaza” refers to onions – hence the origin of the name of this dish, which has prominent flavours of onion. The authentic Indian version of this dish is a curry with onions cooked in two different ways but I have added a third version with the onions acting as a sweet deep fried garnish.

 


Ingredients − Serves 5-6

  • 8 medium brown onions
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • 2 green chillies
  • 10 chicken thigh pieces on the bone, cut into 2-3 pieces each
  • 1 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp crushed black pepper powder
  • 4 small or medium sized Royal Blue potatoes, peeled and halved if medium size
  • 6 Roma tomatoes, skin peeled by blanching in hot water
  • ½ jar Latasha’s Kitchen Butter Chicken Concentrated Sauce
  • 3 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
  • 3 cups low sodium chicken stock
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tsp Latasha’s Kitchen Garam Masala (optional)
  • 4 tbsp cooking oil
  • 5 cm cinnamon
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 5 green cardamoms
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 tsp aniseed

Mix together with 4 tbsp warm water to form a thick paste

  • 2 tsp sweet paprika powder
  • 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin

Whisk together

  • ½ cup full fat yoghurt
  • ¼ cup cream
  • ¾ tsp jaggery

Mix together and soak 15 minutes

  • 1 tsp saffron strands
  • ½ cup hot milk

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Method

  1. Thinly slice two onions. Roughly chop another two onions, garlic cloves and green chillies then place all of these into a food processor and pulse until finely minced. Extract the juice from the remaining four onions by grating them and squeezing out the juice though a cheesecloth. Keep the pulp in an air-tight container in the fridge for use in another dish.
  2. Peel potatoes and halve them if medium sized. Mix the three powders to a thick paste with four tablespoons warm water. Whisk together yoghurt, cream and jaggery. Soak saffron strands in milk for 15 minutes.
  3. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and fry the sliced onions till brown and crispy. Remove, drain on kitchen paper and set aside. To the same oil add the chicken pieces, turmeric and black pepper powders. Fry the chicken pieces until browned on all sides then remove from pan. Into the same pan add the cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamoms, cloves, aniseed and after a couple of minutes also add the minced onion, garlic and green chilli mixture. Cook for 10 minutes until the mixture is caramelised.
  4. Then add combined chilli, cumin and paprika paste and stir continuously. Now add Latasha’s Kitchen Butter Chicken Concentrated Sauce and cook for another 5 minutes.
  5. Add chicken, onion juice, potatoes, skinned whole tomatoes, ghee and saffron milk. Mix well, add stock and good pinch of salt to taste. Bring to a low boil, then simmer for 15 minutes with a lid on.
  6. Transfer to a hot pre-heated oven, set at 180˚C and cook for 30 minutes. When the chicken and potatoes are done, sprinkle with Latasha’s Kitchen Garam Masala and gently add the whisked yoghurt cream mixture.
  7. Add the fried onions just before serving.

TIP: You may like to serve Cauliflower Lentil Curry with this dish.