Ingredients:
1 and 1/4 th cup heaped thinly sliced onion ( for bereshta)
1 tbl spoon + 1 tea spoon ginger paste ( I grate them finely in a grater, looks almost like paste )
2 tea spoon heaped garlic paste
2/3 rd cup yogurt
7/8 green cardamoms ( don’t pound it)
2 sticks of cinnamon ( 1″ each)
Little less then 1/2 ( half) tea spoon black pepper ( whole)
8/9 cloves
1/2 tea spoon nutmeg and mace ( jaifil, javetri) powder
1/2 tea spoon cinnamon powder ( if your cinnamon stick is not that strong ; if strong reduce to 1/4 th tea spoon)
1 bay leaf
1 tea spoon raisin paste
5 or 6 alu bokhara
1/3 rd cup heavy cream or very thick milk
9 or 10 whole green chilies
3-4 tbl spoon maowa/ khoya or if you don’t have maowa just use powder milk
Salt to taste
Sugar ( if nesessary)
oil
Ghee 2 tbl spoon
Keora
Special masala , apply all
Method:
1. Take a large bowl and add yogurt , ginger paste , garlic paste , cardamoms , cinnamon stick , bay leaf ,whole black pepper , cloves , nutmeg and mace powder and salt . Add the chicken pieces and mix well . Marinate for at least 30 minutes .
2. Heat oil and add the thinly sliced onion . Fry until golden brown , what we call bereshta . Now , you can do two things . Either you can add the chicken pieces from the marinade and add to the bereshta ; or you can take out the bereshta from the oil and add the chicken pieces , if not using soft chicken and you like the chicken well fried in oil.
3. Cover the lid and cook on medium low flame until the chicken is tender and gravy is little reduced . Now Add the raisin paste , alu bokhara and cream . Add green chilies . If necessary , you can add little milk instead of water in this stage .
4. Add the special masala powder and maowa . Stir constantly . cook few more minutes . If necessary add little sugar. Spread some ghee over the chicken. Sprinkle keora water and cover the lid . Turn off the stove and keep the cooking pot on it until you serve . Don’t open the lid too until you serve as that would help the retaining the beautiful aroma of keora .
Garnish with bereshta , serve with polau , paratha , Naan .