Delicious and tender chicken cooked in yogurt and cilantro (coriander) sauce

I have been maintaining a recipe note-book for almost 12 years now and its fun to read it. It is less a recipe book more a memoir, where I have been recording my cooking experiments.

That was the time when I had just got married and started cooking for the very first time. So I started noting down recipes from my mom, mother in law and of course from random sources, something that piqued my interest in a magazine, cookbook or newspaper.

The other day I was flipping through this notebook and I saw this recipe and remembered how much my dad had loved this chicken that I had cooked for him years back. This one is especially dedicated to him because he is a ‘Dhaniya’ (Cilantro) lover, no food in our house can be served unless it’s garnished with Dhaniya!! No matter how high the prices are dhaniya will be one thing that’ll always be in our house, that’s how much he loves it.

What I love about this recipe are it’s few ingredients and few steps, it’s super easy to make:

Ingredients

For Marinade
Chicken, 1.7 lbs
Cilantro bunches, 2
Green chilli, 1
Thick Yogurt (hung curd), 1/2 cup
Ginger-garlic paste, 2 tbsp
Jeera powder, 2 tsp
Sugar, 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice, 1/2 lemon

For cooking
Oil, 1 tbsp
Onion, 1 big, chopped in thin round circles
Chilli powder, 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Garam masala, 1/2 tsp
Cilantro, to garnish

Steps

Blend together dhaniya (cilantro), green chili and yogurt

Wash and dry chicken (I used chicken thighs and cut them into small pieces), use a big bowl to mix in the marinade for the chicken, first cilantro and yogurt mix,ginger garlic paste, jeera powder, sugar and lemon juice, add chicken mix well and let it rest for half an hour.

Heat oil in a wok/pan, to it add the onions, cook until translucent

Take the pan off the heat for a moment, add the marinated chicken, put it back on heat, let cook on medium heat, until the liquid dries up, add chili powder and salt and cook for a few more minutes to get a semi dry consistency, once the chicken is cooked, turn the heat off

Add garam masala, mix well and slightly more chopped cilantro leaves than you would in garnish, than you would normally do, that’ll enhance the flavor.

This chicken tastes amazing as a snack or with parathas/rotis, adjust the thickness of the gravy as per your requirement.