Chicken Rara or Murgh Rara is a popular North Indian chicken curry wherein chicken is cooked in a thick curry and served spiced up with cardamom, yogurt and whole chillies in a lip-smacking chicken mince gravy.

A proper restaurant style dish, it is best enjoyed with some hot phulka or plain boiled rice

There are so many recipes and variations to making this dish but I have a simple and a slightly tweaked version which works well for me in terms of speed and cooking.

INGREDIENTS:

One whole small chicken cut on bone
3 whole dried red chillies
Half a cup of oil
1 tbsp of garlic paste 2 black cardamons
4 green cardamons split
1 tsp of black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp of ginger paste
2 pieces of cinnamon
1 cup of yogurt
1/2 pound / 250 g of chicken keema
1 tbsp of chilli powder
2 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of coriander powder
1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
1 tsp of cumin powder
2 tsp of kashmiri red chili powder
1 tsp of garam masala
1 cup of crispy ready fried onions
4 green chilli’s slit
1/2 a cup of tomato pasata or 3 fresh tomotoes blended.

METHOD:

Take a large pan and add half a cup or 2 chef spoons of oil and heat.

Next add the whole spices, the cinnamon, green cardamoms, bay leaves, black cardamons, dried red chillies and fry together till its aromatic and slightly darker in order to flavour the oil.

Next add the cut chicken and fry in the oil until the chicken turns white. This will also let the whole spices infuse.

At this stage add the garlic and ginger paste and 2 tablespoons of yogurt from the cup of yogurt and fry again for about 5 minutes until the oil separates.

Now add the ground spices to the chicken and fry/ cook for a good minute.

Then add the cup of ready fried onions and few tablespoons of water in order to soften the onions. Give it a good stir and then cook covered on med/low until you see the oil splitting.

Next add the remaing cup of yogurt and continue to cook covered stirring occaisionaly until the oil splits again and separates to the top and sides. This indicates that the yogurt has cooked out.

Now get your chicken keema and mix with 4 tablespoons of water to loosen. Loosen it well. This will help with not clumping in the curry when you add it.

Add the keema to the curry and give it a good thorough stir. Add the split green chilli’s, tomato pasata or freshly blended tomatoes and 4 tablespoons of water.

Stir cover and cook on med for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the oil has separated and is floating to the top. Adjust the sauce to your taste. I like a creamy sauce so I can soak up chappatis or eat with rice. You do not want a watery sauce.

Check to see that the chicken is cooked through.

Serve

TIPS:

Use thighs if you prefer but on the bone gives more flavour.

You can use fresh onions but you will need to fry them before chicken is added.

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