Chicken Chaap( Slow cooked marinated chicken quarter legs)

Chicken Chaap:

Chicken Chaap is a Nawabi cuisine liked and adopted by people of Kolkata since the time of nawabs. in Kolkata there are the array of Mughlai restaurants, they provide chicken Chaap on their own style.  Hence the old restaurant Royal's Chicken Chaap is my favorite. Biriyani lovers of Kolkata, (includes me) never consider mutton biriyani without Chicken Chaap, though it can be eaten with pulao preparations or rumali rotis/naan. Chicken Chaap is a rich, spicy, and flavorful dish. Usually, the quarter leg of chicken was marinated with spices for hours or overnight then slow-cooked in butter or ghee. It is a delightful dish for all nonveg lovers and definitely for people of Kolkata.

Course - Non - Vegetarian
Dish - Mughlai
Author - Usashi Mandal
Serves - 2
Preparation time- 20 minutes +marination
Cooking time - 50 minutes.

Some other Mughlai Cuisine:

Chicken Tikka Biryani
Kolkata Style Goat meat Biryani 
Chicken Kofta Pulao
Chicken Rezala

Ingredients:

2 quarter chicken leg piece
1 cup hung curd/Greek yogurt
1 big onion paste
1 tbsp ginger paste
1/2 tbsp garlic paste
2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
1 tbsp cashew paste
2 tbsp poppy seed paste
Drops of kewra water
Ghee or butter as required
Salt for seasoning

Method:

1. First, proceed with the preparation of making spice powder. Grind whole spices and make garam masala gives this dish a nice aroma and taste. 

2. Grind 1 inch of cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 4 cardamoms, 1 mace, 1-star anise. Keep aside.

3. Next soak poppy seeds into warm water for 20 minutes then make a smooth paste along with cashews.

4. In a big bowl add curd, onion paste, ginger paste, garlic paste, red chili powder, garam masala powder, salt and 1 pinch of sugar, mix well.

5. Wash the chicken nicely and pat dry with kitchen towels and prick all over the chicken leg with a fork.

6. Pour the marination all over the chicken, mix well with hands cover, and put in the refrigerator for a minimum of 5 hours, overnight do the best.

7. Take out the marinated chicken before cooking and let them come into room temperature.

8. In a wide frying pan add a handful of ghee/butter, temper with bay leaf, whole red chili, and cinnamon stick. 

9. After the aroma of cinnamon sticks comes out shake marinates from the chicken and put them in warm ghee. Turn the flame to medium range and slow-cooked for 15- 20 minutes flipping the legs from time to time.

10. Add the remain marination and cook for 10 minutes then add cashew and poppy seed paste. Cook for another 30 minutes and when the spices are dry and oil separates from the chicken the dish is ready.

11. Enjoy chicken chaap/chaanp warm with mutton biriyani/rice preparations or Rumali roti/naan.