Name: Apricot Chicken with Potato Straws (Murghi Jardaloo)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 chicken (3½ pounds), skin removed, cut into 8 pieces (see box); 1 tablespoon Bin bhuna hua garam masala; 2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; 4 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, stems removed, cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick slices (do not remove the seeds); 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems for garnishing; 2 cups Matchstick-Thin Fried Potatoes (see Tip); 2 tablespoons crumbled or chopped jaggery or firmly packed dark brown sugar; ¼ cup distilled white vinegar; 4 medium-size cloves garlic, thinly sliced; 4 lengthwise slices fresh ginger (each 1½ inches long, 1 inch wide, and ⅛ inch thick), cut into matchstick-thin strips (julienne); 1 medium-size red onion, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced; 8 to 10 dried apricots; ½ cup boiling water; 2 tablespoons Ghee or canola oil

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

A tradition in the Parsi community of Mumbai, this recipe uses apricots, an ingredient that reveals the Parsis’ Persian roots, combined with cloyingly sweet jaggery and pungent chiles, ingredients that reflect the cooking of the community they now live in. Top it off with crunchy shoestring-thin potatoes, and you have a texturally pleasing and highly complex-tasting curry.