Mother’s Favorite Chicken

Chicken maivahlans fits into that category of baked dishes that are offered at nearly every stylish Bombay dinner party: all extravagant things in a cheesy, creamy sauce. (Maivahlans means “mother’s favorite.”) I didn’t understand why chicken maivahlans was treated with such reverence until I made it myself and realized what an extravagance it must have been in an India where raisins and nuts had become expensive imported luxuries following import restrictions.