Name: Chicken in saffron sauce
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 2.5 ml/72 tsp saffron threads, pounded and soaked in 15ml/1 tbsp hot milk; 2.5–5ml/½–1 tsp crushed dried chillies; 25 g/1 oz ghee or unsalted butter; 2.5 ml/72 tsp garam masala; 7.5 ml/172 tsp ground coriander; 300 ml/72 pint/1¼ cups full-fat (whole) milk; 10 ml/2 tsp ginger purée; 5 ml/1 tsp ground cumin; 1 large onion, finely chopped; 75 g/3 oz/73 cup full-fat (whole) natural (plain) yogurt; 10 ml/2 tsp gram flour (besan); 675 g/1½lb boned chicken thighs or breast fillets, skinned and cut into 5cm/2in cubes; 10 ml/2 tsp garlic purée; 4 whole cloves; naan, to serve; 4 green cardamom pods, split at the top of each pod; 2.5 cm/1 in piece of cinnamon stick; 1–2 fresh green chillies, deseeded and cut into julienne strips, to garnish; 50 g/2 oz blanched almonds

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Complete Indian Regional Cookbook

By Mridula Baljekar

Published 2017

About

The origins of this recipe, Murgh Kalai Kesari, go back to the Mughal era and the ingredients used certainly evoke a time of wealth. Here the sauce is enriched with saffron and freshly made almond purée.