Seasonal recipe - Mango chicken

Mango chicken cooked yesterday

My rating for this dish
Food: - 7/10

This is something a friend and I invented together in 2009. Wonder why I didn't blog about it earlier. but it is the season of mangoes, and every year, I make it a point to cook my 'Mango Chicken' once during this season. Made best with Alphonso (so a slightly expensive dish to make), it is a hatke chicken curry, with a tinge of the sweetness of mango!

Here's how you do it in case you want to serve a group of 4-6.

Ingredients

The marinade
- 1 medium sized ripe Alphonso mango, scooped from the skin and made to pulp. Always use your hands to mash and pulp. The unevenness of the pulp makes a dish always seem more endearing.
- 3 tablespoons heaped with curd
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoons red chilly powder
- 1 teaspoon jeera (cumin) powder
- 2 teaspoon dhaniya (coriander) powder
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste
- Salt to taste

The rest for cooking
- 1 kg chicken (I always prefer with bones to boneless, but this is up to you)
- 1 stick of dalchini (cinnamon)
- 2 small green elaichis (green cardamoms)
- 1 big black elaichi (black cardamom)
- 2 lavangs (cloves)
- 6 whole peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 2 large onions, chopped finely
- 6 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
- 2 tomatoes, chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon chopped coriander
- 3 green chillies, chopped

How it's done
Take all the ingredients in the marinade and mix them all together well in a bowl or plate. Then add the chicken and coat all pieces well with the marinade. Cover the marinating chicken bowl/ plate with a lid and put it in the refrigerator. Marination is the key to any dish tasting awesome. Marinate for as long as you can. I've even tried overnight once and the meat was oh-so-tender! A minimum of half an hour for chicken and one hour for mutton is necessary for the marinade to do it's magic.

After you have completed your designated marination time, take out the chicken from the fridge and keep it aside. Take a pressure cooker, put in the oil and keep it on a medium flame. When the oil gets hot, drop in the dalchini, elaichis, lavangs and peppercorns so they crackle for about 30 seconds. Then add the onions and garlic till they turn a nice golden brown, always stirring. Add the tomatoes and stir for a minute or so. See to it that the onions and garlic are not getting burnt. They must maintain their golden brown color when you add the chicken. Which is what you do next.The full chicken, along with the marinade goes in the cooker. Turn the flame to low. Cook for 15 minutes, occasionally stirring. Add half a cup of water in the 5th minute. When the gravy becomes really thick, add a cup and a half of water and close the lid of the pressure cooker. Turn the flame to high. Wait for a whistle, and when you hear one, turn off the cooking flame. Wait for 5-10 minutes as the chicken cooks in the steam within the cooker. Now open the cooker lid and turn on the flame to a medium. Add the garam masala and the green chillies. Cook the chicken for another 15 minutes or so, which is how long it will take for the water to evaporate from the curry so that it becomes thick and delicious.

Your Mango Chicken is ready! Sprinkle some fresh chopped coriander on top of the dish just before you serve! Goes great with rotis, parathas or rice.