No butter in this chicken

Pushpesh Pant

Tamatar Wala Bhuna Murg

The first time we served this dish to our guests, they thought we had botched up our butter chicken. While it is true that this dish shares the tomato-based draping with its more famous delicacy of Punjabi refugees, it is a very different kettle of fish. (Pardon our mixing of metaphors). However, this bird is of a very different feather and doesn’t flock with chicks of that sort. True, it is prepared with tangadi and cooked in white butter, but the similarity ends there. The colour, the texture and the taste are all very distinct. It has a unique identity that does not require an Aadhar Card to announce it. Do try it once and let us know what you think of it.

Ingredients:

Chicken drumsticks 6 to 8 (Scored with a sharp knife)

Tomatoes 500g (ripe, skilled in boiling water to remove skin)

White butter 100g

Bay leaf 1

Cinnamon 2 inch stick

Black cardamom 2

Cloves 3-4

Black pepper ½ tsp

Coriander powder 1tsp

Cumin powder ½ tsp

Red chilli powder ¼ tsp

Turmeric powder ¼ tsp

Sugar 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and pat dry the chicken and chop the tomatoes coarsely. Heat butter in a pan and fry the chicken drumsticks on medium flame till these are rich brown in colour. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen towels. Add the bay leaf and whole spices to the butter till these change colour. Then, add tomatoes and the powdered spices along with salt and sugar. When the pulp comes to boil, add the drumsticks. Cover and cook on low heat, stirring once or twice in between to scrape any residue from the bottom. Sprinkle one or two tsp of water if necessary. The finished dish should have no gravy, only the fried chicken pieces draped in the tomato-spice coating.