Chicken with Almond, Mint and Cayenne

This recipe is inspired by Raghaven Iyer in his book 660 Curries.  He calls it Almond Chicken with a Yogurt-Mint Sauce.  You’ll find it on page 123-124 of his book.   This recipe was cooked a day after the Chicken with Fresh Curry Leaves and Tamarind recipe. 

The basic idea to take from these recipes, which is a core element really of Indian Cooking, is to mix a variety of spices with your yogurt marinade.  In this case we are mixing almonds and cayenne and cilantro along with coriander, mustard and fennel seeds.  Of course we include garlic, ginger and salt.  The mint is added at the end, much like the Curry Leaves were added later in the Chicken with Fresh Curry Leaves recipe.  The Chicken with Fresh Curry leaves used yellow split peas instead of almonds, and used a mixture of black peppercorns, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, and chilis (instead of just cayenne pepper). 

You take your basic yogurt and experiment.  Add different spices prepared in different ways.  Sometimes you just you ground spices from Spice Islands, sometimes you use whole spices, sometimes you toast the whole spices, sometimes you toast them then grind them.  Try different combinations.  The first recipe tries tamarind and curry leaves and the second uses almonds and mint leaves, with some coconut.

INGREDIENTS

·         3-4 pounds of boneless chicken thighs. You’ve heard me talk about this before, and I’ll do it again.  Don’t use white meat. 

·         1 cup of whole plain yogurt

·         ½ cup of silvered blanched almonds.

·         8-10 cloves of garlic

·         3 lengthwise slices of fresh ginger about an inch long each.

·         1 tablespoon of coriander seeds.

·         2 teaspoons of yellow or black mustard seeds

·         1 teaspoon of fennel seeds

·         2 teaspoons of salt

·         2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper

·         ¼ cup of chopped cilantro

·         3-4 tablespoons of Ghee

·         1 red onion

·         2 fresh or dried bay leaves

·         ½ cup of firmly packed fresh mint leaves finely chopped (it turned out to be one whole package of them from the market).

INSTRUCTIONS

1.   Add the yogurt, almonds, garlic, ginger, coriander, mustard, fennel, salt and cayenne to a blender jar and blend up into a thick paste. Transfer toasted split peas to a blender and add the yogurt, peppercorns, salt turmeric, garlic, cardamom pods, dried chilies, and cinnamon stick.  Blend until it’s a thick paste.  Then pour into a bowl and fold in the cilantro with a spatula.  Then add the chicken, coating all sides very well, then cover and refrigerate for as long as you can, up to overnight.

2.   When you are read, heat the ghee till very hot and then brown the chicken pieces (reserving the marinade for use later), 2-3 minutes a side, turning them over.  Set the chicken aside.

3.   Add some more ghee if there is no oil, and then add in the onion and bay leaves and cook, scraping up the wonderful brown chicken bits for 3-4 minute.  Add some water, anywhere from ¼ to ½ a cup.  I take water and spray it into the blender jar, and swirl it around, to get the rest of the marinade, and use that as the water.  After the onions have cook a bit 6-10 minutes), add in the rest of the marinate, swishing some more water if you need it.  Cook 2-3 minutes more.

4.   Add the chicken back in, and simmer for a while.  Chicken thighs stay tender so there is no need to worry about over cooking it.  Just simmer till you feel it’s done.

5.   Remove chicken, then add in mint to the sauce.

6.   Serve chicken over a pile of rice, scooping sauce on top.  

There will be a delicious yogurt cayenne mint combination in your mouth.  Reheats well the next day!