Coconut Chicken with Potatoes - Indian Batata Murghi

Coconut Chicken with Potatoes - Indian Batata Murghi

Batata Murghi is a coconut / potato / chicken dish from the Maharashtra state of India.  Maps of India and the Maharashtra state are included below for those of you who like a sense of place when hearing new names!

I'm not necessarily fond of Coconut, but this dish is one of the best meals I've ever cooked.  Last night we had it with Aloo Chokha and it was an amazing family meal with my father and wife and children.  I offer my version of it here, though it can be found elsewhere on the internet.  My version takes it's base inspiration from Raghavan Iyer's book 660 Curries - the gateway to Indian Cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 can (14 ounces) of unsweetened coconut milk.
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger or ginger paste
2 tablespoons unsalted or salted dry roast peanuts
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
5 large cloves of garlic or 2 tablespoons of minced garlic from a jar
4 to 6 fresh green Tai, cayenne, or serrano chilies (if you want it hot) or 4-6 Anaheim Chilies if you want it mild, stems remove and seeded.
8 chicken boneless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds from green or white pods
1 or 2 cinnamon sticks (each 3 inches long broken into smaller pieces)
2 tablespoons of peanut or canola oil
2 large potatoes chopped into 1-inch cubes
1 big red onion, sliced or chopped
1 handful of chopped cilantro

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a blender puree 1/2 of the can of coconut milk, ginger, peanuts, salt, turmeric, garlic and green chilies.  
2. Put the chicken thighs into the puree you just made, cover, and refrigerate for as long as you can, up to over night.
3. Heat a skillet to very hot and add the coriander seeds, cardamom seeds, cinnamon sticks and heat about 30 seconds, tossing and shaking. You want it to get nice and reddish brown.  You are roasting the spices, and it's going to smell amazing.  Let the spices cool for ten minutes and then blend together into a powder in a coffee grinder.
4. In a large pot, heat the peanut or canola oil until smoking, and the potato cubes.  Cook stiring often until the potatoes turn brown, usually between 6-12 minutes.  Remove the potatoes to a bowl.
5. In the same pot, now cook the onion until it is good and golden brown, 4-10 minutes.  Remove the onions.
6. Remove the chicken from the marinade (reserve the marinade, you will need it later). In the same pot, brown the chicken thighs, about 3 minutes to a side.  
7. In the same pot, add the potatoes, onions, reserve marinade, other half of the coconut milk can, and the handful of chopped cilantro to the chicken.  Stir well.  Simmer on very low heat for 15-25 minutes, mixing every once in a while.
8. Serve immediately with hot rice.

Aloo Chokha - Spicy Mashed Potatoes Indian Style

Aloo Chokha - Spicy Mashed Potatoes

You can look up a good Aloo Chokha recipe on the internet fairly easily. It is Indian style spicy mashed potatoes.  My version, inspired by Sanjeev Kapoor in his How to Cook Indian cookbook, is below.  I cook this for my family, and at first my children were 'disturbed' at the different color of the mashed potatoes.  They were dubious... to say the least, but one taste and they realized how good they were.

INGREDIENTS

6 small potatoes, boiled and mashed.
2 tablespoons of mustard oil or vegetable oil*
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds (crushed)
2 dried red chilies, stemmed and crushed
3 medium red onions, chopped fairly fine
3-4 green chilies, stemmed, seeded, and chopped. (Use Serrano for heat or Anaheim for mild flavor)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground roasted cumin
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed, or 2 tablespoons of minced garlic from a jar
1 teaspoon amchur powder (dried mango powder)
1 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Chop, boil, and mash the potatoes.  Set aside.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil.  When smoking, add the crushed coriander seeds and crushed dried red chilies. Cook for just a 10-15 seconds, 
3. Add the onions, green chopped chilies, ground coriander, ground roasted cumin and saute until the onions are golden brown (3-8 minutes depending on your pan and heat.)
4. Add the garlic and stir.
5. Add the mashed potatoes and mix well.
6. Add the amchur powder and salt and mix well.
7. Serve hot!

*I don't use mustard oil very often.  It adds a specific flavor to the food, but it's hard to get so I just use vegetable oil.  If you do get mustard oil, make sure you get the oil specifically for cooking, and get it 'refined' instead of filtered.

Chicken in Cilantro

Chicken in a Cilantro, Spinach, and Mustard Sauce

This chicken recipe is inspired by the version in Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick & Easy Indian Cooking.  It produced one of the most uniquely tasting meals I’ve ever had and was a hit with my family. A definite repeat contender.

INGREDIENTS

• ¼ Cup of Vegetable Oil

• 3 bay leaves*

• 6 green cardamom pods

• 1-inch stick of cinnamon (broken up).

• 5 whole cloves

• 2 dried red hot chiles whole

• 2 pounds of boneless chicken**

• ¼ cup of Raisins (This is part of Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe, and I include it here for her sake, but I don’t use the raisins.)

• 6 tablespoons of plain yogurt

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• Freshly ground pepper

• ¼ teaspoon of Cayenne pepper

• 2 tablespoons of chopped minced ginger or ginger paste

• 1-2 green chilies.  (If you want it hot, use Serrano or Jalapeno, if you want it milder, use 2 big Anaheim chilies.  I use Jalapeno for hot, and Anaheim for mild.  Serrano has less flavor to me and is just more for ‘heat’.) 

• 2 cups of chopped Cilantro leaves (Loose)

• 1 bunch of fresh Spinach Leaves (Washed, and stems trimmed)

• 3 tablespoons of mustard (probably a brown mustard like Gouldens, Dijon, etc, but you can use regular yellow mustard (and I have) if you need to).

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a wide skillet, heat the oil. 

2. Add bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, cloves, and red chilis.  Cook for a10 to 15 seconds, until the bay leaves start turning brown. This goes quick.

3. Add the chicken pieces, and brown on both sides (this is usually about 3 minutes per side. If you use the thighs like I do, it goes really quick).

4. Add in the raisins (if you are using, I don’t), yogurt, 1 teaspoon of salt, fresh pepper and cayenne. Stir well.  Bring to a simmer.

5. Simmer on low gently for 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, put the ginger paste into a blender and add green chilies and cilantro.  Blend until chunky, then add the spinach.  Using spatula to push it down if you have to blend until you have a nice chunky puree.  You don’t want to liquefy it.

7. Add mustard and an extra dash of salt if you want to the green creamy mixture.  

8. When the chicken is done, 15 minutes or so, add the green sauce to the chicken directly.  Stir it up.  Bring to a simmer again, cover and cook a bit more, maybe 10 minutes. 

9. Take out the bay leaves, the cardamom pods, pieces of cinnamon and whole cloves and whole chilies (if you can find them).  

10. Serve immediately, usually with rice.

A note on the spices – Indian cooking often starts by putting spices into hot oil, which creates a great aroma in the kitchen. In this recipe, we use bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, and chilies.  This is the more ‘authentic’ way of doing things and offers a different taste.  Having said that, if you don’t have these items, you can still cook this whole recipe and get a very similar taste, by using normal Spice Island brand spices.  Do it this way:

Ingredients

3 Bay leaves 

• 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom

• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon of ground cloves

• ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• 1 teaspoon of onion powder

• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder

Mix the spices together and rub into the chicken well with your hands.  Heat the oil, and brown the bay leaves as above, and then brown the spice rubbed chicken.  The rest of the recipe goes as normal.

*There are Indian Bay leaves and there are regular Mediterranean bay leaves (which are the common ones you get in the United States grocery stores).  When I make this recipe I use the Mediterranean version available in the USA.  Some Indian Cookbooks are going to suggest you special order the Indian Version.  As of the time of this writing, December 28, 2013, I have never done so, just using regular bay leaves.

**Madhur Jaffrey uses a whole chicken here cut into pieces, but I almost never do that.  Instead I prefer boneless chicken thighs for all my meat.  Sometimes I’ll use chicken breasts, but less and less so.