Murg-e-Nawabi

Murg-e-Nawabi

Another nawabi preparation. 

Nawabi means rich and the richness of the dish comes from almonds, cashews and cream. The royals sure knew how to eat and have a good time. 

The khansamas or royal cooks must have had a tough time head scratching and coming up with new dishes all the time. The use of rich aromatic spices and dry fruits added that extra element to each dish. 

I have a few books on Mughlai cuisine and in each recipe I found that the dishes had spices like cinnamon, cardamom, saffron etc. dry fruits like cashews, pistachios, pine nuts, cashews were used in abundance. Ghee added the fragrance. All in all each dish is a rhapsody of flavour and taste.

Ingredients

1 chicken, cut in to pieces

2 onions, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

3 garlic pods, chopped

1 “ ginger chopped

2 onions, chopped

2 green cardamoms, small piece of cinnamon

2 tbsp coriander powder

 1 tbsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp turmeric powder

 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder

Salt to taste

½ cup cream

Apply some salt on the chicken pieces and keep aside.

Blanch the cashews and almonds. Skin the almonds.

Heat some oil. Add the garlic and ginger and saute. 

Add the onions and cook till translucent. 

Add the tomatoes and cook some more. 

Add the cashews and almonds and fry for some time. 

Take off the heat, Cool and then grind the whole mix to a paste.

Heat some more oil. Add the whole spices. Now add the chopped onions and cook till pink and translucent. 

Add the dry masalas and sprinkle a little water. Sauté the masalas well. 

Add the onion-cashew-almond paste and fry some more. Now add the chicken pieces and fry on high flame. Cook till the chicken is well coated with the masala. 

Add a cup of water, bring to a boil, cover and cook till the chicken is done. Check the seasoning. 

Switch off heat and add the cream. Garnish with some roasted cashews.