Lagan ka Murg

Lagan ka Murg is a Hyderabadi dish cooked in a cooking vessel called a “lagan”. It is wide, thick walled and has a slightly curved thick bottom. It is easily available in Hyderabad, ofcourse but I am not too sure if one can find it in different parts of the country. In case you do not have a lagan you can cook it in a heavy bottomed pan. I had this thick bottomed milk pan and I decided to cook the lagan in that.
I had marinated the chicken and kept it overnight. I find that doing this enhances the flavour of the chicken tremendously. The chicken is then slow cooked in the lagan in a mix of homemade spices. I am not claiming that this is an authentic lagan ka murg recipe. I have tweaked it to suit my availability of material and to my personal taste.


Ingredients

1 chicken, cut into pieces
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste

For the spice mix
¼  kopra, grated
2 tbsp poppy seeds
½ cup cashews
2 green cardamoms
1” cinnamon
3 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp caraway seeds/shah jeera seeds
4 dry red chillies

For the gravy
3 onions, sliced fine
1 cup ready made tomato puree
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
4 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp kashmiri red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
½ cup yogurt
Chopped coriander leaves and julienned ginger to garnish
Marinate the chicken in salt and ginger garlic paste and keep overnight.

Dry roast the ingredients of the spice mix. Grind them to a powder without any water.
Heat some ghee. Add the ginger garlic paste and chopped green chillies. Sauté. Add the sliced onions and cook till the onions become soft and translucent. Now add the ready made tomato puree, spice mix, kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Cook till the mix starts drying up. Add the yogurt and cook till the oil starts leaving the sides. Now add the chicken pieces and sauté on high flame for 5 minutes. Add a cup of water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer till the chicken is done. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and julienned ginger.