Chicken Methi
Many years ago there used to be two Indian takeaways next tone one another near us. One was excellent, every dish different and a wide ranging menu. The other was dreadful, with every dish being almost the same. One day, we ordered from the good place, only to find that the bad place had bought it out and the food was crap.
One of the dishes I missed was their methi chicken, with it’s big chunks of chicken in a rich gravy, flecked and full of green. This is as close to it as I can make, but without the huge amounts of oil.
Cooking meat on the bone always leads to a better flavour. Here I boned the thighs, but cooked with the bones in dish and took them out at the end.
You will need
- 4 Chicken thighs, boned, skinned and diced into big chunks
- 2 frozen blocks methi (I got a bag from Morrisons of Shana brand)
- A tablespoon of minced ginger
- A tablespoon of minced garlic
- A tablespoon of minced green chilli
- A large onion finely diced
- 4 cloves
- 5 green cardamom pods
- An inch of cinnamon
- A bay leaf
- Half teaspoon of turmeric
- Half teaspoon of salt
- Half teaspoon of fennel seeds
- A teaspoon of garam masala
- A teaspoon of chilli powder
- A couple of teaspoons of tomato puree
- A good sized blob of butter
Do
- Put the chicken skins and onion in a frying pan on a low heat. As the chicken skin fat renders the onion will start the gently fry
- Once the onions have softened and started to colour add the spiced and stir furiously. Have a cup of water on hand in case you need to quench the chilli tear gas.
- Once the spices have cooked out for a minute add the chicken (and bones), stirring and keeping it moving for a good 5 minutes
- Add the green chilli and tomato paste, cook and stir for another few minutes
- Add about 300ml of hot water. Stir and let it bubble for 5 minutes
- Add the methi (mine was still a bit frozen)
- Cook without a lid to reduce the liquid, stirring until the methi is well distributed and cooked though (about 5 minutes)
- Add the blob of butter and briskly stir to finish
Result
