This tangy, cardamom scented chicken in yogurt sauce is perfect for a quick weeknight dinner. It can get pretty hot in Vegas during summers and I love a good yogurt based sauces, its light but still rich on warm evenings, that how this recipe came into being.
You dont need to marinate chicken, if you can use bone in, the flavors come out amazing though this recipe will work for boneless dark meat chicken as well. Honestly, one cannot have enough chicken recipes on hand and this one is good change up from the red ones(though there still is bit of a tomato in here). With rice or rotis and a quick salad, this is a satisfying dinner. The sauce is chunky and thickish, it won't win many laurels for the way it looks, its not one of your smooth creamy ones, rather delicately aromatic with hints of coconut and freshly ground cardamom in each bite.
Chicken In Yogurt Cardamom Sauce
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoon oil
- 8 green cardamom pods
- 3 cloves
- ½ tablespoon cumin seeds
- ½ cup thinly sliced onions
- 1.5 tablespoon ginger garlic green chilli paste ,simply pound 4 garlic cloves with a knob of ginger and 4-5 hot green chillies(adjust to taste, this is the only heat that goes in this masala)
- ½ tablespoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 medium tomato just grate flesh of tomato using a box grater and discard the skin.
- 1.5 lb bone in chicken(preferably dark meat)
- Salt
- ½ cup whole milk thick yogurt, whisked
- ¼ cup fresh dessicated coconut
- ¼ teaspoon green cardamom powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- Cilantro & mint leaves - chopped
Instructions
- Place a kadai or a shallow pot on the stove. Add oil and let it heat up on medium heat.
- Add the cardamom and cloves to the oil and saute for 30 seconds, dont let burn. Next add the cumin and let crackle.
- Next, add the onions to the oil and saute them on medium heat until they start to brown but dont let brown too much.
- Add the ginger garlic chilli paste and saute for 15 seconds followed by coriander and cumim powder and saute the spices in oil for 30 seconds. Add the tomato pulp next and saute on medium heat till you see oil seperating.
- Next add the chicken, sprinkle salt and mix well with the masala. On medium heat, saute the chicken for 5 minutes. You will see that the chicken will slowly release its juicies and the masala will become a bit runny.
- Cover the pot with a lid and let the chicken cook for 10-12 minutes (time will depend on the size of chicken pieces so adjust accordingly). You will need to saute in between a few times so that chicken dosent stick to the bottom.
- Open the lid, reduce the heat to low and while sauteing add the yogurt over the chicken. Also add the coconut. Mix well and cover again for 10 minutes. Avoid adding any water to the sauce. In 10 minutes you wil see the yogurt is warmed through, thr masala resembles a thick slurry and there are oily bubbles on the top.
- Remove the lid and saute the chicken for another 5-8 minutes till you see that the color of sauce has deepened and a nice amount of oil is seperating.
- Finish with cardamom powder and garam masala. Take off the heat and garnish with chopped cilantro and mint leaves.
- Serve warm.
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