Chicken Rezala

Chicken rezala is a slow- cooked mughlai chicken dish from the bengali (east indian) cuisine. It combines tender chicken pieces and a white, yogurt based cashewnut & poppy seeds sauce fragrant with sweet smelling indian spices like green cardamom, saffron & mace.

Serve chicken rezala with indian flatbreads like doughy naan or rumali roti to soak up that ric sauce. Or serve with cumin scented rice(jeera rice).

This chicken rezala recipe closely resembles creamy mughlai murgh korma (chicken korma), however, its a bit different in terms of selection of spices and no use of heavy cream.

The best thing about mughlai cooking is the use of delicate and rich flavors. You will not find chicken rezala on restaurant menus here. However, its such a gem of recipe specially during winter time when we crave rich curries. These recipes come in handy when you want to make chicken on special occasions or are craving indulgent flavors but do not want to take out.

About Bengali Chicken Rezala

Chicken rezala is a royal & luxirious white gravy dish from mughlai cuisine of india. It is popular in bengali cuisine and has a rich taste with layers of taste, aroma, and the indulgent textures.

Rezala sauce is on a sweeter side  with nuts, onion paste and sugar all contributing to the sweetness. Then, there are hints of tanginess from whole yogurt to lightly balance the sweetness and creaminess from the nut and white poppy seeds paste. It has complex yet mild flavors.

The heat mainly comes from ground white pepper and green chillies. The thin layer of fat that separates from yogurt, chicken, fried onions and ghee used while cooking contributes to its richness.

In bengali cooking, in contrast to punjabi cooking, the use of tomatoes is limited and it teases your palate with a sympony of fragrant spices. I did not grow up eating chicken rezala but after getting married, I really got interested in bengali dishes and started making a few recipes like macher jhol, kolkata eggroll and mishti doi.

Ingredients

• Chicken - Bone in chicken is the best choice. The dark meat of chicken thighs and drumsticks and the collagen of bones contributes to the flavor and richness of the sauce. Use skinless chicken. I usually make it with chicken drumsticks, however ideally chicken leg quaters are used in making chicken rezala. Halal shops here in United States sell whole chicken that they will cut for you. It is ideal to use to make chicken rezala. 
• Yogurt - Use whole milk, plain yogurt. Make sure that the yogurt is not too sweetish else it will overpower the sweetness of the rezala sauce. Thick yougyrt is preferable, I use greek yogurt and it works fine.
• White Pepper - Ideally such mellow and creamy mughlai chicken recipes such as rezala or korma or chicken malai marinade use white peppercorns. White peppercorn has a musty flavor and I find that it has a a pronounced subtle residual heat that hits the back of tongue as compared to kick from black pepper powder that instantly hits you. Besides the flavor, white pepper also preserves the pearly white color of the gravy. But you dont have to purchase it just for this dish, use a combination of green chillies and black pepper for taste.
• Whole Spices - We want to achieve a combination of heat & aroma from the spices but the flavors should not become strong. Dried red kashmiri chillies, black peppercorns, bay leaves, coriander seeds and sweet aromatic spices such as green cardamom, mace, nutmeg powder and cinnamon are the spices that will go into the sauce.
• Cashews & White Poppy Seeds - These two ingredients form the body of the rezala sauce. White poppy seeds or khus khus or posto are a popular ingredient in bengali cooking and once soaked and ground with cashews, they make the sauce creamy. You can vary the amount of these two ingredinents if you prefer a less creamy sauce.
• Onions - I like to grind the onions to a paste and use it. I use yellow onions beause I dont want to interfere with the color of the sauce. So rezala sauce isnt chunky, it is smooth. If you want you could use fried onions and turn them into a paste for a strong umami taste.
• Aromatics- Besides spices, saffron, kewra water or meetha attar (edible sweet liquid scent) or rose water are also used to enhnace the flavor and aroma of chicken rezala. I use few saffron strands and kewra to finish.
• Other ingredients - garlic paste, ginger paste, salt, green chillies

Consistency of Rezala Sauce

Ideally, or in the original recipes from famous Calcutta restaurants, you will find a thin, runny sauce with a layer of ghee separating. In my homemade version I make it both thin or thick depending on if I serving it with rice or with flatbreads. My kids generally prefer a thick masala in chicken dishes.

You can thin out the sauce depending on your preferance.

Instructions

Preperation

This is not a straigforward chicken recipe such as murgh masala. You do need to prepare in terms of marinating the chicken, making the cashews - poppy seedsd paste and making the spice powder.

Longer you marinate the chicken, its better. I usually marinate it overnight. You can start to prepare a 1-2 days ahead or even a few hours ahead.

1. Marinate the Chicken- Add the cleaned, skinless chicken pieces to a large bowl and add yogurt, ginger garlic paste, white pepper powder, salt and ghee. Using your hands massage the chicken pices nicely. Cover the bowl with a plastic cling film and marinate overnight (6-8 hours) or at least 2-3 hours. Don't skip the marination step.

2. Make the spice powder - In a small skillet, lightly dry toast all the spices. Place in a spice grinder and grind to a powder. Set aside.

3. Grind the cashew paste - In your wet grinder, add the poppy seeds, add 3 tablespoon warm water and give it a grind. Grind on high speed to a very fine paste. Add more water if needed.

4. Prepare the onion paste - Add roughly chopped onions to a small blender jar and without adding water or using very less water, grind to a smooth paste.

Make Chicken rezala

Pull out the marinated chicken out of the refrigerator 1-1.5 hours before beginning to cook.

5. In a heavy bottom pot or a dutch oven (4 qt or larger), add the ghee and warm it up on low heat.
6. Temper the ghee with all the whole spices and saute for 8-10 seconds on low heat taking care that the spices do not burn and their flavor starts releasing.
7. Add the onion paste next and fry on low medium heat saute the onion paste till its rawness is gone. You will notice that the color will be very light brown and the oil is separating. Dont let the onions brown too much else it will take away the color of sauce.

8. Reduce the heat to low, add 2-3 tablespoons of water and add the marinated chicken pieces. Sprinkle the spice powder that we made earlier.
9. Gently stir the chicken to mix with onion and coat in spices. Let the stove be on low while you stir the chicken. This will make sure that the yogurt wont curdle. Stir for couple of minutes so that the yogurt starts warming up. 

10. Now, add the cashew-poppy seeds paste we made along with salt & sugar. Stir to combine everything. You may add some green chilies at this point. Cover the pot and let cook on low medium heat for 10 minutes. You wil need to stir around a few times in between. Once you see that the sauce has started gentling bubbling, reduce the heat to low and let cook covered for another 15-20 minutes.

11. Around 25 minutes, open and check. You will see a layer of fat on the sides and a thin sauce. Make sure that the chicken pieces are cooked through but not falling apart. Taste to check and adjust the salt if needed. Add the saffron & kewra (if using). Mix and let the simmer for 2-3 more minutes. Switch off the stove and let rest for 15-20 minutes before serving. 
12. Serve with naan or rice,or as you wish.

Recipe Tips

1. Choose quality chicken pieces, preferably with bones, as they enhance the flavor during cooking. I prefer to slow cook the chicken, however you can pressure cook the chicken beforehand and then finish it with the sauce.
2. Marination does wonders to the tenderness and flavor of chicken.
3. You can replace the cashews with almonds if you wish. Soak the almonds and peel the skin nefore using.
4. If you not every finicky about color, or dont want to purchase white pepper, use black pepper in the recipe. The curry will be slightly darker in color.
5. White pepper has a sharp taste compared to the black ones, be sure touse it sparingly in the beginning. Taste the sauce as you add it so as to not land up with a very spicy sauce. The rezala has a mild sweetish taste.
6. Use ghee for cooking, it gives an authentic taste and aroma.