Chicken Rezala

A slow cooked creamy, mughlai inspired chicken dish from the east indian cuisine. Chicken rezala is a royal curry of chicken cooked in a white gravy fragrant with spices and creamy due to addition of ground cashew & poppy seeds paste. There is no cream or milk used. In the original form, mutton is used in rezala but I prefer using chicken.

The best thing about mughlai cooking is the use of exotic yet delicate and rich flavors. The gravy is thin, its not saucy, its slightly on the sweeter side, tangy from whole yogurt and creamy from the nut paste. The rezala dish has complex yet mild flavors.

The heat comes from ground white pepper and green chillies, there is no use of turmeric or red chilli powder. The thin layer of fat that separates from yogurt, chicken, fried onions and ghee used in cooking is indicative of its authenticity and rich taste.

I did not grow up eating this dish but after getting married, I really got interested in Bengali cuisine and this is one of the gems of the cuisine. Bengali cooking is complex, it teases your palate and caters to your senses with the use of mellow fragrant spices.

A few things to be kept in mind when making rezala.

1. Don't make rezala with boneless chicken. Use bone in chicken and choose to slow cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour till the chicken is cooked rather than pressure cooking it.
2. Always marinate the chicken.
3. You can replace the cashews with blanced almonds if you wish.
4. If you not every finicky about color, use black peppercorns in the recipe, the curry will be less sharp and darker in color.
5. Use ghee for cooking, it gives an authentic taste.
6. White peppercorns have a sharp taste compared to the black ones, be sure to check the taste to sauce as you add it so as to not land up with a very spicy sauce. The rezala has a mild sweetish taste.

Chicken Rezala

Tanvi Srivastava

A nutty, delicately flavored chicken dish from East indian cuisine.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 6 hours hrs

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Equipment

• Dutch Oven or Heavy Bottom Pot with lid

Ingredients

  

Marinate The Chicken

• 1.5 lb (750gms) chicken skinless (preferably) bone in chicken, preferably choose 1 whole chicken cut in 8 pieces or chicken things & drumsticks
• ¾ cup plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 teaspoon white pepper powder adjust to taste
• 1 tablespoon melted ghee

For the Spice Powder

• 2 black cardamom seeds only
• 8 green cardamom seeds only
• 2-3 long mace twigs
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• ½ teaspoon white peppercorns or use white pepper powder adjust to taste

For Making the rezala sauce

• 2 teaspoon white poppy seeds
• 15 raw whole cashews
• 5 tablespoon ghee
• 6 dried red chillies
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 black cardamom whole
• 2 inch cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• ¾ cup onion paste
• 1 tablespoon green chilli paste adjust to taste
• 1 teaspoon shah jeera
• 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
• 1.5 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 10-12 saffron strands soaked in warm milk
• 1-2 drops kewra water optional

Instructions

 

Marinate the Chicken

• Add the cleaned chicken pieces to a large bowl and add all the listed ingredients. Using your hands massage the chicken pices nicely with yogurt, ghee nand spices. Cover the bowl with a cling film and marinate overnight (6-8 hours). Dont skip the marination step.

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.

Make the curry

• Set the marinated chicken out of the refrigerator at least 1 hour prior to cooking.
• In your wet grinder, add the poppy seeds first, add 3 tablespoon water and give it a grind. Open and add cashews along with 3 tablespoon of water. Grind both the things on high speed to a very fine paste. Add water if needed.
• In a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven, add the ghee and warm it up on medium heat.
• Temper the ghee with all the whole spices and saute for 30 seconds. Take care that the spices do not burn.
• Add the onion paste next and on low medium heat saute the onion paste till you its beginning to change to light brown in color and the oil is separating. Dont let the onions brown too much.
• Add cumin seeds and the ginger garlic and chilli paste next and saute for a minute till you smell a nice aroma.
• Reduce the heat to low, wait for a minute and slowly add the marinated chicken to the pot. Also add the ground spices we made earlier. Gently stir the chicken continously for 2 minutes. Let the stove be on low while you stir the chicken. This will make sure that the yogurt wont curdle.
• After stirring for 2 minutes, cover the pot and let cook undisturbed for 10 minutes on low heat.
• Open the pot, stir the chicken, you will see a gravy forming from water of yogurt and chicken juices. Add the cashew-poppyseeds paste we made along with salt & sugar. Stir to combine , cover the pot and let cook again for 15 minutes on medium low. While the chicken is cooking just check once or twice to make sure that nothing is sticking to bottom of pot since cashew have the tendency to stick.
• At the end of 15 minutes, open the pot. You will see a layer of fat on the sides and top of the chicken. Make sure that the chicken pieces are cooked through but not falling apart. Depending on the quality of your chicken the time taken can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 25 minutes.
• At the end of cooking, check and adjust the salt if needed. Add the saffron, kewra and white pepper powder. Mix and let the curry simmer for 2-3 more minutes. Switch off the stove and let stand for atleast 30 minutes before serving.
• The sauce of rezala is not runny at all so no extra water is added so please dont add any water, it will dilute the taste of the sauce.
• Serve with rotis. parathas or rice, as you wish.

Notes

1. Don't make rezala with boneless chicken. Use bone in chicken and choose to slow cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour till the chicken is cooked rather than pressure cooking it.
2. Always marinate the chicken.
3. You can replace the cashews with blanced almonds if you wish.
4. If you not every finicky about color, use black peppercorns in the recipe, the curry will be less sharp and darker in color.
5. Use ghee for cooking, it gives an authentic taste.
6. White peppercorns have a sharp taste compared to the black ones, be sure to check the taste to sauce as you add it so as to not land up with a very spicy sauce. The rezala has a mild sweetish taste.

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