Chicken Hyderabadi
A fiery, coconutty curry. Make this a few hours ahead to let the flavors fully develop.
Servings: 4 -6 servings
Ingredients
- 2.2 - 3.2 lb (1 - 1.4 kg) free range, whole chicken
Masala
- 4-5 cloves
- 3-4 green cardamom pods
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 ½ teaspoon white or black poppy seeds
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 10-15 dried red chilies* destemmed
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 2 onions chopped
- 20-25 garlic cloves (about 1 head of garlic) peeled
- 2- inch piece ginger
- 5 tablespoons unsweetened coconut shreds
- 1 tablespoon water
Assembly
- 2 tablespoons (25 g)** ghee (or neutral oil)
- 1 cup (240 ml) coconut cream***
- ½ cup (120 ml) water
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil vegetable or avocado oil
- 15-20 cashews
- 1 teaspoon cayenne
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken well, both inside and outside, removing any giblets from the interior cavity. Pat dry.
- Grind the cloves, cardamom pods, turmeric, coriander seeds, and poppy seeds together in a spice grinder until a fine powder forms. Add to a blender or food processor, together with the remaining masala ingredients. Blend to a smooth paste, adding another ½ - 1 tablespoon water only if necessary.
- Reserve ½ the masala and place in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Stuff the chicken cavity with the other half of the masala paste, then tie the legs together with twine.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, moving the rack to the lower middle level. Heat the ghee or oil over medium heat in a dutch oven. Carefully lower the masala-stuffed chicken into the dutch oven and fry until brown on all sides. Add the coconut cream (or milk) and water, cover the dutch oven with a secure lid, and place in the oven. Bake for 75 - 90 minutes.****
- Remove the chicken from the dutch oven and let it rest on a cutting board for 5 minutes. Transfer the liquid from the dutch oven to a bowl for later use.
- Heat the tablespoon of neutral oil in the now-emptied dutch oven over medium heat. Carefully remove the stuffing from the chicken and add the masala back to the dutch oven, together with the cashews and the masala from the fridge. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you prefer a smooth sauce, puree the sauce now in a high-powered blender, then return once more to the Dutch oven on low heat.
- Meanwhile, break down the cooked chicken, removing the skin and bones, reserving the meat as medium-sized pieces.
- Add the chicken pieces and any reserved juices to the cooking masala and cashews, continue sauteing another 4-5 minutes. Check the seasoning, add the cayenne powder and salt to taste. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens and the oil floats to the top.
- If necessary, use a gravy strainer to separate the oil from the sauce (you shouldn't need to do this unless you opted to use more than ¼ cup of ghee).
Notes
*I used 10 homegrown red jalapeno peppers. I achieved similar results with 1 - 2 teaspoons chili pepper flakes.
**The original recipe called for 1 cup of ghee. I found this to be dramatically more than necessary, and scaled back to a less wasteful amount.
***If you cannot find coconut cream, full-fat coconut milk will work almost as well.
****The chicken can also be poached in the coconut milk-water using a pressure cooker. This step took 25 minutes in my instant pot. I didn't notice any substantial difference between the chicken cooked with the two different methods.
**The original recipe called for 1 cup of ghee. I found this to be dramatically more than necessary, and scaled back to a less wasteful amount.
***If you cannot find coconut cream, full-fat coconut milk will work almost as well.
****The chicken can also be poached in the coconut milk-water using a pressure cooker. This step took 25 minutes in my instant pot. I didn't notice any substantial difference between the chicken cooked with the two different methods.