During our growing up years, chicken curry was something very synonymous to Sunday lunches for Indian meat eating households. Although in my house meat dish was not a regular item in the weekend menu, however, I clearly remember, whenever there was chicken curry on Sundays, it was to celebrate something special or to entertain the guests in the house.
Well, that was 90’s, when having chicken was confined to Sundays. Cut to 2019, when India is a growing economic super power and access to global foods have made chicken a regular dish in Indian household. The availability of different forms of chicken allows us to tweak our regular dish with a dose of chicken. Being reasonably priced than certain variety of fishes and its unique feature of being able to adapt itself to any cuisine, have also helped chicken gaining popularity. The fact that almost every restaurant in the country who serves meat atleast has one chicken item in their menu, proves the popularity of chicken among meat eaters in India.
Though nobody can question the fact that chicken is easily available, and whenever the urge arises we just need to tap our phone few times and our chicken dish will be waiting at our door. For that matter, the availability of chicken dishes is so common that it won’t be incorrect to say, we are losing the tradition of having chicken to celebrate something special.
But, for an Indian who has grown up in 90s, there is a deep attachment with the home-made chicken curry which cannot be explained. And the truth is, how much ever we explore chicken outside; the need to have that chicken curry prepared at home cannot be ignored.
It is fine if we are at home. We can anytime request our mothers to prepare that special chicken curry. But, how to address the urge when we are staying hundreds and thousands of kilometers away from home. I sincerely wish that technologically the world advances so much so that the next time I make a video call to my mother I can actually feel and taste the food 😋. Well, till that happens we have to manage cooking by ourselves 🤔. Hence, there is Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry recipe, which will solve the current problem in hand – to have the self made chicken curry prepared at home.
When we think of preparing traditional Indian curries, we tend to get nervous because of the effort and the time required making a perfect Indian curry. However, this recipe is quick and somehow incurs less effort. So, during next weekend, call your friends and impress them with this Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry, with a hint of traditional Bengali flavour.
Which one according to you is the perfect curry to try over the weekend? Click here and decide.
Recipe: Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry
Preparation Time: Around 30 minutes Cooking Time: 9 – 10 minutes in pressure cooker Equipment used: One mixing bowl, one pressure cooker
Ingredients:
- 900 gm chicken
- 1/3rd cup curd
- 4-5 potatoes
- 3-4 onions depending on the sizes
- One and half garlic
- 1 green chilli
- 1 X 1.5 inch ginger
- 1 red chilli
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- 4-5 tablespoon mustard oil
- ½ and ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 and ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
Method:
- Wash the chicken pieces and keep it aside
- Peel the onions and refrigerate, keeping them soaked in water
- Separate the cloves from garlic bulb and peel them
- Now grind a smooth paste of ginger, 1 or 2 onion, garlic cloves that are separated and peeled, and green chilli
- Add the above paste to chicken pieces along with curd, red chilli, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon garam masala powder, bay leaf and 1 tablespoon mustard oil. Mix the ingredients properly, cover the bowl and keep it aside for marination
- Wash the potatoes
- Peel the potatoes and cut each potato into two halves
- Rub ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder over the potato pieces
- Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a pressure cooker and add the potato pieces
- Fry the potato pieces on low flame for 5 minutes
- In the meantime cut the remaining onions, each one into four equal pieces
- Take out the potato pieces from pressure cooker and fry the cut onions by adding another (1) tablespoon oil into the pressure cooker
- After the onions turn golden brown or the onion scales separate from each other, add the marinated chicken pieces to the fried onions and stir and mix them properly
- Add the fried potato pieces
- Lock the cooker and pressure cook the chicken curry till one whistle
- Let the pressure releases by itself
- Open the lid of the pressure cooker and serve it hot
After washing the chicken pieces, peel the onions and refrigerate, keeping them soaked in water.
Grind a smooth paste of ginger, 1 or 2 onion, garlic cloves and green chilli.
Marinate chicken pieces by adding the above paste, along with curd, red chilli, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon garam masala powder, bay leaf and 1 tablespoon mustard oil.
Peel and cut the potatoes into halves.
Fry the potatoes in pressure cooker
Remove the potatoes and fry the remaining onions after cutting them into four equal pieces.
Add the marinated chicken pieces once the onions turn golden brown.
Pressure cook the chicken curry after adding the fried potato pieces
Tips:
- While cutting potatoes, keep the potato pieces soaked in water. Else they will turn brown owing to enzymatic reaction
- Peeling onions can also result in burning eyes. To avoid burning eyes, peel the onions under tap water
- For best results, marinate the chicken and keep it in refrigerator covered. You can marinate the chicken for long. However, for this recipe, 20 minutes of marination will be sufficient
- Pressure cooker chicken curry tastes best with steamed rice, parathas and even plain chapattis
- If you want, you can completely skip the potatoes. Directly add the onion pieces into the cooker after heating 2 tablespoon oil
