Mughlai Chicken Korma

Hands down, the BEST chicken dish I have ever made so far. Of course, its rich, but then, its Muglai! When you bite into the first morsel, you know it was made for Moghuls! In a nut shell , this chicken dish is Royalty personified!

Have tried cutting down on oil and cream, and quite satisfied with the effort vs result. While going by my standards it is a rich gravy, but for some others, 6-7 tablespoons of oil with 3 tablespoon of light cream (for a gravy that serves 2-3 people) may not be a big deal for such an aromatic royal treat. Trust me, make it for your guests, and they will soon be spreading the word around about your cooking skills!

As most other recipes, this is my version of the Muglai Chicken Korma (no store bought special korma masala), which has been improvised over a period of time. And looks like, this time around, it was made to perfection. Follow the recipe as is, it's fool proof !!

You need: 

Don't let the extensive list scare you, as most of them are regular spices we use for daily cooking. And the cooking steps are super simple.

Chicken - 300 grams (preferably big pieced with bones, moguls didn't ever eat get to eat  boneless I guess:) )

Onion - 3 medium (sliced)

Garlic - Large cloves - 5-6

Ginger 1/2 inch piece

Tomato - 1 large (finely chopped)

Curry Leaves - 10-12 nos. 

Black Cardamom - 1 no.

Green Cardamom - 5-6 Nos.

Cinnamon Stick - 1/2 inch

Cloves - 8-10 nos.

Whole black pepper - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

coriander powder - 1.5 tsp

Red chili powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Dry ginger powder/  Sonth - 1/2 tsp

Garlic power - 1/4 tsp

Green cardamom fine powder - 1/4 tsp

Oil - 6-7 Tbsp

Yogurt - 3 Tbsp

Light cream - 3 Tbsp (usually its heavy cream, but I use light and it works just fine)

Almonds - 7-8 (skin removed. Though this makes the dish look even more special while serving, but I skip it. It's totally optional)

1. In a heavy bottom pan add 2 Tbsp of oil. Fry the onions with chopped ginger and garlic for 1-2 min. Blend well into a very fine paste without adding any water (this step removes the pungent and bitter taste of onion and at the same time, you will need much lesser oil now to make the same recipe )
2. In the same heavy bottom pan, add the remaining oil. Add the onion, ginger, garlic paste now and fry for 2-3 min, till nice pink color is seen. Blend this into a fine paste/
3. Add chicken and mix well. Cover and cook for 4-5 min.
4. Add tomatoes, curry leaves and all other spices (both powdered and whole)
5. Stir well. Cover and cook till chicken is done. You can make out when the masala starts leaving oil on the sides and also starts sticking a little to the base. 
6. At this stage,  mix yogurt and light cream thoroughly to get a homogeneous mixture. Add this to the curry above, cover and cook till its done well. 
7. Add almonds and raisins once you switch off the flame. (skip if you are watching your weight but if you are inviting special guests over, you can always add almonds/ raisins to make the dish look so very Muglai!)
8. Serve hot with Paratha or Naan.