Dhanepatawala Chicken (Chicken n Corriander)

Note: Yesterday I went to my Mejojethi's place for lunch. It is in the hallowed tradition of our family that all people residing out of Cal (i.e., lost souls) when they come to visit their friends and family in the city have to be fed to their gills by doting grandmoms, aunts, sisters, etc. and the success of their collective endeavours is measured by the gain on the weighing scales. Anything less than 5-10kgs is seen as a very mediocre effort on their part. So anyways I enjoyed the food soooo much....the least I could do is to pay my homage to her supreme spread by sharing the recipe of one of those many magnificent dishes. The subtle flavour and the simple procedure and ingredients makes this one a gem.

Ingredients

Chicken 1kg

Corriander leaves- 4 bundles (approx 250gms I think)

Green chillies- 4

Garlic paste- 2 tsp

Ginger paste- 1 tsp

Onion- 2 if big in size, 4 if small

Potatoes- 2 medium sized ones

Vinegar- 3 tbsp

Coconut milk- 1 tetrapack of Dabur Hommade one will do (approx 2 cups of thick milk)

Butter- 2tsp

Pepper- 1 tsp

Oil- 4-5tbsp

Salt and Sugar to taste

Procedure

First marinate the chicken with vinegar and salt for an hour. Wash the corriander leaves and green chillies and grind into a thick paste. Cut the onions into long slices and the potatoes into finger-chips. Fry the Onions well (should be red in colour) and the potato finger chips and keep these two aside.

We can use the oil left from the fried onions and potatoes for cooking the chicken (clean any leftover matter with your spatula). First put the garlic and the ginger paste and fry well. Then add the corriander- chilli paste and fry a little bit (not too much, as it will lose the nice green colour and become black instead). Add the coconut milk and then the marinated chicken. Mix well with the fried masala and cook over slow fire. Keep checking and stirring from time to time. When the chicken is cooked check and add the sugarand salt as required. Add the fried potatoes, onion, butter and pepper and mix well. The dish is ready to serve! Since we don't put any water separately while cooking- the dish is "makha makha" with a thick gravy. Goes well with both roti/paratha and rice. (If you like your chicken very hotttt, ;-) then try varying the quantity of green chillies to get your optimum level of spiciness. )

Total preparation time is approx 1 hour (not counting the marination time for the chicken).