Chicken Curry with pooris, chapatis, bread or steamed rice accompanied with lemon & onion slices.
| Prep Time | 540 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Passive Time | 6.30 hour |
| Servings |
people
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Ingredients
For pressure cooking the chana/chickpeas
- 1 Cup Dried White Chickpeas (kabuli chana or chole or safed chana)
- 3 Cups Water for pressure cooking the chana
- 1\2 Teaspoon Salt
For roasting the masala
- 3\4 to 1 Cup Fresh grated coconut
- 1 Inch Cinnamon (dalchini)
- 1\2 Tablespoon Fennel (saunf)
- 1\2 Tablespoon Cumin Seeds (jeera)
- 1 Tablespoon Coriander Seeds (sabut dhania)
- 2 Piece Dry Red Chilies (sookhi lal mirch)
- 2-3 Pieces Cloves (lavang)
- 1 Piece Black Cardamom (badi elachi)
- 2 Pieces Green Cardamom (chotti elachi)
- 3-4 Pieces Whole Black Pepper (sabut kali mirch)
- 1 Piece Small Stone Flower (dagad phool) - optional
Other ingredients
- 3 Tablespoon Oil
- 1 Peice Small Tej Patta (indian bay leaf)
- 1\2 Teaspoon Mustard Seeds (rai)
- 10-12 Pieces Curry Leaves (kadi patta)
- 1 Piece Green Chili (hari mirch) - slit
- 50 Gm Onion
- 80 Gm Tomatoes
- 1\2 Teaspoon Turmeric Powder (haldi)
- 1 Pinch Asafoetida (hing)
- 1\2 Inch Ginger
- 2-3 Pieces Garlic
- 1 Cup Stock OR stock+water
- 2 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander Leaves for garnishing (dhania patta)
Ingredients
For pressure cooking the chana/chickpeas
For roasting the masala
Other ingredients
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Instructions
Cooking the chana
- First rinse the 1 cup chana/dried chickpeas for a couple of times in water. then soak the chickpeas in enough water overnight or for 8 to 9 hours.
- Drain the water. rinse the chanas again for a couple of times.
- Again drain and add the soaked chanas in a pressure cooker.
- Add 1/2 tsp salt. add 3 cups water.
- Stir and pressure cook the chana for 18 to 20 whistles on medium to high flame.
- If cooking in a pot, then add about 3.5 to 4 cups water with salt to the chickpeas. cover and cook the chickpeas till they softened.
Preparing the masala
- When the chickpeas are cooking, in a pan or skillet, on a low flame dry roast the spices mentioned under the "roasting the masala" list, till they become fragrant. roast all spices except coconut.
- Then add 1/2 cup tightly packed grated coconut to the spices and begin to roast.
- Stir continuously while roasting the coconut, so that there is uniform browning.
- Roast till the coconut become golden. remove the pan and allow the this mixture to cool.
- Once the coconut-spice mixture is cooled, add them to wet grinder. remove the husk from the black cardamom and just add its seeds in the grinder.
- Add 2/3 to 3/4 cup water and grind to a smooth paste. keep aside.
Preparing the chana masala gravy or curry
- Heat 3 tbsp oil in a pan and add ½ tsp mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Then add tejpatta and stir.
- Add 1/3 cup chopped onion. Stir and saute till the onions turn translucent and soften.
- Add 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 1/4 tsp turmeric power, a pinch of asafoetida and 10-12 curry leaves. Stir and saute till the raw aroma of ginger-garlic disappears.
- Add 1/2 cup chopped tomato. saute for about 2 to 3 minutes till the tomatoes soften. Add the ground masala paste. Stir very well.
- Then add the drained chanas. stir again well and saute for a minute.
- Now add 1 cup stock or stock+water and 1 or 2 slit green chilies.
- Season with salt as required. do keep a check on salt as the stock already has salt.
- Give a boil and then simmer for 12-15 minutes on a low to medium flame or more till the gravy thickens a bit and you see some oil floating on top. mash a few chickpeas with the sides of the spoon to thicken the gravy. check the seasoning and add more salt as per your taste.
- Switch off the flame & lastly add 2 tbsp coriander leaves. stir well.
- Serve chana masala hot with pooris, chapatis, bread or steamed rice accompanied with lemon & onion slices.
