Over the years of my experimenting in the kitchen, I have developed few personal standards to asses my performance.
For non-vegetarian dishes with gravy, the rule of thumb is that the spices and the protein (the main ingredient of any non-vegetarian dish) should be roasted well to allow the aromatic components of the recipe seep deep into the protein and the oil leaves the sides of the pan.
Kasuri Methi Murg – Fenugreek Chicken

Difficulty level: Easy
Ingredients:
- Chicken – 1 kg
- Vegetable oil or Olive Oil – 4 to 5 tbsp (don’t shy off from adding that much oil, else you’ll never get the final, warm color of the spices, irrespective of the amount of chili powder you put in)
- Cloves – 2
- Cardamoms -3 (remove the seeds from the pod and crush them well)
- Cinnamon – 2 pieces (approximately 3 cm each)
- Black Cardamom – 1
- Black peppercorns -4
- Bay leaves -2
- Turmeric powder – 1 Tsp
- Red chili powder -1 tsp (you can adjust it to your personal preference of how hot you like your food)
- Garam Masala powder 1/2 Tsp
- Salt – to taste
- Garlic – 6 cloves
- Ginger – about 2 inch
- Onion – 4 to 5 medium-sized
- Tomato – 5
- yogurt – 3 tablespoon (you can use the one set at home or the Greek yogurt)
- Dried Fenugreek leaves (you can get the Kasoori Methi from the market or dry a few bunches of fresh fenugreek leaves in shade. They smell superb and can be conveniently stored for up to a year)
Method:
- Clean, skin and thoroughly wash the chicken pieces and set aside.
- Finely dice 2 cloves of garlic, half of the ginger and one onion and set aside to fry them.
- Make a fine paste of the remaining cloves of garlic, ginger, onions and tomatoes in a mixer or food processor. You can also use tomato puree.
- Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan or wok. Add the bay leaves, cloves, crushed cardamom seeds, black pepper, black cardamom and cinnamon.
- Now add the finely diced ginger, garlic and onion and let them saute till onion pieces get tender and transparent.
- To this add the ginger, garlic, onion, tomato paste.
- Now add salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and garam masala powder.
- Let the masala mix well and simmer on a medium flame. Remember to stir often and cook for five minutes.
- Now add the Chicken pieces to the prepared masala and let it cook for 20 minutes. Stir with a gentle hand at regular intervals till the chicken is tender and the masala leaves oil at sides of the pan. Add very little water if the mixture starts sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Once the oil leaves the sides of the pan, add the yoghurt and cook for the next ten minutes with constant stirring to avoid the masala from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Now add water to adjust the amount of gravy you like (more if you’d like to eat it with rice).
- Let it simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Once ready (always check whether the chicken is tender), crush the dry fenugreek leaves in between your palms and garnish generously.
- Immediately place the lid to avoid the aroma of the fenugreek from escaping.
- Serve hot with rice or naan or chapati.
It is one of my personal favourites that I have successfully cooked for a wide variety of people.
For more recipes from my kitchen, visit my food corner.
Yum!!! That looks so delicious! I so wish I could cook non-veg- for some weird reason, I love eating chicken, but cannot cook it- I find it tough to handle uncooked meat, I think..
But this looks abs yum!
LikeLike
I can totally understand your pain…thank you Smitha 🙂
LikeLike
Oye…i prepared it on 26th jan for the 1st time following Sanjeev Kapoor’s website…it turned out really yummy….bit variation though…marinated the chicken in yogurt & added fresh chopped methi leaves while cooking the chicken…rest is all same….. 🙂
LikeLike
This is my mom’s recipe, that I often cook…I too am a huge fan of Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipes…they turn out real yum 😀
LikeLike
😦 😦 psst psst I want them like right NOW… drooling on the pictures… will try this soon but I have to first buy kasthuri methi for this..
LikeLike
Either buy Kasoori methi Or else dry a bunch of fresh fenugreek from the herbs section. Spread the leaves on an old newspaper in shade and they’ll be dried and ready in two days flat 😀
LikeLike
oooh that is yummy yummmy .. so tonight this is gonna be made for sure .. I am sure i have all the ingrediatnts .. lovely jubley
more more more .. how about some mutton 🙂
LikeLike
Give it a shot and then tell me how it turned out….mutton too coming up soon 😀
LikeLike
yummm yummmmm 😛 😛
LikeLike
Thank you Sheils…do try it sometime 😀
LikeLike
Ok now all I want is thin-thin chapatis, sliced onion with lemon squeezed on it, and a bowlful of this curry! Bliss! Add funny company and a glass of JD with coke and that is what I’d call a little heaven on earth! I will definitely make it this weekend and let you know how it turned out(or I might just show this post to AB :P). In any case I am having it!
The methi chicken I make has a cream base instead of a tomato one. It turns out fab too but this variation looks very tempting 🙂
LikeLike
Sounds awesome…I like the idea of showing the recipe to AB 😉 😉
As far the cream base…I make Mughlai chicken and Butter chicken that way 😀
Give it a shot and let me know how it turned out 😀
LikeLike
Made it! 😀
It turned out simply superb! And it was a breeze to make. With AB’s grandmom’s home made garam masala, it became a more brownish-orange than reddish-orange, nevertheless a very rich colour and mind-blowing taste. Which tempts me to think of special recipes for (almost)every weekend. Wanna start something – recipe exchange kind of a thing?
LikeLike
Woooooooooow! offcourse cooking something yum is way of life 😀 😀
I am sooooooooooo glad it turned out good…am game for recipe exchange 😀
LikeLike
That does look very delicious, although I don’t eat any meat. So I would silently skip this while you enjoy the finger licking murg 🙂
LikeLike
You’re a darling Anu 😀
LikeLike
I love methi. I want to smell this dish, esp the methi bit now. Btw, I dont eat chicken, yet the picture is mouth watering 🙂
LikeLike
Try the same recipe with Paneer…it’ll come out as yummy as well 😀
LikeLike
I am a vegetarian and I am totally opposed to eating chicken or any other creature.
Destination Infinity
LikeLike
That’s cool…
LikeLike
Errr…you think I can try this with Paneer???
LikeLike
definitely…in fact,almost all non-veg dishes can be turned vegeterian if you use Paneer instead of the non-vegeterian protein 😀
LikeLike
I am going to try this with paneer then 🙂
LikeLike
Sure 😀
LikeLike
You are on a roll babes. Keep them coming. I am tempted big time with the drool worthy pics.
Era, Fenugreek and Chicken are match made in heaven na? I have a Methi Murg recipe in my blog which also turns out yummy. I’m gonna try this one next time I cook Chicken 😀
LikeLike
You’re the one who made this possible….I am actually gonna try dishes out of that yummy blog of yours…loved it!!
Do let me know how this version turned out for you 😀
LikeLike
I am a pure vegetarian but the pictures are so yummy!!!!!
And I have been reading your blog since yesterday and I am amazed with your grit & strength!!!
LikeLike
Welcome here Smita….thank you for liking what you saw and read here 😀
LikeLike
Oh damn!! This is too yummy! That reminds me, we need to get a mixer soon!!
Our kitchen is too small and it’s already cramped. A mixer will be the height of things!! 😛
LikeLike
You can always get those small mixers darling, they need very little room and conveniently store in any of the shelves or the cupboard 😀
LikeLike
I’ll just take the easy way out and come over to your house just to eat!! 😀 That way I get to see Pari also
LikeLike
Excellent idea 😀 😀
You are most welcome 🙂
LikeLike
Looks yummy…..I don’t njoy non-veg that much…but I will try making Panner/Soya/Mushroom with the same receipe…lets see how it turns out to be:)
this reminds me to update my blog….http://bornfoodie.blogspot.com/
LikeLike
Wow! you’ve got a food blog too..hopping over right away….yep Tofu/Mushroom/ Paneer will taste yum too 😀
LikeLike
I wanna attack this. It looks so yummm
LikeLike
thank you 🙂
LikeLike
yummy!! unfortunately I dont eat/cook non veg, but I will pass on the recipe to the husband. He is an avid non-veggie eater and cook!
Do you think substituting chicken with potatoes will work for me?
LikeLike
Try substituting the chicken with Paneer/ tofu that’ll get you yummier results than potatoes 🙂
LikeLike
This looks absolutely delicious…. You could consider hosting a party with all your special dishes and invite us 😉 🙂
LikeLike
Sounds pretty cool idea Tan…give the recipe a try, you won’t be disappointed 😀 😀
LikeLike
Pingback: Weekend special « Between me and my little
OMG drool. Looks amazing.
LikeLike
Thank you S&SP
LikeLike
WOW. I adore all of the spices in this chicken.
DeLish!!! Thank you for sharing. I’m starving now. x
LikeLike
Thank you MIC 🙂
LikeLike
Pingback: Butter Chicken « The Era I lived in
Pingback: Garlic Naan | The Era I lived in