c46 chicken bharta

C46 Chicken Bharta

This originates from Calcutta (Kolcata) in the state of Bengal and is said to be of Mughal origin. There are many recipes to be found on-line and this is a typical variant. Bharta basically means 'mashed or minced' and traditionally contains shredded chicken and mashed boiled eggs. This version departs from this and is cooked in the BIR (British Indian Restaurant) style. As a consequence it is converted into a single portion with some ingredient changes to suit. This would typically contain Punjabi Garam Masala and there are many variations for this, but the Kitchen King spice mix (Masala) used here contains all the spices found in the more sophisticated versions. Some restaurants add a hard boiled egg which I think is unnecessary - your choice.

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
2 tbspn oil	300 ml c46 curry base sauce (see note 2)
30 gm onion (prepared weight)	1 tbspn onion/yogurt marinade (see pre-cooked marinated chicken)
¼ tspn turmeric	1 portion pre-cooked marinated chicken
¼ tspn ground cumin	¼ tspn salt
¼ tspn ground coriander	½ tspn methi (2) (see note 3)
½ tspn methi (1) (see note 1)	1 tbspn freshly chopped coriander
½ tspn garam masala	20 gm unsalted butter
½ tspn kitchen king spice mix	2 tbspn yogurt
½ tspn chilli powder

Preparation

Chop the onion.
Chop the fresh coriander.

Cooking - 8 min

Heat the oil in a suitable pan and fry the onion, stirring regularly, for 2 min.
Add the turmeric, ground cumin, ground coriander, methi (1), garam masala, kitchen king spice mix and chilli powder and cook, stirring, for 1 min, adding a little c46 base sauce if needed to prevent drying and burning.
Stir in the onion/yogurt marinade and 40 ml of c46 base sauce and cook, stirring regularly, for 1 min, adding a little c46 base sauce if needed to prevent drying.
Add the pre-cooked marinated chicken, 80 ml of c46 base sauce and the salt and cook, stirring regularly, for 3 min, adding c46 base sauce as needed to maintain the desired sauce consistency.
Reduce the heat and stir in the methi, fresh coriander, butter and yogurt and cook, stirring regularly, for 1 min, adding c46 base sauce as needed to maintain the desired sauce consistency.

Serving

Serve with rice and garnish with a little freshly chopped coriander.

Notes

(1) Methi (Kasuri Methi) is dried fenugreek leaves and can be purchased at some supermarkets or any Indian outlet.
(2) Dilute the c46 base sauce with 100 - 200 ml of water and heat before use. If defrosted from frozen, warm and briefly blend to restore the original colour and consistency. Other base sauces can be used instead.
(3) The methi used at this final stage should really be ground to a powder in a spice grinder.

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