C46 Chicken Bihari

This recipe is an adaptation of several traditional recipes from the Indian state of Bihar but converted to a BIR (British Indian Restaurant) style of cooking rather than the usual traditional method. Ingredient adjustments have also been made to suit the BIR style. Bihar is mainly vegetarian (a lot of fish is also eaten) although chicken recipes can be found and this offering contains ingredients typical of the area. This is a delicious Medium curry.

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
2 tbspn mustard oil (see note 1) or vegetable oil	½ tspn turmeric
100 gm onion (prepared weight)	½ tspn garam masala
5 gm ginger	½ tspn chicken masala (see note 2)
5 gm garlic	300 ml c46 curry base sauce (see note 3)
½ tspn chilli powder	1 portion c41 pre-cooked chicken
½ tspn ground coriander	¼ tspn salt
½ tspn ground cumin	2 tspn ground almonds

Preparation

Chop the onion.
Using a suitable food processor capable of handling small quantities, process the ginger, garlic and 50 gm of the onion with a little water (2 tbspn) to make a paste.

Cooking - 7½ min

Heat the oil in a suitable pan and fry the remaining 50 gm of chopped onion, stirring regularly, for 2 min.
Stir in the ginger/garlic/onion paste and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. WARNING: With a very hot pan a major pan flame will be produced - so BEWARE
Add the chilli powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric, garam masala and chicken masala and cook, stirring, for 1 min, adding a little c46 base sauce as needed to prevent drying and burning.
Add the precooked chicken, 80 ml of c46 base sauce and salt and cook, stirring regularly, for 3 min, adding c46 base sauce as needed to maintain the desired sauce consistency.
Stir in the ground almonds and cook, stirring regularly for 1 min, adding a little c46 base sauce as necessary to maintain the desired sauce consistency.

Serving

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

Notes

(1) The European Commission insists that mustard oil be labelled 'For External Use Only', but it has been used by millions in India for many years with apparently no ill effects. The pictures show 3 different brands, Pride, KTC and East End. The East End brand has a very potent mustard flavour and so if you are going to use mustard oil the KTC or Pride are probably more suited to the British palate. Strictly speaking due to the EC directive the use of mustard oil as a food product has to be discouraged.
(2) The 'chicken masala' used is MDH brand "chicken curry masala" and can be sourced at some supermarkets and Indian outlets. Recipes for something similar can also be located on the internet. If this is unobtainable a good quality curry powder can be used but please use it if possible as it contains spices not normally found in most curry powders.
(3) Dilute the 300 ml of c46 base sauce with 200 ml of water and heat before use. If defrosted from frozen the base sauce can be warmed and briefly blended to reconstitute the colour and consistency.

The main ingredients

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The finished meal

Chicken Curry Masala

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Mustard Oil

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