Odia style chicken curry

Odia Style Chicken Gravy

Every region has a special style of preparing chicken dish. Some dishes are gravy, some are dry and some are semi gravy. Odias do have a separate style of cooking chicken. This gravy dish is called Kukuda Mansa Jhola. Kukuda Mansa means Chicken and Jhola means Gravy.

While growing up I used to eat this dish. My parents are vegetarians, so cooking of chicken came to me. This is the first dish I learnt to cook for my younger brother. This dish is special as we add potatoes to the gravy. A simple dish with lots of flavour. Here is the recipe

Chicken- 1 kg

Onion- 4 Medium

Gralic- 6 to 7 cloves

Ginger- 1 1/2 inch piece

Salt to taste

Haldi- 1 tbsp

Red Chili Powder- 1 tbsp

I use Kashmiri red chili powder

Tomatoes- 2

Zeera Powder- 1 1/2 tbsp

(Cumin)

Dhania Powder- 1 1/2 tbsp

(Coriander)

Clove- 3 to 4

Green Cardamom- 3 to 4

Zeera- 1tsp

Black Pepper- 5 to 6

Cinnamon- 1inch piece

Potatoes- 4

Mustard Oil- 2 1/2 tbsp

Peel and clean onions. Make a coarse paste and keep aside.

Peel and clean ginger and garlic and make a smooth paste and keep aside.

Clean and cut the potatoes in half.

In a bowl add chicken and clean properly under running water. Squeeze out all the water from chicken and keep in another bowl. 

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai. When hot, add whole garam masala and let it crackle.

Then add ginger and garlic paste to it. Fry it up to it starts sticking to the buttom of the kadai. Now add onion paste to it and fry till all the masala incorporated properly.

Clean and chop tomatoes. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for a min or two. Now add dry spices and fry again .

In the mean time heat 1/2tbsp of oil in a kadai and add halved potatoes, salt, haldi and red chili powder and fry again. It should be cooked up to red in colour.

When the masala is mushy and oil separates, add cleaned chicken to it. Cook the chicken covered throughout.

When the chicken is half done add fried potatoes. Now cook the curry up to potatoes and chicken become soft.

Now add water as required. I have added 11/2 cup of water to it. Let it boil in simmer for 5 to 6 mins. Then switch off the gas. Garnish the gravy with chopped coriander leaves.

Chicken gravy is ready to serve. This goes really well with plain rice or paratha.