Dhania Murghi (Cilantro Chicken)

This is one of those deceptively simple recipes. There's not much to it: just a bit of onion and cilantro, a few cashews, and a tiny amount of garam masala. It hardly seems like enough to adequately season the whole dish! And the sauce looks pretty pale and watery while you're making it. So I was pleasantly surprised when this curry turned out to be deliciously flavourful! Everyone liked this one.

Photo goes here.

Dhania Murghi

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. water, divided
• 2 onions, 1 chopped, 1 halved and sliced
• 1/4 c. raw cashews
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• ~600g skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 2-cm wide strips
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. Punjabi garam masala
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies (or cayenne)¹

Directions

1. Pour 1/2 c. of the water into a blender.
2. Add the chopped onion, cashews, and cilantro to the blender with the water.
3. Purée until smooth. Set aside.
4. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
5. Add the sliced onion to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, for 3-5 minutes.
6. Add the sauce and reduce heat to medium.
7. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated and the sauce darkens.
8. Add the chicken and stir-fry until the meat is seared (2-4 minutes).
9. Pour in the remaining 1/2 c. of water and deglaze the pan.
10. Add the salt, garam masala, and ground chilies and bring to a boil.
11. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through (5-8 minutes).
12. Uncover and increase heat to medium-high.
13. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens (~5 minutes).

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¹ The original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. of ground cayenne. I ended up replacing this with 1/4 tsp. of ground Kashmiri chilies. I usually cut the chilies by 25-50% in recipes for the sake of the Kidlet. And I've also taken to replacing most instances of cayenne or arbol chilies with Kashmiri since I enjoy their more complex flavour and the Kidlet appreciates their lower spice levels. So I've given a range here, as well as two chili options. Make it according to your taste buds and what you have on hand. ^Back