Chicken in a Red Sweet Pepper Sauce: A Go-To Indian Dish

It snowed here again last night, so I thought that I'd post another Indian dish to ward off the cold. This Chicken in a Red Sweet Pepper Sauce is a delicious, not-so-spicy (although you can change this if you'd like) dish. The ingredient list is longer than previous Indian dishes I've posted, but the work is worth it. We often double the amount of sauce for this dish, cook it with the chicken, and then freeze the second half of the sauce. Then all we have to do is add some chicken and we have a quick meal at another time. I also highly recommend serving it with Spiced Basmati Rice and some raita--a cool yogurt and cucumber sauce that works wonderfully with the red pepper.

Chicken in a Red Sweet Pepper Sauce
from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking

2 1/4 pounds chicken parts (We like thighs and drumsticks.)
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 inch cube of ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 1/2 Tbl blanched, slivered almonds
3/4 lb. sweet red peppers, trimmed, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1 Tbl ground cumin seeds
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/8-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (depending on your heat tolerance)
2 tsp salt
7 Tbl vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 Tbl lemon juice
1/2 tsp black pepper

If the chicken legs are whole, separate them from the thigh. Breasts should be cut into four parts. Skin all of the chicken pieces.

Combine onion, ginger, garlic, almonds, peppers, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne and salt in a food processor or blender. Blend until you have a paste.

Put the oil in a large, wide, and preferably non-stick pan and heat it over a medium-high heat. When hot, pour in all of the paste from the food processor or blender. Stir and fry the paste for 10-12 minutes or until you can see the oil forming tiny bubbles around it.

Put the chicken along with the water, lemon juice and black pepper into the pan. Stir to mix and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer gently for 25 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Stir a few times during the cooking period.

Serve with rice.

Subscribe to free updates from Mindy's Mouthful