This was for a special birthday dinner for my husband. As he is allergic to most nuts including almonds and cashews that these type of recipes often call for, I had to find my own path to making this dish taste as good as the traditional recipe would be but yet still enjoyable by my husband without a trip to the emergency.

Morogh Mosallam – Bengali Version of Roasted Chicken!

Chicken 1 (about 1.5 kg)
Ginger paste 1.5 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder 1 tsp
Onion Paste 1 tbsp
Garlic paste 1 tsp
Green chili paste 1 tsp
Hazel nut paste 1-2 tbsp
Yogurt ½ cup
Water 2-3 cups
Dried plum 6 pieces (optional)
Raisins 2 tbsp (optional)
Saffron ½ tsp
Kewra water 2 tbsp
Milk ½ cup
Oil ½ cup
Cinnamon stick 2 inch
Whole Cardamom 4-6
Cloves 7-8
Chopped onion 1 cup
Ghee (clarified butter) ¼ cup (or as required)
Salt to taste
Whole Green Chilies 3-5 (optional)

Wash the chicken well and pat dry of any water. Tie the drum sticks together with butcher’s twine. Marinade the chicken with ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric, onion paste, garlic, green chili, nut paste and yogurt. Keep aside for 1 hour or more.

In a pot, boil the chicken with the water. Make sure you include all the marinade with the water as it becomes part of the gravy. Remove the chicken once it’s almost fully cooked and set aside. Reduce the water till it’s about half.

In a small bowl, mix kewra water, saffron and milk and set aside.

In a separate wok or pot, add oil and fry the chopped onions until they are golden brown. Set aside half of the fried onions for garnish. Add the boiled chicken and fry on all sides until the chicken is browned. Add dried plum raisins, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves with the reduced water. Traditional recipes would also add chopped pistachios at this time however I did not due to the nut allergy. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or less. Cover if required. Add salt if required. Pour the milk mixture. Cook for another 5 minutes or until the gravy is thickened to your liking. At this point also add the whole green chilies if you want. I use them to enhance the flavour that green chili provides not for the heat and if seeds do not escape the chili it will not get hot.

Take it off the heat and serve hot. Don’t forget to remove the butcher’s twine before serving. Garnish with fried onions that were set aside earlier. Serve with polau or plain white rice.

Notes:

• Traditional recipes use almond or peanut paste. You can also use store bought nut butter that does not have any other ingredients than nuts and oil.
• Use your discretion on how much oil and ghee you want to use. I did not use the entire amount that the recipe asked for health concerns.
• You can replace whole cardamom, clove and cinnamon with 1 tbsp of garam masala.
• I also did not use the pistachios due to allergies. If you would like to use pistachios, add 1 tablespoon of it. Also, optional is dried plum (did not have at home and some of the family members do not like it). I made a paste out of raisins as some do not like them in the cooked food.