Recipe for "chicken-yogurt"

NAME

     CHICKEN-YOGURT - An Indian-style chicken  dish  with  yogurt
     and red pepper
     This  fail-safe  recipe  yields  a  delicious   Indian-style
     chicken  dish.  Serve  it  with rice and you have a meal. It
     makes wonderful leftovers-in fact, it tastes much better  as
     leftovers.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 4)

     1         frying chicken
     60 ml     vegetable oil
     3         medium onions
     2         garlic cloves
     5 ml      cayenne (red pepper)
     15 ml     coriander (or less to taste)
     10 ml     masala seasoning (see note)
     500 ml    plain yogurt
     60 ml     clarified butter
     10 ml     salt (or less to taste)

PROCEDURE

          (1)  First prepare the sauce: Slice or chop the onions.
               Using  a  large heavy frypan that has a lid, saute
               the onions in the oil. When they  are  translucent
               and  beginning  to brown, add the garlic. When its
               moisture evaporates, add the  cayenne,  coriander,
               and  masala seasoning.  Add the yogurt. Lower heat
               and simmer 7 minutes, partly covered. Remove  from
               heat.
          (2)  Cut the chicken into chunks. If  you  are  feeling
               decadent,  then  remove the bones from the chicken
               to make this a boneless-chicken dish.
          (3)  Puree the onion-and-spice  mixture  in  your  food
               processor  or  food mill.  Don't make it into baby
               food, but make sure there are no stringy pieces of
               onion left in it.
          (4)  Over medium-high heat, heat the  clarified  butter
               until  it starts to smoke, then dump in the cut-up
               chicken all  at  once.  Stir  continuously  for  2
               minutes,  then  saute for 3 more minutes, stirring
               occasionally.
          (5)  Add the  onion-and-spice  pur  e  to  the  cooking
               chicken.  Add  salt.  Stir  the  mixture  until it
               starts to bubble, then lower heat, cover, and sim-
               mer for 30 minutes.
          (6)  Let cool until ready  to  serve.  The  longer  you
               wait, the better it will taste.
          (7)  Cook some rice to go with  it.   Reheat  over  low
               heat, and serve.

NOTES

     Masala seasoning is an Indian ``general-purpose'' seasoning.
     Serious  Indian  cooks  make their own, and no two are quite
     the same. The word masala means something  like  ``blend  of
     spices''.  Since  this dish isn't trying to be authentically
     Indian, you can use most any store-bought mixture  that  you
     like,  including  ``Tandoori''  mixtures, ``curry powders'',
     etc.  If you want to make your own, try some mixture of car-
     damom seeds, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, cumin, and coriander,
     suitably mixed and ground.
     If you don't want to use clarified butter you  can  use  any
     cooking oil.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy.  Time:  1/2  hour  preparation,  1/2  hour
     cooking, 1-24 hours sitting.  Precision: No need to measure,
     but be respectful of cayenne.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Brian Reid
     DEC Western Research Lab, Palo Alto, Calif., USA
     decwrl!!reid   reid@decwrl.dec.com