Mr's Dinn's Jeera Chicken

[jennyjj01]

All the talk about bone broth reminded me of this delish recipe.
Dead simple. One pot.

If you're not familiar with Jeera, it's cumin. It is NOT an over spicy recipe but very flavourful as a side dish to an indian banquet. I believe it's a Persian variation of a Punjabi recipe.

Ingredients,
Medium chicken.
Four finger sized chilis. Two red, two green. Don't go for super hot ones.
One large onion, chopped small.
120g / 4oz of butter, sliced up. Seriously!
2 tsp of cumin seeds (jeera)
1/2 level tsp of ground cumin.
1/2 level tsp of salt
optional, crushed clove of garlic
a squeeze of lemon juice, or a tbsp full from a bottle
a glug of oil.

To be cooked in a large wok skillet with a lid.

Snip out the chicken backbone as that's too fiddly for finger food. Try not to leave any tiny rib splinters.
Chop the rest of the chicken into roughly 4cm cubes. Leave the skin on. You can leave the wings almost complete, but chop up the legs and thighs a bit. You want each portion to be mostly meat. breasts can be cubed and it's up to you if you leave any keel or ribs in. I do.

Seed and Slice the chillies as 2mm rings. discard most of the seeds, but don't worry about leaving some.

Briefly fry the cumin seeds in the glug of oil on medium heat till it crackles. You don't want to burn it, just release some flavour. pull the heated cumin to a cool side of the pan, so as not to burn it. Add the onion and scorch/caramelise some of it.

Add the chicken, garlic (optional), butter, chillies, salt. You WON'T be adding water.
Low heat with the lid on till the butter mostly melts. Give it a good stir so all the meat is coated.
Add the cumin powder and stir again.
Lid on and LOW simmer for about half an hour. Add the lemon juice. simmer another half an hour, until the chicken is dryish and cooked. It won't brown. Stir every fifteen minutes or so. It should be coated with the bits of onion and seeds with the odd fleck of green or red chilli.

The chicken will release it's own water which will meld with the butter and onions to make a delightful loose sauce.

The aroma will drive you crazy.

You can serve straight away, or chill it and nuke it the next day.

[GillyBee]

That sounds fantastic. I do like cumin although t'other half is less keen. i will be trying this with some turkey (as we can no longer eat chicken) and will report back..