Chicken Kali Mirch (With Gravy)
Chicken Kali Mirch is a creamy & mellow indian chicken curry cooked with black pepper as the star ingredient.
Ingredients
For The Chicken
- 1 lb (~450g) chicken thighs boneless & skinless, cut in 2 inch pieces
- 1.5 tablespoon lemon juice fresh
- 1.5 tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
For The Gravy
- 2 tablespoon ghee or cooking oil
- 1 large bay leaf
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 2-3 green chillies hot variety, slit (adjust to taste)
- ½ cup onion paste simply add roughly chopped onion to a blender and grind to smooth.
- 1 teaspoon shah jeera royal cumin or caraway seeds
- 1.5 teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon white pepper powder adjust to taste, skip if not available
- ½ cup whole plain yogurt
- 2-3 tablespoon cashew powder
- 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
- 2 tablespoon heavy cream adjust quantity as per liking, can be skipped
- ¼ teaspoon green cardamom powder fresh pounded
- Generous pinch of nutmeg powder fresh grated
- Chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Add ginger garlic paste, lemon juice, salt and fresh cracked black pepper to the chicken. Use your hands to mix nicely, cover. Let hang around for 20 minutes while you work on the gravy.
- While the chicken is marinating, you can make the onion paste. Add yogurt to a bowl and add the cashew powder (or paste) to it. Beat together until smooth. Keep aside.
- Choose a heavy base pot or kadai (with lid). Add ghee. Set stove on medium heat. Once ghee has melted, temper with bay leaf, cinnamon and add green chillies.
- Add the onion paste and cook on low heat till the raw smell of onions goes away but they dont change or very minimally change color. To achieve this, cook the onions with patience with periodic stirring on medium low heat.
- Once the onions are cooked, add the chicken in a single layer. Let lightly brown on one side for 2-3 minutes and then using a stirring spoon, mix around the chicken with onions and let bhuno ( lightly brown) on all sides. Tip:- Keep the heat medium higt else the chicken will get watery instead of browning. If you will reduce the heat, the chicken won't get browned.
- Once all the chicken is whitish, reduce the stove to low and add the coriander, shah jeera and white pepper and black pepper next along with yogurt. As soon as you add yogurt, stir immediately for next 2-3 minutes to avoid yogurt from curdling.
- Once the yogurt is warmed through, cover the pot with lid. Let everything cook for 8-12 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Note - If you are using bone in chicken, let cook covered for 18-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. There is no need to add any water- the water content of yogurt and the chicken is enough to make a gravy. If you want a thinner gravy, add ⅓ to ½ cup water.
- Open the lid and add grated nutmeg and ground green cardamom. Also mix in the heavy cream if you are using. Finish with chopped cilantro. You can add kasuri methi or garam masala at this point if you wish.
- Finish with a scatter of chopped cilantro. Let the dish rest for 20 minutes or so before digging in. Read serving suggestions in the blog post.
Notes
- Dont cut the chicken too big or too small. 2 inch chicken chunks are the ideal size. As the chicken browns and cooks in gravy, it shrinks.
- Use fresh ground black pepper, nutmeg and green cardamom for the best flavor.
- Take the yogurt out of the fridge 30 minutes before setting out to cook and whisk is very well before using. This reduces the chances of curdling.
- Dont use skim yogurt. Whole yogurt with its fat content is best for curries.
- Use thick yogurt for a nice consistency of gravy. Plain greek yogurt is good as well. In India, use hung curd.
- Dont skimp on the black pepper, as I said before it is the star ingredient. You can skip green chilli or white pepper if you wish.
- Dont skip the finishing spices - ground green cardamom and nutmeg. They add a lovely balmy warmth of the peppery white sauce.
- Dont add a lot of onion paste. The gravy will turn sweet.
- Dont use iron kadai or cast iron pot to make this dish. The yogurt tastes a bit funky in my opinion. Enameled cast iron is fine.
- Grill The Chicken :- For a smoky taste, you can grill the chicken on a grill pan or outdoor grill before adding to the sauce. In that case, make the yogurt gravy as mentioned in the recipe card. Also, add 1 additional tablespoon of ginger garlic paste after the onions have cooked followed by yogurt.
- Make It With Shrimp- Similar to how I mentioned above, make the yogurt gravy first and then add the shrimp towards the end. If you want, you can an fry shrimp separately and add to gravy.
- Make It Spicy - Chop the green chillies instead of adding them whole.
- Make it Vegetarian - You can add mushrooms, cauliflower or potatoes to this gravy. Here's my paneer kali mirch recipe.
- Add another layer of flavor - Add crushed kasuri methi or garam masala to finish the dish if you wish. I don't add because kasuri methi can sometimes be overpowering and I want the taste of black pepper to shine.
Nutrition
Calories: 405kcalCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 21gFat: 32gSaturated Fat: 12gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 143mgSodium: 1054mgPotassium: 355mgFiber: 2gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 239IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 81mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!