I was introduced to this Northern Indian chicken dish at a hole-in-wall restaurant in one of the sketchier parts of San Francisco and it totally blew me away. I had eaten Indian food before but had never tasted anything so bold, complex and yet mysterious at the same time. I’m at a loss to compare the flavors to anything else because I can’t think of any other dish that comes close to having a similar flavor profile. Achaari murg translates to pickle chicken; while this dish contains no actual pickles, it is cooked with many of the same spices used to make Northern Indian-style pickles (which are much more flavorful than their distant cousins found in the U.S.). Just do yourself a favor and order this dish when you see it on the menu next time you’re at an Indian restaurant. Hopefully you’ll have a spiritual awakening just like I did.
In an effort to demystify this dish and unlock its secrets, I did some research, compiled some ingredients from a few different recipes, and took a stab at making it in the home kitchen. Preparing this dish at home necessitated a trip to an Indian grocery since some of the ingredients are fairly exotic and not available at my local megamart. Kalonji, the slightly nutty and peppery seeds of the nigella plant, is one of those ingredients. Here’s the full list of ingredients used, with an asterisk next to the ingredients purchased at the Indian grocery:
6 small, fresh green chiles
Juice from 1 lemon
5 tbsp canola oil
3 onions – roughly chopped
1 tsp kalonji (aka nigella seeds)*
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds*
1 tbsp grated garlic
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tsp turmeric
Chicken parts – I used 2 thighs and 2 drumsticks
1/4 c plain yogurt
3 tomatoes – finely chopped
1 tsp toasted and freshly ground cumin seeds
1 tsp red chile powder*
1/4 finely chopped coriander leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Begin by slitting the chiles in half lengthwise and placing them into a small container with the lemon juice. Put this container into the ‘fridge for later use. Note: I went with fresh Thai green chiles for this dish and they can pack quite a punch so feel free to cut back on the number of chiles if you want to keep the heat down.
Heat the oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat until it begins to shimmer, then add the onions.
Cook the onions until they take on some color; this should take about 25 minutes or so.
Next, the first round of spices are added to the pot. This includes the kalonji, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, and both the yellow and black mustard seeds. Mix these spices in with the onions, then add the garlic, ginger and turmeric and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the chicken pieces to the mix* along with the yogurt, tomatoes, ground cumin seeds and red chile powder. As with the green chiles, the red chile powder can also pack a good wallop so if you’re not a huge fan of spicy foods, you’ll definitely want to add this sparingly. You may also want to add about a 1/2 cup of water to ‘loosen’ up the sauce, but that’s optional.
Cover the pot and cook over medium-low heat for about 45 minutes or until the chicken is fork tender. Add the green chiles/lemon juice mixture, the chopped coriander and continue to cook covered over medium-low heat for another 5 minutes or so.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with some rice.
As much as I love spicy food, I will say that the combination of the 6 chiles and the 1 tsp of red chile powder made for a rather incendiary dish. I may cut back on the heat by just a few degrees when I make this again. Then again, I may not because I am a glutton for punishment and I was really quite happy with the way this came out**. So much so that I ate the leftovers the following evening.
*Right after I mixed the chicken in with the rest of the ingredients, I realized that I probably should’ve browned it first in order to give it some color and to add additional flavor to the finished dish. Next time I make this, before I cook the onions, I’ll brown the chicken on all sides, then remove it from the pot and set it aside until needed. The onions will be cooked in any fat that renders out of the chicken and will be flavored by all of the little bits of browned chicken that will be stuck to the bottom of the pot. I also think it’d be a good idea to marinate the chicken prior to cooking it, perhaps tossing it with the yogurt, turmeric and some salt for a few hours before it hits the heat.
** Though pleased, I feel that there is still room for improvement. Traditionally, as Indian pickles are cured in mustard oil, this dish can also be cooked in mustard, as opposed to, canola oil. Apparently it is not that hard to make your own mustard oil and now that I have an abundance of black and yellow mustard seeds, I may try to do that. It would bring additional flavor to the dish that canola oil doesn’t provide. I also think toasting the spices prior to adding them to the browned onions would also be a good thing, as would some additional ginger and garlic.
