Punjabi-style Chicken

== Description ==
This time it’s “Chicken-a-la-Route79”. This will cook enough for 4 hungry adults.
== Ingredients ==
* 750g skinless, boneless chicken thighs. Do not use chicken breast; it is dry and bland and the end-result will be really crap. Goodness knows why chicken breast is so expensive here in UK - it’s the worst, most tasteless, pointless part of the chicken. The thigh or leg actually has the tastie and is a better texture when cooked - and yet it’s a lot cheaper than breast! Bizzare hey? Not sure I understand this logic - but I’m not complaining! 
* 4 small/medium onions, peeled 
* 4 peppers - two large green, 2 small/medium red, washed and de-seeded. 
* 2 tins of peeled plum tomatoes 
* 3 tsp haldi (turmeric)
* 2 tsp salt 
* 3-4 tsp garam masala
* 2 heaps ground-dhania (coriander) 
* pulped garlic, ginger and Chili. Use plenty of garlic and ginger for this much Chicken. 
* Also - not shown in the picture is a bunch of fresh coriander. I used some frozen, chopped coriander - which was prepared weeks ago by moi from several bunches of fresh coriander from the grocer shop.
== Directions ==
#Chop all the onions into coarse-ish strips. 
#Chop all the peppers into bite-sized chunks. 
#Pour a tin of plum tomatoes into the blender.
#Add one of the chopped green peppers. Give it a good 15 second zap. 
#Add a bunch of fresh coriander leaf - stalks and all. Zap for another 15 seconds or so.
#Then add the pre-pulped garlic, ginger and chillis, with the second tin of tomatoes - and zap it for another 10 seconds. #At this point you should have a thick dark green-ish sauce - which you should then pour into a large bowl. 
#Then add the powdered spices to the sauce bowl. Don’t be put off by the colour of the sauce at this point - a dark dirty-green swamp type sauce - when it cooks it will go a wonderfully aromatic rich reddish-brown!
#Stir in the ground spices thoroughly. It was at this point that little MissRoute79 came running into kitchen and pleaded with me if she could help me. So - I let her stir it around. (She had to stand on a foot-stool to reach!) 
#You also need to get the onions cooking out now. Put plenty of oil into a large cooking pan - and stir fry the onions until they start to become translucentish. This might take around 10 mins.
#Then add the remaining chunks of red and green pepper - and stir fry until the onions have started to go goldenish brown. 
#At this point - pour in the chopped chicken thighs - and stir fry carefully until the chicken has turned from slimy-pink to rubbery-white. 
#At this point you should pour the spicy sauce mixture over the chicken
#Give the pot a good, thorough stir - ensuring all the chicken is covered in the sauce. Do this whilst the flame is on really high - so that eventually the whole pot starts to boil nearly fiercely!
#Now lower the flame to the lowest you can go - and place a lid on the pot - leaving a little gap for steam to escape - and the sauce to reduce. Leave it slow-simmering like this for about 1 hour - coming back to stir it around every 15 minutes or so. 
#Then take a taste of the sauce with a spoon - to test if there’s enough salt or spices. If not - add some more salt and garam masala - and keep tasting until it tastes perfect.
==Pictures==
Image:081103-2.jpg|Prepare a blender.Chop the onions.Chop the peppers
Image:081103-3.jpg|Pour tin of tomato into blender 
Image:081103-4.jpg|Add some pieces of green pepper 
Image:081103-5.jpg|Then add some coriander leaves 
Image:081103-6.jpg|And finally throw in the garlic,ginger and chillie 
Image:081103-7.jpg|Pour mixture into bowl and add spices 
Image:081103-8.jpg|Give it a good stir 
Image:081103-9.jpg|Frying the onions 
Image:081103-10.jpg|Add the remaining peppers to the stir-fry 
Image:081103-11.jpg|When the onions are getting brown put the chicken 
Image:081103-12.jpg|Stir-fry until chicken is white-ish 
Image:081103-13.jpg|Add the sauce mixture 
Image:081103-14.jpg|Give it a good stir 
Image:081103-15.jpg|Bring to fierce boil 
Image:081103-16.jpg|Lower flame to very gentle simmer 
Image:081103-17.jpg|Stir every 15 mins.Then it's done 
==Notes==
*Voila! It’s done. Put lid back on - and you can reheat it later when you wish to serve. You can call it a “Chicken curry” if you like - but because it’s got green and red peppers in it - you might want to call it “Chicken jalfrezi” - call it whatever you like. 
*This way of cooking it was taught to me by my mum when I was a college kid. 
*Serve it on a bed of freshly-cooked basmati rice - with a salad accompaniment - and a side-plate of a couple of fresh green chillies (if you can cope with biting into fresh green chillie) or achaar (pickle). Because that’s exactly how I’m going to have it tonight!
== Recipe by Route 79 ==
From London: By a British, European, 2nd-Generation Indian. Probably confused - but proud to be them all! Half of my journey to and from work is a 20-30 minute bus ride: London Bus Route 79 - between Alperton in West London and Kingsbury in North West London. I very frequently get pissed-off and frustrated waiting around in the DARK, WET and COLD - waiting for the 79 to turn up. But I have to be eternally grateful for the quality thinking time I get to myself.
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Category:Punjabi Meat Dishes
Category:Route 79 Recipes
Category:Basmati rice Recipes
Category:Chicken Recipes
Category:Curry Recipes
Category:Garam masala Recipes
Category:Green bell pepper Recipes
Category:Plum tomato Recipes