Shahi Chicken Kurma (Chicken in rich and spicy cashew nut gravy)

Here, the French consume more than six million chickens in all forms over the Christmas season, compared with 2.5 million turkeys, 1.2 million geese and 10 million quails. We simply can?t skip Christmas season without the Poularde and the Capon in the markets. I have used Poularde for this recipe. What is Poularde?

Poularde is a young female hen spayed (a surgical act to remove ovaries) for fattening, while a capon is a castrated rooster. The young hen does not reach sexual maturity and fattened in a particular way. This way the meat is tender and firm and it has a meaty, flavorful and milky white flesh with an important layer of fat and usually weighs about1 to 2.5 Kg. The most famous producers of Poularde and Capon are from the Le Mans and the Bresse regions of France. Information Source :here

Since I had one in my refrigerator, I thought of cooking it in my royal gravy instead of the traditional way of roasting and it came out really good.



Ingredients:
1.8 kg Poularde
1 cup cashew nuts
½ cup coconut milk
1 tbsp fennel seeds powder
1 tbsp fennel seeds
4 green chilies
2 big onions
3 tomatoes
1 ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp chilly powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
Salt as necessary
5 tbsp Oil
Whole spices (2 cinnamon sticks, 2 or 3 Bay leaves, 3 cloves)
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:
Cut the poularde into pieces (Poor thing but it doesn?t matter), clean and set aside.
Chop the onions and the tomatoes finely.
Slit the green chilies lengthwise and deseed.
Grind the cashew nuts to a fine paste and mix with the coconut milk and the fennel seeds powder.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add the whole spices and the whole fennel seeds, and splutter. Add the onions and green chilies and fry until slightly brown and translucent. Add the tomatoes and continue to fry until oil separates. Add the ginger garlic paste, salt and chilly powder and fry a little more. Now add the meat and fry for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of warm water just to cover the meat. Pressure cook up to 5 whistles. If an ordinary vessel is used, then cook for about one hour on low medium flame.
Open the pressure cooker, reduce the flame and add the cashew nut mixture. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Remove, garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve.

Excellent with Rotis (Chapati/Parotta/Rice/Naan/Ghee Rice).

PS: Poularde can be replaced by regular chicken. Then, simply skip the pressure cooking and cook normally for about 20 to 30 minutes.