December 5, 2008

Chicken Do Piaza and an Indian Feast

As I mentioned in October, the eight of us who meet every month or so to cook our way through the cuisines of the world were about to become six. Luckily, the two who were leaving us delayed their departure date until late November, so we managed to squeeze in one more dinner before waving goodbye.

Our World Food Evenings began as a casual intention to get together once a month for an Indian curry night and evolved into cooking all-out, authentic feasts from around the globe: Mexico, Turkey, Cuba, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Thailand, Indonesia, South Africa and even an American Barbecue.

We decided to come full circle for our dinner in November and cooked up another Indian themed meal. And cook we did!

onion bhajis, vegetable pakoras, naan bread, prawn curry, chicken do piaza, saag aloo, masoor dal and rice
What a meal!


naan, ready to be baked


dishing it up


close-up of chicken do piaza


a full plate


This rich chicken dish was our contribution to the meal. If you're an onion lover like me, you will love it!

Chicken Do Piazza

6 tablespoons oil
2 pounds onions
1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 big cloves garlic, finely minced
1 inch piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
4 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves, crumbled
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves

Finely slice 2 onions and roughly cut up the rest of the onions.
Mix the chili powder, ground coriander, turmeric and salt together, add the chicken and mix well.
Warm 3 tablespoons of oil in a heavy pan over medium heat.
Spread half of the cut up onions on the bottom of the pan, add the chicken pieces and layer the rest of the cut onions on top of the chicken.
Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook until the onions are have been reduced and become mushy, and the chicken is tender, about 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile, in another pan that will be large enough to hold everything later, heat up the rest of the oil over medium heat.
Add the sliced onions, ginger and garlic and cook, stirring often, for 10-15 minutes, until the onions become a pale golden color.
Mix in the bay leaves and cook for another minute, stirring frequently.
Add the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are reduced to a pulp. This will take several minutes.
Add the chicken and onion mixture to the pan and, stirring frequently, cook until everything is well browned and a thick onion sauce has formed.
Just before serving, add the lemon juice, give it a good stir, and sprinkle with chopped cilantro leaves. Pin It

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooh, just looking at the photo is making me hungry! It looks delicious. I miss Indian food ... when we were in Paris a fortnight ago, we had a really nice Indian meal -- such a treat!

PS we visited Ladurée too, I'm with you on the macarons :-)

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

Wow that all looks tasty!! My husband likes Indians more than me..I never used to eat them but over the years my taste buds have changed, I do eat them now.

Sweet Cheeks said...

Oh my gosh can I hop a plane and come over. Sheesh that looks good.

Jennifer said...

Veronica
There aren't any good Indian restos around here. I've learned to make many, many Indian dishes to cure our cravings.
Thanks for the Laudurée update! Glad to hear I'm not the only one...

Anne
I've never met an Indian dish I didn't like!

Vanessa
Of course! But there must be a good restaurant a bit closer than the south of France? :)

Bruce Anderson said...

oh that sounds so so good. Thanks for the recipe...for all the other stuff recipes would be great too. We went to Montauban the other day and had indian food for lunch and it was SO good....I love indian food, but have never made it before, thought it was too complicated.

SO...question. I got the wrong cheese today. I wanted to get tombe montagne, but got tombe for aligot. Any idea what to do with it?

Unknown said...

I love that you cooked Indian food without a curry mix. Way to go! Did you drink wine with this?

Jennifer said...

our juicy life
Wow, I'm impressed to hear that you found a good Indian resto outside of Paris or Lyon. How great!
It is not too complicated. You should give it a try.
The Tomme for Aligot, I think, can be eaten on its own. I've never seen it...but I have seen cheese made specifically for Tartiflette, which is just a pasteurized version of Reblochon. Or cook the Tomme into a gratin with potatoes. That would be good!

Vin de la Table
Indian food is so good when made from scratch.
I probably never would have tried it but we can't readily get the jars of curry paste here so I had to learn!
We drank some rosé and white wine with it.

Unknown said...

Your Chicken Dopiaza looks really authentic and yummy. I saw your pic being used on a Facebook page seemingly without your permission. Being a blogger myself I take these maters seriously. Here's the URL: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150257977608963&set=a.10150257867928963.325439.168875218962&type=1&theater#!/photo.php?fbid=10150261052883963&set=a.10150257867928963.325439.168875218962&type=1&theater

Jennifer said...

Thank you Sadaf! I appreciate you looking out for me.
I clicked on the link again today and the post seems to be gone. :)