#1000Kitchens Recipe Drop: Sultanpuri Bhuna Murgh
Tanvi Singh Bhatia grew up in Hyderabad, studied in Pune and lives in Delhi, but always found herself gravitating towards the flavours of eastern Uttar Pradesh. “Sultanpuri Bhuna Murg is a recipe of which I have beautiful memories. It was something my nani made every week when we visited her in the summer. Sitting together with my cousins, licking the plates clean, and fighting for the masala left at the bottom of the pressure cooker added so much more swaad to the whole experience,” she says. Tanvi is a brand advisor by profession, and known for her cultural curations and intimate musical baithaks across India under her IP, Ibtida-ek Mehfil.
“My mother comes from a Rajput family in Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh and the state’s nuanced and subtle food was a part of my growing up.” Contrary to popular belief, the state has a large population of Rajputs who have their own micro cuisine that marries both local and native flavours. This, she explains, includes an array of meat based dishes (including game meat back in the day) and simplest of vegetarian fare.
The recipe she is cooking was originally made with mutton, by her grandmother and great-grandmother. Over the years, as the the recipe evolved and changed hands, chicken became the meat of choice. “It is quicker to cook and healthier than mutton so we often made this version at home in Delhi. Mutton took several hours to cook and once you ate that you could not move for the rest of the day!”
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RECIPE FOR SULTANPURI BHUNA MURG
Ingredients
1 kilo chicken, medium sized pieces on the bone
800 g onions, thickly sliced
8-10 pods of garlic, nicely pounded in a mortar
4-5 tablespoons raw mustard oil
7-8 whole red chillies, can be of any variety
Salt, to taste
Method
Add the mustard oil in a wide, heavy bottom pan or a wide pressure cooker and let it smoke.
Once smoked, add the onions, sauté for about 2-3 minutes on medium flame.
Note: you can soak the chillies in warm water for 15 minutes if you want to reduce their heat and enhance colour. Add the chillies next and stir for another five minutes until the onion turn translucent and chilies are fried.
Now add the chicken, stir well.
Stir slowly until its coated well with oil, take care to not break the pieces of meat.
Add salt and mix once.
Reduce the flame and leave it to cook in its own juices - do not cover it.
Keep stirring it every 5-7 minutes to ensure the meat does not stick to the bottom or burn, you can flip each piece individually.
The meat will cook through in about 40 minutes on medium flame — you can check by inserting a fork or a skewer.
Once done, turn the flame off, serve hot with steamed rice.
Words by Anubhuti Krishna. Images by Sanskriti Bist. Artwork by Mithra Kamalam.
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