About The Author
Hello! From Chuchura (in Hooghly District) and a foodie, I created this blog with a mission to preserve the food of the land; with a message to encourage and promote clean and real food. I hope you enjoy and gain out of this blog, happy reading!
Looking forward to read and hear your feedback.
Desi murgir jhol is the ultimate, near-extinct comfort food on a Sunday afternoon in the cities.
Why do I call it extinct? For the primary reason that country chicken (desi murgi) is not readily available in urban and semi-urban areas. What is sold instead are different breeds of farmed chicken, and many of us are taken for a ride by seeing the colorful feathers. Blame the broilers for their white feathers!
To me a desi murgir jhol is country chicken curry with a watery thin gravy that is light on the spices, high on the meaty flavor with a wonderful zing from the green chilies
Getting Ready for the Desi Murgir Jhol
You do not need a ton of things for this. The shopping list is pretty simple, basic and you may already have most of them in your pantry.
- Desi Murgi or country chicken
- Mustard oil – no compromise here and do not use white oil
- Whole spice – cloves, cardamom, cinnamon
- Onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies
- Black pepper powder
- Salt, sugar and water
Buying the country chicken is a major challenge, and butchers can mislead you. Unfortunately, there is no way I know that can help you purchase a real country chicken.
It may be a good idea to question and cross question the butcher for half a minute before deciding. Questions that you can keep handy include –
- What breed is this?
- Is it farmed?
- Where are the birds from?
- What would be the maximum weight available with you? Including feathers most shops keep birds that weigh between 1 kg and 1.3 kg
Good luck with your purchase!
Do’s & Dont’s
One of the latest fads now is to use bunch of ingredients, hoping that they would impart their flavors. In the process, the flavors of the main ingredient is lost. That’s also how the morich mouri chicken was crafted.
- Avoid red chili powders – It is unhealthy and harmful for your body, does not impart flavor and just makes the gravy look red
- No cumin powder
- No coriander powder
- No powdered garam masala
- No curd
- No tomatoes
Keep it simple, use minimal ingredients and allow the country chicken to express its flavorswhen you take a mouthful.
Here’s the recipe I follow mostly!
Note
The equipment & ingredient quantity provided in this recipe is to assist you in cooking this dish. Feel free to experiment with your ingredients. Remember that we all have different set, size & shape of kitchen tools in our pantry.
Equipment
- Wok and spatula
- Knife and chopping board
- Serving Bowls
- Mixer-grinder or mortar-pestle
Ingredients
- 600 g country chicken (dressed)
- 2 pc medium-sized potato, cut into halves
- 2 tbsp mustard oil
- 4 pc medium sized onions (sliced)
- 1 inch ginger (finely diced)
- 10 pc garlic clove
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder optional
- 2 tsp pepper powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 6 pc green chilly (sliced lengthwise)
- 2 cup water 0.5 litre water
- salt to taste
Whole Spices
- 4 pc cardamom
- 1 inch cinnamon stick, broken into two
- 6 pc clove
Instructions
- Wash the chicken a couple of times and marinade with a tsp of salt. Keep aside for 30 minutes
- In this time, finely slice the onions and keep aside
- Pound the ginger and garlic using a mortar pestle. Alternatively, you may use a mixer grinder to prepare a paste
- Hob on. Put on the wok and once hot, add the mustard oil
- Once the mustard oil starts smoking, add in the potatoes and turmeric powder
- Fry on all sides till the potato turns yellowish-brown. This takes around 5 minutes
- Take out the potatoes, keep aside. Time to cook the desi murgir jhol!
- In the same wok, add oil if required
- Drop in the whole spices – cardamom, cinnamon, cloves
- Add in the ginger garlic paste
- Saute for 15 seconds and add in the sliced onions
- When the sides turn brown, add in your chicken and turmeric powder. Do not add in the eggs if your chicken had them. These should be added towards the end.
- Mix and saute the chicken till it is 60% done. Country chicken takes longer to cook, hence keep a watchful eye. You do not want your spice-mix to stick to the bottom of the wok and burn. If you find it drying out, splash in some water
- Now add salt and pepper. Mix both in the curry
- Add water. Once the water comes to a boil, add in the potatoes and cook covered
- When the chicken is done, check for seasonings and adjust
- This is the time to drop in the eggs, if your desi murgi had them
- Add in the sugar and sliced green chillies, reduce the flame to low, cook covered for 10-15 minutes
- Switch off the flame and allow to rest for another 10 minutes
- Uncover, use your serving spoon or spatula to mix in the desi murgi jhol
- Serve hot with rice
Notes
- While I was buying the chicken, the butcher suggested that I cook the chicken in pressure cooker (1 whistle). I did not follow. If you want to reduce the cooking time, you may follow this method
- It is always better to use freshly ground pepper for best flavors
- You can reduce the number of green chilies if required. Personally, I like the zingy aroma
- As mentioned in my blog, curd and tomatoes are not used in this recipe
- Always add the chicken eggs towards the end and never at the beginning
- To get 600 gram of meat, you would need one whole chicken of around 1100-1200 grams
Hi thanks for the simple recipe. We use almost the same recipe, just add some chopped coriander or garam mashla powder in the end. However, I wanted to ask you, what is the egg thing you wrote about? I never found eggs in a chicken!! Never even heard of it! It sounded almost like rui macher dim, but I know that can’t be right. So can you please elaborate on that?
Hi Maya, in most cases a country (real one) hen will always have eggs. The little round ball shaped things you see in the pic are the eggs. Eggs are only available in country hens, not in broiler chicken