Cardamom, anyone?

If anyone is interested in dipping a toe into the waters of Indian cooking, this is the recipe with which to start. It looks pretty normal, tastes wonderful, and is very easy to prepare. It might take a visit to the international grocery to get the ginger and garlic paste, but they are cheap and will be fun to use in other dishes. Like, I think it would be good to put a spoonful of garlic paste in mashed potatoes. Anyway, this dish will definitely be on frequent rotation in my kitchen.

Cardamom-Scented Chicken
2 T ginger paste
1 T garlic paste
1 1/2 t. cardamom seeds, ground
1 t. ground cayenne or red pepper flakes
1 t. salt
1/4 t. tumeric
3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 T cooking oil
1 medium onion, sliced
4 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
2 T cilantro, chopped

Mix ginger and garlic pastes with ground cardamom seeds, cayenne, salt and tumeric to form a thin paste. Cover chicken with paste and marinate in fridge for 30 minutes to several hours.
Heat oil in skillet on medium and add the chicken and marinade, onion, bay leaves and cinnamon. Sear chicken on all sides until a brown layer of chicken-spices-onions forms on the bottom of the pan-- 15-20 min. Add one cup of water and thoroughly scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Reduce heat to med-low, cover, cook for 25-30 minutes, occasionally turning and basting the pieces. Remove chicken pieces to serving plate, increase heat to med-high, stir until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Spoon sauce over chicken.



The onions in this recipe just melt into the sauce. When you eat it, you can't even tell there are onions in there, they really just disintegrate. Cardamom has this wonderful warm, exotic fragrance and taste; I don't know why we don't use it more in American cooking. One last thing: the chicken was so so tender and juicy! After 25 minutes I got a knife out to cut into one of the pieces and the knife just sank into the meat. So tender.