Chittarnee (sweet-and-sour chicken in onion sauce)

6 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
2 pounds Onions; grated or finely chopped
4 tablespoons Peanut or vegetable oil
2 Or 3 garlic cloves; crushed
A 1-inch piece of fresh ginger; crushed in a garlic press, or 1 1/2 , Juice of
teaspoon Grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Turmeric
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoon Ground coriander
¾ teaspoon Ground cardamom
1 Good pinch of cayenne or red chili powder; or to taste, (optional)
2 Bay leaves
6 Boneless and skinless chicken breasts; (app. 1 3/4 lb.), cut into smaller pieces
Salt; (optional)
1 pounds Tomatoes; peeled and chopped, or a 14-oz can of chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons Wine vinegar; (up to 3)
2 teaspoons Sugar or to taste

Directions

Total Preparation time: 1½ hour This unusual dish has Indian spices but is "mild spicy", not "hot spicy" -- no hot peppers required but lots of flavors. For those who are interested, it comes from the Jewish-Indian community in Baghdad. Claudia Roden describes the history of the Jewish communities in India, Iran, etc., in her fascinating book "The Book of Jewish Food" from which this is taken.

Put onions in a large pan with the oil and cook very gently with the lid on, stirring occasionally, until they are very soft and golden. Because there is so much onion, this can take up to ½ hour. add the garlic, ginger, spices and bay leaves and stir for 5 minutes. Put in the chicken pieces, season with salt (optional), and saute for 10 minutes, turning them over once. Now add the tomatoes and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until "all the excess liquid has dried out and the gravy glistens with the oil" (well--30 minutes seemed fine). Finally, stir in the vinegar and sugar and cook 10 minutes more. Serve hot with rice.

(Full disclosure: when I made this most recently, I doubled the recipe, but used only 1 ½ times the amount of chicken, so I had more sauce per chicken than this calls for -- it was great. Serving suggestion: Various commercial chutneys -- peach chutney, mint chutney, etc. -- go well with this.)

Posted to TNT Recipes Digest by "Lisa Salkovitz Kohn" <lskohn@...> on Mar 6, 1998

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