Bengali food is one of my favourite types of curry. Bengali chicken curry (Kosha Murgir Mangsho) is quick and easy to make. The dish has more oil in than you would normally add to a curry which helps to make up the sauce along with the onion and tomatoes which are added. You can use tinned/canned tomatoes instead of using fresh ones.

This will feed 3-4 people and accompany the dish with rice and naan bread.

Here are the ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4 cloves
• 4 green cardamon pods, crushed with the husks disgarded
• 2 – 3large onions, finely chopped and cubed.
• 1 teaspoon of Ginger and Garlic Paste
• 1-2 fresh cayenne chillies, chopped
• 3 large tomatoes finely chopped or a can of chopped plumb tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of ground tumeric
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 600g of chicken breast (or thighs) cut into bite size pieces
• some salt
• Fresh coriander to garnish.

To start, lets make sure we have all of the ingredients ready. The important part here is the oil, onion and tomatoes make up the sauce so we have to make sure these are chopped well. I used a food processor for this.

Crush the cardamon and discard the outer shell.

Finely chop the onion and tomatoes or place in the food processor to get the desired result.

Next chop the chilli and the chicken and make sure the rest of the ingredients are ready.

Next, put the oil into the pan and turn on a high heat. Add a small piece of onion to determine if the oil is hot enough and when it is, turn the heat down and add the bay leaves, cloves and crushed cardamon. The oil may spit at you so be careful here. When the bay leaves start to turn dark (about 30 seconds), then add in the onion. Turn the heat back to high.

The onion will stay in the pan for a good 5-6 minutes. Keep stirring until it is soft. At this point, add the garlic and ginger paste and the chilli and cook for another minute.

When this is done, add in the tomato.

Cook this for a few minutes until the tomatoes softens. About 3-4 minutes will be fine. Once this is done then add in the rest of the spices.

Stir these in.

Then add the chicken.

Ensure the chicken is cooked on all sides and then turn down the heat. If you need, add in additional oil, more tomatoes or maybe a little water if the dish isn’t saucy enough. Leave to simmer for 20 minutes or until the chicken is evenly cooked through.

It may be a good time to make a naan bread and a pan of rice at this point.

Add salt and season to taste. Now the chicken is done then serve and garnish with coriander.