Recipe - Chittarnee (Sweet-And-Sour Chicken In Onion Sauce)

2 pound Onions; grated or finely
chopped
4 tablespoon Peanut or vegetable oil
2 Or 3 garlic cloves; crushed
A 1inch piece of fresh
ginger; crushed in a garlic
press, or 1 One half , Juice of
teaspoon Grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Turmeric
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
1 One half teaspoon Ground coriander
Three fourths 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
Three fourths lb.), cut into smaller
pieces
Salt; (optional)
1 pound Tomatoes; peeled and
chopped, or a 14oz can of
chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoon Wine vinegar; (up to 3)
2 teaspoon Sugar or to taste

Total Preparation time: 1 One half 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 JewishIndian 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 One half 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" (well30 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 One half 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@ripco.com on
Mar 6, 1998