Merryland Chicken Recipe 

Anyone following Generation of Flavors knows my dislike towards chicken. I have no hatred towards the animal or its meat. But I had just eaten so much chicken in my life due to my family’s religious background. Growing up in a Hindu household, we never had beef in our house due to religious restrictions. And mutton could not be a regular because it is considered to be more unhealthy and contain high levels of bad cholesterol. And it’s way more expensive. So chicken was the go to meat to have in our house. Chicken curry, chicken biriyani, chicken soup, chicken noodles, chicken curry again, chicken burger, chicken pizza, chicken roast, and some more curry made me kinda tired of chicken. I never say no to chicken but I always appreciate chicken more if it is not just regular chicken curry.

So imagine my curiosity and excitement when I learned that Ms Shortcut Sokhina is making a dish that I have never heard of before – Merryland Chicken. The original spelling might be Maryland chicken, but Moni Dadi wrote the spelling as Merryland so that is what I am going to use. And you will see that Moni Dadi’s Merryland Chicken is quite different from what you would typically consider Maryland chicken.

While Ms Shortcut Sokhina was making preparations in the kitchen, I looked up Maryland chicken. I thought the dish would be one steeped in American history and deep fried in oil. Even perhaps a regional specialty from the state of Maryland. But just the first line of Wikipedia told me that the dish might be historically associated with Maryland, but it has no meaning to the rest of the world. The dish is traditionally garnished with banana and milk or cream is used to make the gravy.

Something more specific I learned is that Merryland chicken refers to a special cut of chicken. The cut contains both the drumstick and skin-on thigh, a quarter of a chicken basically. So I rushed to the kitchen to see which pieces of chicken were being used. And to my surprise, Moni Dadi specified breast pieces to be used. A bit of a head scratcher but who cares about what pieces are being used. The recipe does not even have banana garnishing, something traditionally associated with the dish. And this is what I meant by this not being a typical Maryland Chicken, it is Moni Dadi’s special version – Merryland Chicken.

What truly had me captivated is soaking the chicken in milk. I think chicken roast also uses milk, or at least yogurt for marination. As far as I know, no other bengali cuisine uses chicken and milk in the same dish. Please correct me if I am wrong about it. So, I love chicken roast and the use of milk got my hopes high.

But both having milk in the list of ingredients is where the similarities between chicken roast and Maryland Chicken end. The whole recipe was a dance between familiar steps and absolutely new territory for Ms Shortcut Sokhina and me. The name and use of milk was something totally unexpected. But after soaking the pieces in milk, the piece was coated in flour, then followed by dipping it in egg and a coating of breadcrumbs. Then the piece was fried until brown. We were familiar with these steps for making chicken fry. Then after that, uncharted territory again. Adding milk and spices to the fried pieces? Totally unheard of for us. But we followed the instructions to the t.

And let me tell you, following Moni Dadi was totally worth it for the dish that came out. I absolutely loved it and would try it again in the future. But Ms Shortcut Sokhina was divided about the taste. So try this unique version of Merryland Chicken out for yourself.