Badam Murgi

Adding different vegetables turns the boring chicken curry into an actually interesting dish. And luckily, today’s dish is just that, a riveting twist to chicken curry: Badam Murgi (Cashew chicken curry). The English name of the dish might not get your tummies rumbling, but the Banglad name sure did pique my interest. All the rambling about chicken curry being boring was because I got excited to taste the flavor of Badam (nut) in a chicken curry.

When it comes to meat, chicken is my least favorite of the bunch. Belonging to a Hindu family in Bangladesh limits your choice of meat severely. In case you do not know, Hindus strictly avoid meat from cows because Hinduism views cows as sacred. And pork is not available at all in Bangladesh. So the choice of meat for a Bangladeshi Hindu household boils down to mutton and chicken. Mutton is the most expensive option of all the meats noted already, so it is not for regular consumption. So you can say the only option of meat is chicken.

Now don’t think I am hating on chicken. I love the sheer versatility of chicken and I love eating almost anything made with chicken. You cannot go wrong with chicken. But that’s it, since you cannot go wrong with chicken, and because it is the only choice, chicken is cooked really often. Because of my religious views I never stopped myself from trying beef or pork, but without the knowledge of my family. With my family I have to have chicken curry at least twice a week, almost every week. And my issue is with chicken curry, not the other chicken dishes. Korma, chicken roast, chicken kabab – these dishes need some kind of occasion. But plain chicken curry needs nothing. It is an easy to cook, easy to eat, all over solid dish. You can have it with rice, parata, polao, bread, anything you want, at any meal of the day. So chicken curry is cooked too often if I may say so.

For anyone that is unfamiliar, a normal chicken curry has just curry and maybe some chopped potatoes. Fortunately Moni Dadi did not write down any recipe for a plain chicken curry, so I won’t be needing to cook and taste more chicken curry. But Moni Dadi did note down a recipe for Shorshe Murgi (Mustard chicken) and there are a bunch of other delicious flavored chicken curry recipes like Tomato Chicken Curry, Capsicum Chicken Curry/Bell pepper chicken curry, Pineapple Chicken Curry which you can check out for yourself. And if you want a recipe for plain chicken curry, you can find it on the internet with ease.

Adding different vegetables turns the boring chicken curry into an actually interesting dish. And luckily, today’s dish is just that, a riveting twist to chicken curry: Badam Murgi (Cashew chicken curry). The English name of the dish might not get your tummies rumbling, but the Banglad name sure did pique my interest. All the rambling about chicken curry being boring was because I got excited to taste the flavor of Badam (nut) in a chicken curry.

I have to be honest though, when I heard that we’re going to be making Badam Murgi, I thought we’re gonna use peanuts. Because in Bangladesh, everyone associates peanuts with the word Badam. Because peanuts are sold on the streets of almost every block. The two words have become completely synonymous to the point that I don’t even know the Bangla of peanuts. Now I was also curious about how peanuts would fit into a chicken curry. The only dish made from peanuts I know of is Badam Bhorta (smashed peanuts), and I absolutely love it. I highly recommend trying it out. But apart from that I could not figure out how peanuts would be added to a chicken curry.

Finally when I read the recipe I found out that cashew nuts are gonna be used, not peanuts. And that makes complete sense. But I was a little disappointed because I really hoped Moni Dadi had found out some arcane technique of cooking.

Regardless, the disappointment was short-lived because the dish just tasted so good. I had tried cashew nut and chicken in different salads but never in a curry with this many spices. But the taste of the curry was amazing and I really hope you like it as much as I did.