Sharmaji’s Lahori chicken – BiBi’s signature dish and a labour of love

If you want to make this dish taste the same as the restaurant, you need to …

 

One: use really good yogurt for the whey, ideally homemade. If you’re making it yourself, use an Indian bacteria strain as this makes the curd stiff, leaving behind lots of acidic whey. The role of hung yogurt in the marinade is to tenderise the meat – acid does this better than neutral solutions.

 

Two: buy the best chicken you can afford. We only use white meat for this dish (utilising the rest of the bird in other ways) because we want to show off how tender we can make the breast – it’s possible, you just have to cook it à point. And breast has a cleaner flavour and texture than the dark meat. Spatchcock a bird and go from there, but remember you need to skin it, as the fat in the skin stops the marinade from binding to or tenderising the meat. Finally, like any meat, cooked chicken needs resting. We have the custom-made sigree in the restaurant, with levels and pulleys to carefully control the heat, but at home just rest the chicken for at least half as long as you cook it, ideally in a warm spot.

 

I don’t think any chef ever sets out to create a recipe that becomes a signature – think Jeremy Lee and his eel sandwich, Michel Roux Jr’s cheese soufflé, Heston Blumenthal’s Sounds of the Sea – but this chicken has become BiBi’s. Sometimes, in the desperation to innovate as a chef, we’re itching to change things up, but a bit of grilled chicken and a sauce that hugs it like a weighted blanket doesn’t need to be messed with. After all the conceptual, sometimes challenging flavours and combinations earlier in the meal, doesn’t everyone just want a little comfort to finish the night?

 

Serves 4

 

For the Sharmaji butter

• 100g salted butter, softened
• 5g Sharmaji Masala (see below)

For the cashew whey sauce

• 360g yogurt whey (see below)
• 180g double cream
• 2g green cardamom pods, crushed
• 24g fresh peeled ginger, crushed
• 60g cashew paste (see below)
• 1.5g Kashmiri yellow chilli powder
• 100g Sharmaji butter, warmed
• 15g fresh peeled ginger, brunoised
• 15g coriander stem, finely chopped

For the creamed kale

• 400g double cream
• 6g freshly ground nutmeg
• 14g freshly ground white pepper
• 100g picked green kale leaves (250-300g untrimmed), thinly sliced 
• Kosher salt

To serve

• 40g first marinade (see below)
• 2 free-range cornfed boneless, skinless chicken breasts 
• 80g Awadhi marinade (see below)
• Ghee, for basting
• 50g creamed kale
• Sharmaji Masala (see below)
• 50g Sharmaji butter, melted (see below)
• 200g cashew whey sauce

Sharmaji butter

Put the softened butter and masala in a food processor and blend until homogenous. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

 

Cashew whey sauce

Put the yogurt whey in a large saucepan with the cream and crushed cardamom pods, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium and reduce by two thirds.

 

Add the crushed ginger to the mixture, remove from the heat and allow the ginger to infuse for 20 minutes. Pass the mixture through a fine chinois, add the cashew paste and yellow chilli powder and blend with a hand blender until homogenous.

Just before serving, add the warm Sharmaji butter and chopped coriander and brunoised ginger.

 

Creamed kale

Put the cream, nutmeg and white pepper in a saucepan and simmer over a medium-low heat until reduced by half. Blanch the kale in a pan of salted boiling water for three minutes, before draining and squeezing out the excess water.

 

Bring a separate pan to a medium heat and add 200g of blanched kale. Cook until all the moisture has evaporated, then add the reduced cream and cook for another five minutes. Season with salt.

 

To finish and serve

Set up a charcoal grill. Put the first marinade and the chicken in a mixing bowl. Mix and allow to sit for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Transfer the chicken to a different bowl, leaving behind the liquid in the bowl, adding 60g of the awadhi marinade and mix thoroughly.

 

Grill the chicken over the charcoal (once it is ready), brushing it with the remaining awadhi marinade as needed. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the grill, baste it generously with ghee and allow it to rest for five minutes before carving it.

 

Add the creamed kale to the bottom of a bowl and place the carved chicken on top. Dust liberally with Sharmaji masala. Mix the melted butter with the cashew whey sauce and pour it over the chicken.

 

Sharmaji Masala

Makes 465g

• 50g cumin seeds
• 50g black peppercorns 
• 50g black salt
• 30g dried mint
• 20g dried fenugreek leaves
• 4g citric acid
• 2.5g mace blades
• 15g green cardamom seeds
• 5g cloves
• 3g cinnamon stick
• 5g ajwain seeds
• 5g asafoetida
• 125g amchoor
• 50g kosher salt
• 30g ground ginger
• 25g yellow chilli powder

Blend all the ingredients to a coarse powder in a spice or coffee grinder. Store in an airtight container for up to one month.

 

Yogurt whey and hung yogurt

• Natural yogurt

Place a double layer of muslin cloth over a bowl. Stir the yogurt and place it on the muslin cloth. Tie the muslin cloth and hang it in the refrigerator with the bowl underneath. Leave it hanging for three days. 

 

Keep both the whey and the hung yogurt to use in recipes. Store in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to five days.

 

Cashew paste

Makes 300g

• 100g cashews
• 200g water

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Roast the cashews on a baking tray for 12-16 minutes, stirring them every four minutes, until light brown. Put them in a pan with the water and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat.

 

Blend the nuts with the cooking water, while still warm, in a high-speed blender or Vitamix until a very smooth paste is formed. Pass it through a fine chinois. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

 

First marinade

Makes 100g

• 33g peeled garlic
• 33g peeled ginger
• 33g lemon juice
• 1.5g kosher salt

Blend all the ingredients to a smooth paste in a high-speed blender or Vitamix. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.

 

Awadhi marinade

Makes 315g

• 16g Awadhi Masala (see below)
• 16g mustard oil
• 2g kosher salt
• 8g garlic
• 15g ginger
• 20g double cream
• 240g hung yogurt (see above)

Blend the masala, mustard oil, salt, garlic and ginger to a paste in a high-speed blender or Vitamix until smooth. Mix the paste with the cream and yogurt until homogeneous in colour. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.

 

Awadhi Masala

Makes 385g

• 10g dried fenugreek leaves
• 5g cinnamon stick
• 30g cumin seeds
• 60g coriander seeds
• 6g green cardamom seeds
• 3g mace blades
• 9g cloves
• 12g black cardamom seeds
• 45g Garam Masala
• 45g black pepper
• 60g Kashmiri red chilliies
• 100g kosher salt

Blend all the spices to a fine powder in a spice or coffee grinder. Store in an airtight container for up to one month.

 

Taken from Bibi The Cookbook. Read the review