Our household’s take on traditional Kashmiri Chicken: buttery and fragrant. Intense, decadent, and filling. I’m not sure how to describe this dish short of throwing out more strings of adjectives, so I’ll let this one speak for itself. Delicious over basmati rice with a side of homemade pita to mop up all that sauce. Yum.

Kashmiri Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1/4 lb (1 stick) butter
• 2/3 cup minced shallots
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 2-3 whole cardamom pods
• 1 2-3″ cinnamon stick
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 6 chicken thighs with bones and skin
• 1 cup plain yogurt, plus extra for garnish

In a cast iron dutch oven or other wide, heavy pan with lid, melt butter over medium heat. Add shallots and spices; cook, stirring often, 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Add chicken to pan, skin-side down, and cook until lightly browned. Move chicken to edges of pan to create well in center and slowly add yogurt to butter sauce, stirring briskly to prevent breaking. Reduce heat to low and cook 45 minutes to one hour, or until chicken separates easily from bone. Garnish with a dollop of extra yogurt just before serving.

Serves 4-6.

Bonus picture! (I’m so easily amused - I love the steam coming off the chicken.)

A long time ago, in a galaxy…er, shire not so far, far away, I played (which is to say, cooked) in the kitchens of a medieval recreational group known as the SCA. For my first and only solo run as feastocrat, I played the part of an Italian chef who had been kidnapped by German Landsknechts and forced to serve dinner to their king and queen. Tongue firmly planted in cheek, I was determined to find a way to give them what they wanted…and served up spaghetti and meatballs, medieval-style.

These meatballs, served aside pasta cooked in chicken stock and topped with shaved parmesan cheese, were as delicious as they were fun.

Spiced Meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. chicken breast meat or boneless pork loin
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp. butter, softened
• 2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped fine
• 2 tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped fine
• 1/4 tsp. powdered ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup flour, as needed
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and shaved parmesan, for garnish

Fill a medium pot 3/4 full with cold water and bring to a simmer. Poach chicken breasts or pork until just cooked. Drain and set aside to cool. When meat is cool, shred with forks and then chop with a knife until very fine (do not use food processor).

Place shredded meat in a medium bowl and, using your hands, combine meat, cheese, butter, parsley, thyme, ginger, cloves, and pepper. Mix thoroughly. Add flour until mixture is stiff but still slightly sticky, and roll into small (3/4-1″) balls.* Roll balls in flour and set on lined sheet pan. Chill for 1 hour**.

Bring chicken stock to a boil and drop meatballs into the stock in batches. Reduce heat and simmer balls for 10-12 minutes, or until cooked through. Move finished balls to a serving dish while the other batches are being cooked.

To serve, top meatballs with a small amount of hot stock, a sprinkling of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and a generous amount of parmesan cheese.

Serves 6-8.

*Tip: finished balls should be the size and texture of Swedish meatballs, not traditional Italian meatballs.

**Meatballs can be frozen at this point by placing the sheet pan into the freezer until the balls have frozen solid, and then bagging the frozen pieces so that they do not stick together. Resulting meatballs can be cooked from frozen.

This post was inspired by Serge the Concierge’s Get Cooking challenge, “Meatballs for Seth“.

Image by Dalyswe.