By Anardana Chicken Himachali Style (Pomegranate Chicken) is a flavourful chicken preparation from Himachal Pradesh. Chicken is cooked in aromatic spices and dried pomegranate seeds that adds a unique tart and tangy flavour and a pinkish-reddish colour to the dish. Makes a perfect meal with both rice and naan.
Hello my lovely friends!!
Back with another delicious recipe from the beautiful pahadi regions of Himachal Pradesh. If you follow me on instagram, you will know by now that me along with my fellow food blogger friends are doing a collaboration #tastofIndianstates. And the sole purpose of this initiative is to celebrate our 72nd Independence day.
This way we all will discover the vast and amazing cuisines from all 29 states of India. We are learning something new everyday. Trying out new cuisine from different states that we haven’t seen or heard about. Oh such fun!! Learning, cooking , eating new dishes everyday.
Here is one such interesting and unique dish.
Anardana Chicken Himachali Style
This is a flavourful slightly spicy, slightly tart, tangy chicken curry. Anardana means Pomegranate. Chicken is marinated with dried pomegranate seeds powder and yogurt. Then cooked in ghee with onions and aromatic spices. Look at the lovely pinkish-reddish colour the chicken yields because of the pomegranate.
As you can see I have made a dry anardana chicken because I served it with naan. I haven’t added any water. I cooked it slowly in its juices. If you like gravy or want to eat it with rice, you can totally add 1 to 2 cups of water to make a lovely curry.
It is very easy to make. Anardana chicken has all basic ingredients except for the main ingredient dried pomegranate seeds. So lets get everything ready and cook away this anardana chicken.
Here are a some Chicken recipes that you can try…
Himachali Anardana Chicken | Anardana Murgh
Equipment
- 1 large bowl
- Thick bottomed pan, Kadhai
Ingredients
Marination
- 1 kg Chicken
- 1 cup Yogurt
- 4 tbsp Anardana powder (Dried pomogranate seed powder)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Ginger-garlic paste
- 1 1/2 tsp Chilli powder or as per taste
- 1 1/2 tsp Coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- Salt as per taste
For the curry
- 2 large Onions chopped
- 2-3 Large garlic cloves chopped
- 1/2 inch Ginger chopped
- 2-3 bay leaves
- 1 inch Cinnamon
- 4-5 Green Cardamoms roughly pounded in pestle motor
- 4-5 Cloves roughly pounded in pestle motor
- 1-2 black cardamom roughly pounded in pestle motor
- 1 tsp Garam masala powder
- 1/2 cup Fresh Pomegranate/Anardana
- 2-3 tbsp Ghee/ oil (or you can use half ghee half oil)
- fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Instructions
- In a large bowl, place all the ingredients under marination. mix every well and keep it aside for at least an hour or more.
- Heat ghee/oil in a thick bottomed pan on medium heat. when hot add bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamoms and cloves ans sate until you can smell the aroma of the spices.
- Add the chopped ginger and garlic and saute for 15-20 seconds.
- Add the chopped onions and fry until the onions turn soft and translucent ang lightly golden brown.
- Now add in the marinated chicken along with the marinade and mix everything well. fry the chicken on medium heat for 5-6 minutes until the rawness of the chicken disappears.
- Cover and cook for 25-30 minutes. Stirring frequently. And let the chicken cook slowly in its own juices. (**Notes)
- Add the garam masala powder and mix everything well. Continue cooking for another another 4-5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and you see oil floating on the top.
- Sprinkle with some coriander leaves and take it off the heat. Garnish with fresh pomegranate and serve it how with naan or rice.
Notes
I hope you enjoy this Himachali Anardana Chicken as much as we do.
You know what guys I would love to see your wonderful creations. If you have tried this recipe, simply click a picture and tag me @gastronomicbong or #gastronomicbong on Instagram or on Facebook.
Bon Appetit!!!
Lipika Nayak
July 10, 2020I tried this recipe and it came out really well .. Super tasty … Recently came to know about this site.. Very different recipes.. I am going to try many more!! Thank you for sharing these beautiful recipe!! Keep adding more 😍
Arpita@Gastronomic Bong
July 10, 2020Thank you so much Lipika.. Glad you enjoyed this ❤️
Craig
January 21, 2021One of the folks in my household is not big on really spicy dishes. This is excellent! Did the mis en place earlier in the day to do a Murgh curry w/ potatoes & carrots. Chicken was already in yogurt, turmeric & chili. Then remembered I had a couple of packets of anardana I wanted to use. Google Search. This! Win / win!
I already roasted a cauliflower (Aloo Gobi) in Dutch Oven yesterday to reheat… so I made the “wet” version of the Murgh Anardana — thanks for the comment about that at end — steamed the extra carrots and potatoes. Went well with the Anardana Onion Kulcha I had already settled on. Lots of pomegranate flavor! Tangy and savory!