Til dia murgir mankho ( Chicken made with black sesame paste )

I m from north-east and Assam is my homeland… We have our own authentic cuisines which are very different from others like we cook fish with curry leaves , lentils with fish head , spinach and fish , duck with ash gourd , pork with spinach ,bhoot jolokia , fermented bamboo shoots , fish with radish , etc etc and so on. I m not much familiar with all these dishes . Some I know some I don’t and I have not even made all. Recently being an active member in Facebook food groups, I have learnt a lot of dishes and which I wish to try out one by one so that I can be a proud Assamese girl , not only by wearing mekhela sador and being traditional but through food . So , I came across two recipes about which I have heard a lot previously but i have never tasted them personally. These are kind of  Upper Assam cuisines but now everyone is getting familiar with them . The dishes were Til diya Kaoi maas ( climbing perch fish with black sesame paste ) and Til diya murgir mankho (Chicken with black sesame paste ) . As , this variety of fish was not available at my home today so I thought making it with Chicken since it’s an all time availability at my home refrigerator 🤓🤓 . Cooking a satisfying meal makes me happy and it’s helps me to grow more into the world of food. Now since after posting the pics my friends are asking me to open a food joint and cursing me for not inviting them so I m posting the recipe so that you can cook it and devour. This recipe was being taken from Google after several search and I made it with my own alternations . Some asked to marinate the chicken but I didn’t u can do that if u feel like. I was in a hurry so just made it like that. I hope u all will like it.  Happy cooking 😄😄😄 BON APPETITE …

Ingredients :

Chicken – 1/2 kg

Black sesame seeds – 6/7 teaspoon ( extra won’t hurt u can make something else with it ) 😉

Ginger- garlic paste -2 teaspoon

3 onions –  2 onions sliced and 1 onion made into a paste with 1 red chilli

Cumin powder-1 teaspoon

Paanch phooran -1/2 teaspoon

Bay leaf – 1

Turmeric -1/2 teaspoon

Pepper powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Salt as per your taste

Refined Oil – 2 teaspoon

Mustard oil – 1 teaspoon

Water – 1/2 cups

Method :

1. In a broad deep vessel , add the refined and mustard oil and let it get heated up , then put the bay leaf and paanch phooran into the oil. Fry for a min then add the sliced onions. Now cook the onions till they r translucent for 3/4 mins then add the onion paste and ginger garlic paste into it. Fry for another 3/4 mins then add salt and turmeric and mix well. Lower the heat and cover and let it cook for 5 mins or so.

2. After 5 mins add the chicken pieces and cumin powder and pepper powder and mix well and cover it again and let the chicken cook in its own juices for about 15 mins .

3. For the sesame paste , heat a pan and dry roast the sesame seeds for 2/3 mins then grind it into a paste adding water . Now add this paste into the chicken and turn up your heat and fry everything nicely for about 5 mins then add water and let it simmer by covering for another 15 mins .

4. At this point your Chicken looks black in colour. Dnt get scared. You can also add water but dnt make the gravy runny, it should be thick.  Lastly check your salt and other spices. Sometimes the taste of sesame might not be strong enough so at first try to use less of the paste then add later on. At first i added 3 teaspoon then later on when I checked the taste was not upto the mark so added another 2 teaspoon. After that cooked for sometime and then got that nutty flavour of the sesame in the chicken . It was a different dish altogether.Dnt use garam masala at all . Enjoy this Assamese cuisine with your rice. I had it with plain rice and tomato and onion salsa. 😄😄😄 yummy it was. Hope you make this and have a wonderful meal.