A Dinner Party Showstopper

মুরগি মুসাল্লাম
Murgi Musallam

A labour of love

I've had this dish a few times growing up, always at dinner parties where it would be the centrepiece at the table. It isn't something my family cooked themselves, so until recently I didn't have a recipe I could pilfer from anyone to post on the blog. Since moving to the UK, I roast chicken in the oven often enough, but usually the recipes I use are British or fusion-y concoctions, and I've always wanted to add this traditional Bangladeshi recipe to my repertoire. Although as a quick side note, I'm sure this murgi mussallam isn't uniquely Bangladeshi. Versions of this dish are common across South Asia and the word mussallam itself - meaning whole - isn't a Bengali word.  

Lucky for me, I was having dinner with my best friend's family one day when her mom brought a whole chicken to the table, boasting that she had cooked this on the hob rather than in the oven. I was ecstatic, not only because the dish was delicious, but I finally had someone who could teach me how to make it! Long story short, she shared the recipe below with me, but also ended up giving my younger brother and I a few practical lessons in cooking the dish during subsequent visits. It's quite a long and laborious process, so I have to admit I don't make this often. However, it's too delicious not to share, and if you're happy putting in the extra effort for a special occasion, the results are worth it.

Ingredients:

• A whole chicken, approximately 1.50 kg in weight
• 20.00 g freshly minced garlic
• 20.00 g freshly minced ginger
• 1.00 teaspoon of powdered turmeric
• 1.00 teaspoon powdered chilli
• 6.00 tablespoons of plain yoghurt
• 2.00 medium onions
• 200.00 ml whole milk
• 1.00 teaspoon of mace
• Half a nutmeg, grated
• A pinch of saffron
• 1.00 tsp of black pepper
• 2.00 cardamoms
• 1.00 clove
• 1.00 bay leaf

Method:

• Mix the turmeric, chilli, garlic and ginger with 4.00 tablespoons of yoghurt. Spread over the chicken and leave to marinate for at least two hours in the fridge, or ideally overnight
• Take the chicken out of the the first 15-20 minutes before cooking
• Add a large amount of oil to a pot, ideally non-stick, big enough to hold the chicken with a lid on
• Once the oil is hot, add the chicken, including the marinade
• Brown the chicken, letting the bird sit undisturbed on each side for about 7-8 minutes
• While chicken is browning, mince the onion - either by hand or in a food processor
• Once, the chicken is browned, add the minced onion to the pot, directly into the oil rather than onto the chicken
• Cook the chicken and onion on a medium-low heat for about 20-30 minutes, stirring the onion around occasionally so it doesn't burn
• While the chicken and onion and cooking, put a small pot onto the stove on medium heat 
• Once hot, add the nutmeg, mace and saffron and toast the spices for a couple of minutes before taking off the heat
• After the 20-30 minutes have passed, add the tempered spices into pot, mixing into the paste
• Add 50.00 ml of milk, again mixing in and flip the chicken. Turn the heat to low, cover and cook for 1.5 hours, adding milk every now and again and mixing it into the sauce when it begins to look dry
• During the cooking, move the chicken around so it doesn't stick and burn, either with a large ladle, or by gently shaking the whole pot. 
• Occasionally lift the lid on the pan and flip the chicken too so it doesn't only cook on one side, and spoon sauce over the whole thing before putting the lid back on
• After 1.5 hours, grind the black pepper, cardamoms, clove and bay leaf using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. 
• Add this spice mixture to the chicken, along with the final 2.00 tablespoons of yoghurt. 
• Cook for a final 20 minutes before taking off the stove. 
• Serve while still hot with polao or your preferred carbs 

Additional Info:

There are as ever endless variations of this recipe. My friend's mom occasionally adds tomatoes to the sauce to give the dish a slightly tangy flavour, and stuffs the bird with a couple of boiled eggs before serving it with a garnish of salad. I know other recipes add nuts to the sauce as well for added richness, which I've tried before and it works quite nicely. However, this recipe is a lot of effort as it is so I've posted the simplest version I make! And if you want to make quite a bit easier, substitute the whole chicken for a chopped up one of about the same weight.