Savory braised chicken with aromatics

This is the first recipe I've tried from Niloufer Ichiporia King's My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking, and it's a good reason to try more.

Parsi refers to the descendants of the Zoroastrian Persians who came to western India more than a millennium ago, settling in Guajarat and spreading out from there. Robert Kaplan talks about them in his book Monsoon, which was the first selection of my new book group. I had bought this cookbook some time ago, but was daunted as I am by most Indian cooking by the need to find garlic and ginger purrees. However, I discovered a jar of each in the pantry, purchased at some point at an Indian grocery store and forgotten about. I will probably get around to making my own some day but these store-bought versions seemed a good way to get started.

The recipe is simple and worked well for a weekday. This is one of those talky cookbooks -- which is fine -- but I almost missed her note that it is better to brown the chicken thighs separately because those we get in the U.S. are relatively fatty. Otherwise, they are browned in the skillet after you sizzle the cinnamon stick, 5 cloves, 3 cardamom pods and 3 dried red chiles in 3 Tbl of vegetable oil.

The dish is called khari marghi, and the variation that seemed most appealing to me was the pateta ma marghi, which adds potatoes to the simmering chicken. Also, in the case of fried potatoes, King suggests using coconut milk or milk as the braising liquid to make a good gravy. I had a can of coconut milk in the pantry, so I lengthened it with a bit of milk and added it to the skillet with the aromatics and browned chicken to simmer for 30 to 40 min.

For the fried potatoes, I found a nice technique at Simple Organized Living. I peeled and quartered the California Golds, dried them and then -- this was the nice innovation in this version -- put them in the microwave for 3 to 4 min. so that the interior would have a chance to pre-cook. Often recipes have you parboil the potatoes to get this result, but this was an easy alternative. Then I fried them in a good amount of oil, drained them and added them to the braise about 15 min. before the end.

My execution was not flawless and I had problems here and there with the seasoning, but that was easily fixed and it made for a very nice dinner. I had a salad and an Umbrian Merlot to go along.