Bangladeshi Wedding Roast Chicken

Bangladeshi Wedding Roast Chicken, or Biye Barir Murgi Roast, may feel like a misleading name for a couple of reasons. First, it’s certainly not a “roast” chicken in the Western sense of the word—it’s not cooked in an oven. In Bangladesh, the word implies cooking on a makeshift clay wood-burning stove, which is how this dish was traditionally prepared. Second, although it’s called “wedding” chicken, this dish is served in Bangladeshi homes for pretty much every celebration, but especially during Eid.

The secret to its deep flavor is a technique called bhuna, which involves a repeated process of caramelization and deglazing with very small quantities of moisture added sporadically. This creates an intensely aromatic and savory masala base that coats and infuses the chicken throughout. The addition of fried onions to the blended base expedites the flavor-building process, and the poppy seed and cashew paste adds a luscious quality to the sauce.

Chicken quarters are traditionally used in recipes for Bangladeshi wedding roast chicken, but thighs and drumsticks separately work just as well. The only requirement is that the chicken is bone-in but skinless. To remove the skin, just pull it back and away from the flesh; it should come off smoothly at the joint end, but you can use a sharp knife to detach it fully if needed. If you’d like to serve this chicken with pulao, start the pulao while you wait for the poppy seeds and cashews to finish soaking. And to make prep easier, caramelize the onions for both recipes at the same time and split them in half to use in each recipe: This would be two thinly sliced small yellow onions and ⅔ cup ghee, total.