Whole Chicken Baked with an Almond and Onion Sauce

Name: Whole Chicken Baked with an Almond and Onion Sauce
Yield: serves 4
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 1 cup plain yogurt; 1 medium onion, chopped; One 3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped; 3 large cloves garlic, chopped; 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 3/4 teaspoons salt; 2 teaspoons garam masala, (preferably homemade, page 285); 2 tablespoons slivered blanched almonds; 1 whole chicken, about 3 3/4 pounds; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 3 tablespoons olive or canola oil; 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds

December 9, 2011

This is an oven-cooked version of the Indian classic Murgh Mussallam—a whole chicken cooked in a rich spicy sauce. Although Indians like their chicken skinned, partly to let the spices penetrate better, I have not bothered too much with that in this book, just to make life easier. But it would be good to do it for this recipe, as this is a dish for special occasions. You can ask your butcher to skin the chicken, but it is really not difficult to yank most of it off yourself. The wings are a bit troublesome, so I just leave them alone. I might go to town here and serve Black Beans, Yellow Basmati Rice with Sesame Seeds, and Sweet-and-Sour Eggplant. On the other hand, you could treat this as a spicy roast and just have parsley potatoes and fresh summer peas!

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