Lavand-e-Murgh

Making ghormed sabzi the other day piqued my curiosity. Middle eastern cooking is another area of the world I know very little about food wise. After a little bit of poking around I have found several Afghani recipes that looked inspiring. This particular one comes from Afghani Kitchen Recipes. I looked up the dish, lavand-e-murgh, which means chicken in yogurt, and found that there are those who add lots of spices and recipe without any at all.

I buy my ginger from the freezer section so I always have some available that hasn't gone bad, neglected in the bottom of the fridge. Those little pods are quite handy.

3 frozen pods of ginger, defrosted
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 large turkey breast, cut in to cubes
1 c. water
2 really large or 3 normal onions
1 long green chili pepper
1/2 stick of butter
2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 whole allspice berries
1 bay leaf
1 c. Greek yogurt
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Combine the chicken, or in my case turkey, cubes with the garlic, ginger, and water. Let marinate in the fridge for about an hour. 

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, and bay leaf. Cook for about a minute, stirring, until really fragrant but be really careful not to burn them. Add the onions and chili and keep cooking for about 5 - 10 minutes until they onion is tender. 

Add the poultry and the liquid it marinated in and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir in the yogurt and enough water to make a nice sauce. Simmer over medium heat, covered, for about 30 minutes. Make sure to not boil or the yogurt will curdle. 

Stir in the cilantro, taste for salt and pepper, and serve with rice or couscous.