Whatever the weather, you can get a chicken recipe that will suit your palate. In this summery weather, my garden is full of herbs. While I use them in many recipes and the feeling of plucking them fresh from the garden is divine, I always wanted to experiment a new recipe incorporating these fresh herbs.

So I set myself this challenge and made this herb kalimirch chicken. Hope you like it!

What you will need ( for 2-3) people

1. 700 gms of fresh chicken

2. 2 medium size onion cut into slices

3. 10 garlic cloves

4. Golf size fresh ginger – peeled and sliced

5. 1 tbsp white poppy seeds

6. 10-15 Black pepper corns

7. 2 red chillies soaked in warm water

3. fresh herbs ( around 15 leaves each of basil + mint + coriander) finely chopped

4. Turmeric powder – 1tsp

5. Cumin powder – 1tbsp

6. Coriander powder – 1 tbsp

7. Oil to fry

8. Salt to taste

9. 4 cloves+ 2 bay leaves + 1 star anise

10. 1 tsp garam masala

Process:

• Marinate the chicken with 1 tbsp oil, turmeric and chilli powder.

• In a spice grinder or a blender, make a paste out of the ginger garlic, black pepper, red chillies and poppy seeds. To get a good consistency of the poppy seeds first grind it dry and then add all the remaining ingredients and add 2 tsp of water.

• In a heavy bottom pan, heat oil ( around 3-4 tbsp) and then add the cloves, star anise and the bay leaves. After a few seconds add the chopped onions.

• Once the onions start turning brown, add the spice paste in to the oil and fry it on low flame.

• Once the oil starts oozing out of the spice paste, the chicken should be added and then cooked on the pan for a further 5 minutes.

• Add the chopped herbs to the chicken and add around 2 cups of boiling water. Close the lid and cook the chicken for another 30 minutes. I used a pressure cooker so it cooks slightly quicker than 30 minutes.

• Once cooked, serve it hot with rice.

Your herb chicken with black pepper is ready.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Till the next time, ciao