Bengali Chicken Rezala

Bengali Chicken Rezala is a creamy and rich Mughlai curry prepared with chicken, yogurt, cashews, poppy seeds, and a few whole spices. Make it using my easy recipe (gluten-free).

Jump to:

• About Chicken Rezala
• Ingredients
• How To Make Bengali Chicken Rezala
• Pro Tips By Neha
• Serving Suggestions
• Storage Suggestions
• You Might Also Like
• Recipe Card

About Chicken Rezala

Rezala is a Mughlai-style curry made using yogurt, cashew nuts, poppy seeds, and a few whole spices.

There are a few different versions of this curry. There is a Bhopali version, a Bengali version, and a Bangladeshi version.

Rezala curry is traditionally made using mutton (goat meat) but in this post, I am sharing a Bengali Style Chicken Rezala Recipe.

This creamy and rich chicken curry is packed with subtle and royal flavors. It has sourness from the yogurt, sweetness from cashews, and spiciness from pepper and dry red chilies.

Serve chicken rezala with rumali roti, tandoori roti, tawa paratha, lachha paratha, naan, or luchi for an indulgent weekend meal.

This recipe is gluten-free and can be easily doubled or tripled.

Here are more chicken recipes that you may like

• Punjabi Tariwala Chicken
• Bihari Chicken Curry
• Indian Tomato Chicken Curry
• Butter Chicken
• Chicken Vindaloo
• Dhaba Style Chicken Curry
• Indian Chicken Masala Curry
• Chicken Salna
• Achari Chicken
• Dahi Chicken Curry

Ingredients

Chicken – Use skinless bone-in chicken pieces for the best taste.

If you are not a bone-in chicken person, then you can use chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces.

Yogurt (Curd, Dahi) – Plain yogurt makes the base of this curry. If using homemade dahi, then make sure it’s not sour.

Whole Spices – This recipe uses basic whole spices such as cloves (laung), black peppercorns (kali mirch), cinnamon (dalchini), black cardamoms (badi elaichi), dry red chilies, and green cardamoms (hari elaichi).

Spice Powders – To flavor, the curry further, spice it up with everyday spice powders such as white pepper powder and garam masala powder.

Oil + Ghee – I prefer to use a combination of both, but you can use either of them to make the curry.

Cashew Nuts and White Poppy Seeds – These two ingredients add that perfect creamy texture to the rezala curry.

If poppy seeds are not available, then skip using them in the recipe or replace them with melon seeds.

Others – You will also need ginger garlic paste, salt, onion paste, kewra essence, and saffron strands.

To make onion paste, blend a medium peeled onion in a blender along with 3-4 tablespoon of water to make a fine paste.

How To Make Bengali Chicken Rezala

Marinate The Chicken

Mix

• 1 kg skinless bone-in chicken (cut into 1 and ½ inch pieces)
• 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
• 1 cup plain yogurt

in a bowl and marinate for an hour.

Make Poppy Seed Paste

Soak 10-12 cashew nuts and 2 tablespoon white poppy seeds in 2 tablespoon warm water each for 10 minutes.

Transfer the soaked cashew nuts and poppy seeds to a blender along with the water they were soaked in.

Add 4-5 green chilies to the blender and blend to make a smooth paste.

Make The Chicken Rezala Curry

Heat 3 tablespoon ghee and 2 tablespoon oil in a pan over medium-high heat.

When the ghee is hot, add

• 3-4 cloves
• 6-8 whole black peppercorns
• 2-inch pieces of cinnamon stick
• 2 green cardamoms
• 2 black cardamoms
• 4-5 dry red chilies

to the pan and saute for 10-15 seconds.

Pick chicken pieces from the marinade and add them to the pan. Fry for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add

• remaining marinade
• cashew nut and poppy seeds paste
• 1 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garam masala powder

to the pan and mix well.

Add ½ cup of onion paste and 1 cup of water to the pan and mix well.

Reduce the heat to low.

Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and cook for 40-50 minutes, until the chicken is cooked well.

Stir a few times while cooking.

Finally, add 1 tablespoon ghee and 2-3 drops of kewra essence and mix well.

Check for salt and add more if required.

Garnish with saffron soaked in milk and serve!

Pro Tips By Neha

Do not replace white pepper powder with black pepper powder as it will darken the color of the curry.

Kewra essence has a very strong flavor. Do not use more than 2-3 drops otherwise, it may make the curry bitter.

Saffron is optional but it gives a very rich and delicious aroma and taste to the curry so I highly recommend it.

Serving Suggestions

Bengali Chicken Rezala is best served with Indian bread such as Lachha Paratha, Tawa Paratha, Rumali Roti, Tandoori Roti, Phulka, Naan, or Bengali Luchi.

You can also serve it with Chicken Biryani, Mutton Biryani, Jeera Rice, or just plain Steamed Basmati Rice.

Storage Suggestions

Bengali Chicken Rezala will last you for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

Store it in a clean and dry air-tight container and make sure to close the lid after every use.

Reheat it in a microwave or in a pan over the stovetop. Add some water if the curry has thickened after refrigeration.

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