Malai Chicken Curry (Murgh Malaiwala)

Try this rich and creamy Murgh Malai Wala, an appropriate choice for your festive meals. It is best served with naan or tandoori roti. Here is how to make it.

You can have a look at more chicken curry recipes, that can be a part of your everyday meals –Chicken Salna, Andhra Chicken Curry, Chicken Curry, Chicken Vindaloo, Tomato Chicken Curry and Butter Chicken.

About This Recipe

Murgh Malaiwala (Malai Chicken Curry) is a North Indian preparation where yogurt marinated chicken pieces are cooked with cream, milk and basic spices. It is rich, creamy and bursting with incredible royal flavours.

It is a great addition to your special meals and can be served along with phulka, tandoori roti or naan. It can also be paired with rice or any lightly spiced pulao.

Ingredients

Chicken – Use bone in chicken pieces to make this curry. It soaks up all the flavour of the marination and makes the curry taste even more delicious.

For marination – Chicken pieces are marinated with hung curd, lemon juice, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and garam masala powder.

Make sure that the hung curd is fresh and not sour. You can even make hung curd at home using fresh curd and hanging it in a muslin/cotton cloth to remove the excess moisture.

Cream & milk – Cream and milk are the ingredients that makes it different from other curries. It adds that perfect amount of creamy texture making it rich.

Whole spices – Add in cloves and black peppercorns to the hot oil, which will add more flavour to the curry.

Spice powders – The curry is flavoured with some basic spice powders such as cardamom powder, red chilli powder, white pepper powder and garam masala powder.

Others – Oil, ghee, onions, green chillies, saffron strands, dried fenugreek leaves/kasuri methi and fried onions are other ingredients used in this curry.

Fried onions adds a rich flavour, so do not skip it. You can make it in advance and store it for about 6 months. You can also try my homemade fried onion recipe.

Serving Suggestions

Murgh Malaiwala tastes delicious with any Indian bread. be it a phulka, tawa paratha, naan, garlic naan, tandoori roti, missi roti or any other bread that you prefer.

It can also be served with steamed rice, jeera rice or any other lightly spiced pulao or biryani.

Storage Suggestions

Chicken Malai Curry has cream and milk as its two main ingredients, therefore it will last for only about 2 days. Store it in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Reheat in a pan or microwave until hot. Add in water and adjust the consistency if it becomes dry after refrigerating.

You might also like:

Chicken Vindaloo

Chicken Kali Mirch

Mushroom Tikka Masala

Step by Step Recipe

Mix hung curd, lemon juice, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and garam masala powder in a bowl.

Add chicken pieces and mix well. Cover the bowl with a cling film and refrigerate for up to 3-4 hours.

Heat oil and ghee in a pan.

When the oil is hot, add cloves and black peppercorns. Add onion and fry till translucent.

Now add green chilli and fry for a few seconds.

Add the marinated chicken along with the marinade and cook on high heat for 5-6 minutes till the chicken is slightly browned and the raw smell is gone.

Add 1 cup water and cover and cook until chicken is done.

Now add cream, milk, saffron strands, cardamom powder, white pepper powder and fenugreek leaves and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add red chilli powder and garam masala powder and mix well.

Add crushed fried onions and cook for 4-5 minutes.