Stewing a chicken ishtoo

Pushpesh Pant

The writer of these lines was born and brought up in a small hill station where the chowkidar-cum-khansama, Paan Singh, took great pride in the stew he cooked. He had learned the recipe from a memsahib whose husband had served at this outpost. As children we found the gem in his repertoire a bit bland and preferred the chicken roast or grilled chops he routinely turned out. It was years later when we encountered the desi ishtoo, first in Old Delhi and then in Purana Bhopal, that it dawned upon us that the old man was rendering a fairly faithful imitation of the Irish stew. In Kerala we have enjoyed a mildly spiced, yet exquisitely flavourful stew, not ishtoo. Let’s not digress though. What is in a name? In this case, it is not just the pronunciation that’s different, the spicing and the thickness of the gravy also vary from place to place. The original is a one pot dish where the meat, along with vegetables, is slow cooked in its own juices. Ishtoo in Delhi and Bhopal traces its lineage to do pyaaza and dum pukht. The meat — mutton or chicken — is braised and cooked with lots of onions, whole red chillies and black peppercorns. To cut the sweetness of onions, a little curd is added. Those who can’t do without aromatics may add whole spices like cloves and cardamom. Our friend Osama Jalai turns out a mean chicken ishtoo following the family recipe, a Rampur gharana heirloom. Here, we tweak it a bit.

Chicken Ishtoo

Ingredients

Chicken (without skin) 750 g

Onions 1 kg

Garlic 2-3 cloves

Whole red chillies 8-10

Black peppercorns 1/2 tsp

Curd 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Ghee/Oil 1/4 cup

A spring of fresh mint or coriander for garnishing

Method:

• Cut the chicken into 8-10 pieces. Wash and pat dry.
• Peel the onions and slice them not too fine. Crush the garlic cloves. Wipe dry the whole red chillies.
• Heat ghee/oil in a thick bottomed pan. When hot, add the chicken pieces, sliced onions and crushed garlic. Stir well to mix and add curd and black peppercorns.
• Add the chillies carefully; these should not break, or else the stew could become too hot to handle! Sprinkle salt in the end.
• Cover the pan with a tight lid and cook on medium-low flame for about 25 minutes. Uncover once half way and stir with a light hand. Uncover to check if done to taste.
• It should have a thin, but not watery, sauce-like gravy, golden in hue. Garnish with mint or coriander. Enjoy with phulka or steamed rice.
• Use the recipe for mutton ishtoo too. The cooking time increases by 30 minutes or so. The preferred cuts of meat are shoulder, neck and puth.