Chicken Lawang

There's something extremely evocative about a dish that's full of rich spices. I suppose it's the aromatic quality spices have -- that smell of foreign wood and earth -- that can almost transport you to a place you've only seen in photographs. Especially in a place like Afghanistan, which was pretty damn neat when it was at peace and which is pretty damn gorgeous despite all of the strife today.

I've never been, but these are the spices that sent people off in caravels before they even knew what they were bound to hit when they got there. I completely understand why.

This dish does take a couple of hours to make, but it is really wonderful.

Ingredients:
2 small onions, finely minced
4-6 cloves of garlic, also finely minced
maybe 1/4 cup olive oil
about as much chicken as you'd expect 3 or 4 people to want to eat, or about, what, 400-500g? I remember this being "about five dollars' worth of chicken".
turmeric
cumin, ground
coriander, ground
cloves, ground
cardamom, ground
black pepper, ground
(dried red pepper, to taste. This is not a traditionally spicy dish, but it does work well with a bit of heat, if you enjoy that kind of thing.)
1 large tub (about 450 g, but need not be exact) plain yogurt, and a couple coffee filters with which to strain it
salt
fresh cilantro/coriander leaves
1-2 cups chicken stock
1-2 tbsp lemon juice (bottled is fine)


1. Begin straining the yogurt. This will not only make it much thicker, but also remove some of the bitter flavor. Do this by carefully placing some coffee filters (I like to use a couple, for good measure) or some paper towels (in a pinch) in a strainer, and setting it over a bowl that can catch the liquid. This yogurt will continue straining for the next two hours.

2. Chop the onions. This is a lot of onion to mince. I wore a diving mask to avoid onion-eye. Yes, really. It was awesome.

3. On medium to medium-high heat, add about half of the olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Stir occasionally for about 5 minutes.

4. Add the garlic, and continue stirring for another 5 minutes. If at any point your onions begin to brown, stop, because that is the point we are looking for. The onions should start to brown in the oil. Interestingly, this is also the beginning of the Qabili Palau recipe.

5. Add the other half of the oil and the chicken, and stir, turning the heat down so the mixture doesn't burn. Set a timer for 10 minutes, but come back in 5, just in case. Stir it then.

6. After 10 minutes, stir in the spices. At this point, the oil and onions should be forming a sauce, and you want to incorporate the spices into that mixture. Stir through evenly. It should be a really neat color. Double-check that the heat is on quite low. Cover with a lid.

7. Set a timer for 30 minutes, wandering back into the kitchen now and then to stir and to check that the sauce has enough flavor. Add a little chicken broth as the sauce begins to thicken, reserving a bit for the end.

8. After all this, if there is still oil pooling on top, strain it off with a ladle, by all means.

9. Turn off the heat, dump the lemon juice into the rest of the chicken broth, and add this mixture, stirring slowly.

10. Remove the lid and wait for the chicken to come down near room temperature -- perhaps another 25 minutes. This gives you the time to finish that episode of Psych you started in step 7. Now would also be a good time to put a pot of Basmati rice on to steam.

8. Go get that yogurt that's been straining. Mix it slowly into the sauce. Once the yogurt is thoroughly incorporated, begin to heat this back up to serving temperature.

9. While heating, stir. While stirring, mix in the cilantro/coriander leaves. I like to reserve a few for use as a garnish.