The Cooking of India is one of the most interesting volumes of Time-Life’s Foods of the World series. This is a good example of why. It’s a very complex flavor with simple steps and not that many ingredients comparatively. Since the two major ingredients are cardamom and saffron, it’s automatically going to be one of my favorites.
You can make it with a whole chicken or with pieces. If you use a whole chicken—which is how the original recipe makes it—make sure to pat the inside dry as well, although you don’t need to salt and marinate the inside.
You can, of course, get the butter hot more safely by using ghee, but in this particular recipe replacing the ghee with butter will be fine.
This is a very versatile dish. Make it with large pieces of chicken or with a whole chicken and you have your main dish. Shred the chicken, or use smaller pieces, and you can mix it with noodles or rice for a great casserole, possibly adding dried cranberries or some chopped apples or other fruit and some toasted almonds. Or add the shredded chicken to some roast potatoes or other root vegetables for a nice potato salad.
Better that a man should wait for his meal than the meal should wait for the man. — Benedictine Sisters of Peking (The Art of Chinese Cookery)