Ingredients
- 1 cup dried white chickpea washed and soaked overnight in 2.5 cups water. (garbanzo beans or kabuli chana)
- 4 tbsp oil or ghee (clarified butter)
- 1 bay leaf
(tej patta)
- 2 whole cloves
(laung)
- 2 whole black cardamom pods
(badi elaichi)
- 1 cinnamon stick
(2 inch piece)
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
(jeera)
- 1/2 red onion finely chopped
- 1 Serrano pepper slit lengthwise into two halves (green chili pepper)
- 1.5 pounds chicken breasts chopped into 2 to 3 inch pieces (2 cups chopped)
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
(either freshly minced in equal quantities or store bought)
- 1 tsp red chili powder
(cayenne pepper) - 1 tsp kashmiri chili powder
- 3 and 1/4 cup water (divided)
- 2 tsp ground coriander
(dhaniya powder)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
(jeera powder)
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
(haldi powder)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 and 1/4 tsp ground pomegranate powder
(anardana powder) - 3/4 tsp garam masala
- 2 medium sized tomatoes pureed (roughly 1.5 cups pureed)
- 2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
(kasoori methi)
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro finely chopped (dhainya ke patte)
Method
Prep
- Wash and finely chop the onions and cilantro. Slit the Serrano pepper, and puree the tomatoes.
- Chop the chicken into 2 to 3 inch pieces.
- Discard the water that was used to soak the chickpea overnight. Keep the chickpea aside.
Cook
- Add the chickpea that was soaked overnight to the inner pot. Add 3 cups of water. Secure the lid on the pot.
- Select manual and cook at high pressure for 15 minutes. When cooking is complete, quick release the pressure to depressurize.
- Discard the water and keep the cooked chickpea aside in a bowl. Wash the inner pot and dry it.
- Select sauté on the instant pot.
- Add oil to the pot.
- When the oil is hot, add bay leaf, cloves, black cardamoms, cinnamon stick, and cumin seeds.
- When the cumin seeds begin to splutter in about 30 seconds add onions and Serrano pepper. Keep stirring.
- When the onions turn golden in about 2 to 4 minutes add the chicken and ginger garlic paste.
- Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until a white crust forms on the chicken.
- Add the red chili powder, Kashmiri chili powder, and 1/4 cup water. Stir.
- In about 2 minutes when the chili powder gives out color add ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric, salt, ground pomegranate powder, and garam masala. Stir well.
- Add the pureed tomatoes and let them sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the cooked chickpea/garbanzo beans and give it a good stir. Make sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot and scrape the bottom of the pot well.
- Press cancel.
- Secure the lid on the pot.
- Select manual and cook at high pressure for 7 minutes.
- When cooking is complete, use quick pressure release to depressurize.
- Add dried fenugreek leaves and give it a good stir.
- Transfer into a serving bowl and garnish with cilantro.
Serve
- Enjoy with steamed rice.
Notes
- If you do not like your food spicy you can reduce ½ teaspoon of red chili powder and eliminate the Serrano pepper.
- This recipe has been tried on the 6-quart instant pot. The proportions may vary depending on the size of the instant pot you choose to use.
- The recipe is based on soaking the chickpea over-night.
- On a scale of 1 to 5, I would place this recipe as a spice level of 3.5 if tried as is.
- Ground cayenne pepper and red chili powder can be used interchangeably as both of them make the dish spicy. So if you don’t have red chili powder you can use cayenne pepper instead.
- Kashmiri red chili powder instantly imparts a vibrant red color to any dish and is not very spicy.
- The whole spices (cardamom pods, cloves, bay leaf, and cinnamon stick can be discarded, they don't need to be consumed).