Dahi Chicken- Forgotten Spice, taste with no compromise

Winter makes you lazy ,winter makes you fat...In the past 6 months I have gained a whopping 10kgs. Whoever meets me these days, quotes with all excitement ' you have gained, a sign of prosperity it seems,' and I looking at them with fake-pale smile reply ' I think its a sign of laziness'. With the onset of winter am lil scared, cannot afford to gain more weight and cannot wait to try the winter victuals.

'aaj mere yaar ki shaadi hai'  was my song for the day. A dear friend got married to his college sweetheart. What a glorious Marwari wedding it was. Long rituals, traditional dresses and men dressed in formals and pagdis. For once I thought I was on the set of a Sooraj Barjatya film. Giving me company was Raghu Rai (aka Raghav - he got the former name as he has an advice for everyone). 

Ek taraf Dost ki Varmala, dusre taraf the bride side was getting in emtional mode, we were confused which way to go...then Aamir style yaad aya...bola yaar chocolate shake pe concentrate karo...then came the sweet corn soup with mini buns, followed by fresh cream with grapes, paneer shashlik, crispy babycorns, pineapple pastry, dal makhani, shahi matar, aur yaad nahi yaaarrrrrr!!!

Now it was time to wish my friend good luck and head straight to home...Few hours after I reached home....I started feeling hungry again as I am not an early eater and since all the food splurging happened between 6-9 pm, I was hungry again. It was 2:15, and I was HUNGRY. Opened my refrigerator and I found a bowl of Dahi Chicken which I fondly call Chicken Dilfarezi.

Few years back, my elder sis in law was making dinner for us. She's a champ when it comes to cooking good Indian/Mughlai food. But that very day, before the dinner hours she was silent and tensed. I did not even realized that she was nervous till the time we all sat for dinner. I, in all excitement uncovered the lid of the dish and was delighted to see the orange spice laden chicken ogling at me. I started searching for my favourite piece and there it was, a soft juicy tender breast piece hidden under few legs and wings pieces.

I started digging in and it was NOT the usual Dahi Chicken...it was wieredly different and incredibly tasty...I looked at my sis in law and saw the same expression on her face. She finally admitted that while cooking the dahi chicken she forgot to put one of the most important ingredients of the dish. I was like...........

From that very day, the forgotten spice version of Dahi chicken was renamed as the Chicken Dilfarezi as it touched my heart....Its a dish with forgotten spice but tasted without any compromise!!!!

BTW, if you can guess the spice which was not used and is one of the most important ingredients, you will be set for a treat of Chick Dil ;)