Murgh Musallam

The bird goes in whole, stuffed with boiled eggs.

Chicken, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.6 kg
• 4 eggs, hard-boiled
• 3 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
• a generous pinch of saffron
• 3 tablespoons warm milk, for the saffron
• a 5 cm stick of cinnamon
• 6 cloves
• 6 cardamom pods
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds, ground
• 2 teaspoons ground red chilli
• 300 g yoghurt
• 60 g almonds, ground
• 6 tablespoons ghee
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 40 g almonds, slivered, and vark, to finish

Method

1. THE BIRD GOES IN WHOLE, STUFFED WITH BOILED EGGS. Its article gives the dish in one sentence and both halves are unusual: WHOLE CHICKEN marinated in a ginger-garlic paste, STUFFED WITH BOILED EGGS, and seasoned with saffron, cinnamon, cloves, poppy seeds, cardamom and chilli. Its name says the same thing -- musallam is whole. So nothing is jointed, and the cavity is filled with eggs rather than rice or mince, which means the cooking has to get heat to the middle of a stuffed bird without drying the outside.
2. IT IS SLASHED AND MARINATED FOR HOURS. Deep cuts into the thighs and breast, the ginger-garlic paste worked in, four hours at least. A whole bird takes marinade slowly.
3. THE EGGS GO IN COOKED AND WHOLE. Hard-boiled, peeled, pushed into the cavity. Raw eggs would not set before the bird was ruined.
4. THE CAVITY IS CLOSED AND THE LEGS TIED. Or the eggs roll out into the sauce.
5. IT IS BROWNED IN GHEE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. In a pan just big enough, turned on every side. Six tablespoons of ghee and ten minutes.
6. THE SAFFRON IS BLOOMED IN WARM MILK. Its article names it first among the seasonings.
7. THE SAUCE IS YOGHURT, GROUND ALMONDS AND POPPY SEEDS. Whisked and added off the heat, then brought back to a bare simmer. Poppy seeds and almonds both thicken, so no flour and no cream.
8. IT COOKS COVERED AND SLOWLY, BASTED. An hour and a quarter at a low simmer, turned twice, spooned over every fifteen minutes. Its article says the dish is cooked DRY OR IN SAUCE; this is the sauce version.
9. IT IS CARVED AT THE TABLE AND THE EGGS ARE THE POINT OF THAT. Finished with slivered almonds and vark, which its article names.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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