So you wanna masala?

Sometimes a whole meal can be based around one special ingredient. That was my intent last weekend when I bought a bag of fragrant yellow garam masala at Christina's Spice & Specialty Foods Shop (right next to Christina's Ice Cream) in Inman Square.

Garam masala (which translates to "hot mixture") is a mixture of ground spices--often chili peppers, garlic, ginger, fennel and mustard seeds, star anise, turmeric, coriander, cardamom, etc--that forms the basis for many Indian dishes. It's best, of course, to buy whole spices and grind them yourself with a mortar and pestle or a coffee bean grinder. But I trusted Christina's to provide the next best thing. I'd learned from Chef Ranveer Brar that one of the secrets of Indian cooking is marinating meat in yogurt, and so I looked for a recipe that would allow me to do so with the garam masala I'd just bought. I'm not confident enough in cooking Indian cuisine to improvise on my own just yet.

This recipe from Epicurious turned out delightfully--full of the flavors of the garam masala. The chicken marinates for two hours in seasoned yogurt, then bakes for an hour on a bed of onions, both of which make it incredibly tender and piquant. It made enough for a week's worth of lunches or dinners for one, and I served it with naan, white rice or the bulgur salad pictured (which I livened up with some chopped dried dates).


Easy Chicken Masala (from Epicurious)

• 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon garam masala*
• 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 1 large garlic clove, pressed
• 1 4- to 4 1/2-pound roasting chicken, cut into 8 pieces, backbone removed
• 2 small onions, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

Mix yogurt, chopped cilantro, olive oil, garam masala, salt, and garlic in 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Add chicken to marinade, 1 piece at a time, coating all sides. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 2 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.

Position racks in top third and bottom third of oven; preheat to 400°F. Arrange onions in thin layer on large rimmed baking sheet to form bed for chicken. Top with chicken pieces in single layer, spacing apart for even roasting (chicken will still be coated with marinade). Discard remaining marinade.

Roast chicken on top rack until cooked through and juices run clear when thickest portion of thigh is pierced with knife, about 1 hour. Serve chicken atop onion slices. Spoon pan juices around.

* An Indian spice mixture; available in the spice section of many supermarkets and at Indian markets.