Jasha maroo

Ingredients

• Chicken — chopped through the bone1 kg
• Ginger60 g
• Garlic8 clove
• Onions2
• Tomatoes3
• Green chillies6
• Coriander40 g
• Vegetable oil50 ml
• Red rice — to serve350 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Chop the chicken through the bone into pieces about the size of a matchbox.

   15 min

2. 2

   Pound the ginger and garlic to a coarse paste.

   6 min

3. 3

   Fry the onion in oil until soft, add the paste and cook it two minutes.

   8 min

4. 4

   Add the chicken and fry five minutes, until it whitens all over.

   7 min

5. 5

   Add the tomatoes and chillies, pour in water a finger above and season.

   5 min

6. 6

   Simmer twenty minutes; the broth should stay thin.

   22 min

7. 7

   Stir in the coriander and serve in deep bowls with red rice.

   5 min

About the dish

The chicken is chopped through the bone into small pieces. The bones flavour the broth, and in Bhutan they are not removed — that is part of the dish rather than carelessness.

Noticeably more ginger and garlic go in than in the neighbouring cuisines. Here they are the main flavour rather than a background, and at two thousand metres that makes sense.

The broth stays thin and is drunk along with the rice rather than poured off. Jasha maroo is closer to a soup than a stew and comes in a deep bowl.

Worth knowing

• — The broth is not thickened. Flour or starch have no place here: the liquid should stay clear and drinkable.
• — The bones can be removed if guests are not used to them, but the broth ends up noticeably thinner in flavour. That is a fair trade rather than an improvement.
• — Bhutanese red rice can be swapped for brown, but it takes longer — forty minutes rather than twenty-five.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

42 g

Fat

22 g

Carbs

40 g

More from Bhutan

• Ema datshi — Green chillies stewed in cheese. Bhutan's national dish, where chilli is a vegetable rather than a seasoning.