My Soul Sister's Bengali Chicken Rezala
Zarmineh can make any kitchen feel like home.
I’ve watched her do it in Washington D.C., Rabat, Belgrade, and Warsaw. An American of South Asian descent, she’s brilliant at keeping both her cultures alive through her cooking, and she’s been like family to me for decades.
Zar and I met in D.C.’s tech start-up world back when Amazon had just 50 employees. We’ve lived on different continents since, pursuing different careers, but food has always brought us back to each other’s kitchens.
I shared her Sheer Khurma recipe last year as the perfect dessert to welcome spring in Warsaw. Now winter is here, and I’m returning to another of her family recipes.
My first taste of Zar’s chicken rezala was twenty years ago for my birthday at my mother’s home in Rabat. The house was basic. It was a place my father had bought for my mother and us after their divorce, in a nice neighborhood she’d chosen, hoping he would renovate. He never did.
The kitchen was depressing. Rotten cabinets, no proper windows, no real doors. The kind of space that would have given Martha Stewart nightmares.
Yet somehow, Zar cooked in that rundown kitchen with such elegance and generosity, turning a cold house into something warm. This was, after all, the woman who had launched Discovery Channel India out of a hotel room. A modest kitchen wasn’t going to stop her from creating greatness.
I stood beside her, handing her ingredients and bowls as she needed them. She asked for a blender to purée the onions, luckily the only electric kitchen appliance we had. My mother, stepdad, and my three younger brothers gathered to watch. You could see she had the recipe memorized by the rhythm of her hands, by the way she moved through each step with patient explanations.
She worked in stages, the traditional South Asian bhuna technique.
First, she fried the onion purée with garlic and ginger in coconut oil until it turned golden. The house began to smell different, warmer and richer. She added turmeric and black pepper, then splashes of water each time the pan threatened to burn, building a concentrated base through patience. More frying, more water, deepening the color. Then the chicken pieces, milk, salt, paprika. Finally, yogurt stirred in briefly before everything simmered together.
The spices filled our sad kitchen with something close to joy. When we sat down to eat, the Bengali curry, mild yet deeply aromatic, with a thin yogurt and onion sauce, was utterly delicious over plain basmati rice. That night left such an impression that I never dared changing a single thing about the recipe. It was just perfect.
The word “rezala” comes from Urdu and Persian words meaning people of modest origins. It once referred to dishes enjoyed by lower-ranking Mughal officials. Over time, this humble curry evolved into something refined, especially beloved in Kolkata.
Perhaps that’s what happens with true friendship too. Something that starts simply becomes more precious with time.
We’ve made this recipe together in Belgrade, Warsaw, and all the places in between. Last spring, when Zar visited me in Warsaw again, we cooked it one more time so I could finally document it for my cookbook.
The recipe hasn’t changed, but we have.
Bengali Chicken Rezala Recipe
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 tablespoons coconut oil
3 medium-sized red onions, pureed
About 1 ½ cups of water
4 garlic cloves, grated
2 tablespoons of fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
A pinch of black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 whole chicken thighs and 2 chicken breasts, cut into pieces, washed and dried
A pinch of paprika
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
¼ cup whole milk
1 green chili, halved
Fresh cilantro, chopped (for garnish)
Method
1. Blend the onions with 1/2 cup of water to make a smooth purée.
2. Heat the coconut oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion purée, garlic, and ginger, and fry for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden. Stir in the turmeric and black pepper. Add 1/2 cup of hot water to deglaze the pan and continue frying until the water evaporates and the onion sauce thickens.
3. Add another 1/2 cup of hot water to the pan and fry the onion sauce again until it thickens and turns slightly darker.
4. Add the chicken (or coquelet) pieces to the pan, along with salt, paprika, and the milk. Fry for 10 minutes, turning the bird to coat it in the sauce. Stir in the yogurt and fry for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning.
5. Lower the heat and add the green chili. Cover and simmer the rezala for 25 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and the sauce has thickened.
6. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve hot with fluffy basmati rice.
Sanaa your friendship story is so imbued with the love and tenderness shared over many years of your lives together in the kitchens of your world. I know already how delicious this rezala recipe will be, I just want to cook it for my lifetime friend Kar.
This sounds like a delicious dish, especially because it's made with that shared love as an ingredient. It is so important to celebrate beautiful people in our lives. And to keep sharing food and memories.