I need to cook for a large crowd about two times this ramadan (i am talking about 150+ ppl here). I would really appreciate some tips and tricks from you experienced lot here.
For the salan i am making tomorrow, i was thinking of using Mahru’s chicken salan recipe, it is always a hit. For those who dontknow, this recipe makes a masala of onions, tomatoes etc and then to add and cook chicken marinated in yogurt and spices.
Its being recommended to bake the chicken first and then add to precooked masala and bhoonify. The reason for this is that chicken breaks easily and this way it shouldnt. Should it help?
I dont want to mess it up since its MaashaAllah a lot of chicken and alot of people will be there. Help me out, if you guys can, please?
for such kindda cooking , i suggest fry onion till it turn brown, in a big quantity and store it, that saves a lot of time & energy when u start cooking using whatever recipe u have.
Ira, I wouldn't precook the chicken!
I recently made chicken saalan for about a hundred ppl with help of my aunty.
(This was saalan with gravy/shorwa though). Just make sure you use a big pan, chicken doesn't take long to cook.
I would make the masala (onion+tomatoes) and then when it's soft and cooked add the chicken pieces+marination, cover the pan and let it simmer till the chicken is almost done. Then bhoonafy it on tez aanch.
hsap, i sliced hte onions last night and will be cooking most of the salan today.
shinoo, i have to use two pateelas i think since i have had experience where my pateela was too small and the chicken pieces broke :( Thanks on the tip though.
150+ ppl, do u have to cook everything or r u contributing to some big event? R u nervous?
Hope it turns out good! The other day i deep fried loads of onions until they turned brown, u can store them in the fridge, and dont have to stand for ages stirring.
Rupay halwa, i am only making one salan, there are other folks making rice, dessert and salan no 2 etc. I couldnt fry the onions before since hubs only bought me stuff one day ago. I am somewhat nervous but not as much as i was last ramadan. Gosh even hubs was more nervous than i was, running around me making sure i didnt burn anything :D
the recipe seems like for Chicken Korma...Anyways, I wouldn't recommend you to bake it. Like Shino said, add all masalas with chicken, bhonofy a little bit and then ust cover and let it cook on low to medium heat. Give it a plenty of time and dont uncover the pot too often. The salan should retain the flavors of all the spices plus the pieces won't break at all.
whenever my mom has to cook chicken in a large quantity,she marinates chicken in yoghurt+ginger garlic paste+salt+red chillies for few hours and deep fries the chicken.then adds into onion+tomato+spices masala and cooks.in this way chicken doesnt break up and there isn't any need to bhonify it much or at all.
Ira, redish salan is not bad. I am sure will all that tomatoe it must be yumious. My mom makes chicken salan in large quantities and she never fries. It always turns out fine and the chicken never seperates from the bones.
Sorry guys i forgot to update. I made the salan like i usually do and it did break a bit but not too much and only because there was a lot of chicken MaashaAllah. But it turned out fine and everyone loved it.
Thanks guys so much for your opinions.
Oh btw Lusi , the masala wasnt too tomatoey after all. It was a false alarm
its more reddish than brownish 
