Recipe This is a wonderful recipe, from Muslim Bengal. Dopiaza means double the onions. It is interesting how the onion appears in two different guises in this recipe. Offhand, we can't think of any recipe in the Western cuisines that use this method.

CHICKEN DOPIAZA

• 1/3 cup oil (you can use a bit less too)
• 1 chicken
• 5 medium onions
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped a bit
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 green cardamoms
• 10 whole cloves
• 2 dry chili peppers
• 2 big potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or less
• 1 plain yogurt, well whisked
• 2 tomatoes, quartered
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon garam masala (available from Penzey's )
• Chopped cilantro

Cut the chicken in eight serving pieces, and take off the skin. Grab the skin with a piece of paper towel to get it off the drumsticks easily.

Peel three of the onions and slice them into thin rings. Heat about half of the oil in a large frying pan and fry the sliced onion, not too fast, until evenly brown, stirring very often. Reserve the fried onion on a plate lined with several layers of paper towel.

Add a bit more oil to the pan if you don't have much left, and reheat the oil, on a medium flame.
Add the garlic, ginger, cardamom, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, and dry peppers to the oil. Stir fry, but do not let color more than a little bit.

Add the chicken pieces and roll them in the hot spices. Turn the fire up a bit.
Add the last two onions, in chunky wedges.
Add the  potato cubes, the cayenne, salt, and turmeric, and keep frying a minute.
Add the yogurt, two tablespoons at a time, while stirring and flipping happily.
Add the tomato and the sugar.

Preheat your oven to 350F.

When everything is going pretty furiously in your frying pan, pour the contents into a large lasagna pan. Smooth the contents a bit and place in the oven.

After one hour, sprinkle the garam masala and HALF of the fried onion on the casserole, and flip the chicken pieces over.

Ten more minutes and you can serve.
Sprinkle the remaining fried onion and the cilantro over the dopiaza just before serving.
Serve with rice .