Indian Chicken Curry with Chicken Liver

Home-style North Indian curry that took shape in the 19th- and early 20th-century Mughal-influenced kitchens of Punjab and Delhi, where bhuna (slow-fry) onion-tomato bases became the standard. Liver was added in frugal households to stretch a small bird and enrich the gravy without more meat — offal was free with the butcher's cut.

Bengali kosha murgi tradition — slow-bhuna the masala until the oil splits, then drop the liver in last so it stays pink at the core. Adding the liver before the bhuna is finished turns it grainy.

Bone-in chicken pieces and chopped liver in a thick onion-tomato gravy stained orange-red by Kashmiri chili and turmeric. Liver gives the sauce a faint iron sweetness; the chicken contributes collagen. Eat with basmati or torn naan to mop. If the gravy tastes sharp rather than round, the onions weren't browned long enough.

The bhuna step is load-bearing: onions cooked 25–40 minutes until oil separates and the paste turns mahogany, then tomato added and reduced to a jam before any water goes in. Liver is added late — five minutes max — or it goes chalky. Skipping bhuna gives a thin, raw-onion-tasting curry; this is the most common home-cook failure.