food & service at dhaba were phenomenal, & chef/owner lucky narang was kind enough to reveal his secrets.
mr. narang & his friend mr. gupta trained under rattan lal ji who's now 92 & long retired. they both learnt the legendary chicken khurchan which was taken to bukhara at maurya sheraton in delhi by mr. gupta.
once he retired, the dish was taken off the menu as it couldn't be replicated.
the only person with the recipe now is lucky ji. a phenomenal dish, seasoned just perfect has minced chicken or paneer in a delicately spicy; creamy rich curry. khurchan literally means scraping, and i did figure out that there were shards of unsweetened milk fat or something that would've been scraped off the tawa and added to the dish for a nice texture alongside minced chicken (or minced paneer). definitely a must try here.
the other house special is the butter chicken. they use bone in bird, which adds a good amount of flavour, & the dish is not sweet-ish as over the years it's believed to be. the spices are there yet well contained to make your taste buds dance, it's a perfect symphony of spices, flavours and textures!
dhaba achieves this through a tedious quality process. every ingredient is tested for quality & flavour, hence sourced from different regions & delivered to the main backend kitchen in delhi!
dhaba cooks the traditional recipes the traditional way using only brass & copper pots (no steel). no red chillies, no pesticide laden raw materials. infact the green chillies of the region were too hot and hence they're sourcing it elsewhere!!
who'd have thought people do scoville units in india!! 😅
all dhaba locations are fed by this kitchen for masalas every other day!
there's a lot of love, soul and effort that's been put in the food here, and it's apparent.
go for a meal at dhaba, i bet you'll be spoiled silly by the food !!