Baked Chicken Pakistani Style

No photo of this dish, and I do apologize.  But boy did it smell wonderful cooking and it tasted soooo good!  John almost always thanks me for the meals I make, usually at the end of eating, but if he compliments a meal WHILE he's eating it, it's something special.  Apparently, this is one of those something special dishes because he complimented the food twice while eating and then thanked me for the meal too. 

I found the recipe in 1958 January issue of Woman's Day magazine and it sounded good then.  I had to buy the Cardamon used in the recipe.  It calls for whole seeds crushed, but I substituted ground.  Because I was reducing the other ingredients to 1/4 (I just used two boneless skinless breasts, I used 1/8 tsp.  I'd say 1/2 tsp should do, but if you're more familiar with cardamon pods you can adjust it.)

Baked Chicken Pakistani Style


1/4 cup soft butter
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp crushed dried red chili pepper
2 cardamon seeds, crushed
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1 small piece fresh ginger, finely minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, chopped
1 fryer chicken, cut into pieces

Mix all but the chicken.  Place chicken in baking dish, spread mixture over top.  Bake at 400F for 1 hour.

**I didn't have cloves, so used allspice instead and used chili powder (ground chili pepper).  I had sliced almonds on hand but did chop them to mix with the other ingredients.  Served with a pilaf type rice this was very good.  The aroma that filled the house as it baked was awesome.