Chicken Bhuna: A Memory, A Method, A Meal That Travels

I spent seventeen years in India, in a home where we cooked vegetables, lentils, and rice.
I grew up vegetarian.

Chicken was not part of my childhood language.

I learned it later — in America, in a small apartment I shared with my college roommate.

Her mother, Kusum-aunti, would send her back from visits with containers of food.
Old yogurt tubs. Sour cream tubs. Washed, saved, filled without ceremony.

The kind of food meant to nourish, not impress.

Her chicken dish was our favorite.

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How Home-Cooked Indian Food Is Meant to Be Eaten

We didn’t have much furniture then.

We sat on the floor, Indian-style, plates in front of us.
We ate with our hands and licked our fingers clean.

No pretending.
No performing.

Just two girls far from where we began, held steady by food that came from home.

I asked her many times how her mother made it.

Her answer never changed:

“Whole chicken, ginger, garlic, onions… and coriander.”

Simple. Certain.

Kusum-aunti never even tasted it — she’s a lifelong vegetarian.
The recipe lived in her hands, remembered by the muscles in her wrist.

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Why Chicken Bhuna Still Matters to Me

I’ve eaten chicken in many places since — restaurants, homes, cities that never quite became mine.

And still, that taste is the one I return to.

Not flashy.
Not heavy.
Just deeply comforting.

A warmth I wish I could bottle.

I’ve been trying ever since — not to copy it exactly, but to honor it.

This is the closest I’ve come.

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Chicken Bhuna by Backyard Buffalo

Our Chicken Bhuna is slow and intentional:

• Onions and tomatoes cooked down patiently
• Ginger and garlic mellowed, never sharp
• Spices that support, not steal the show

No cream.
No sugar.

Just steady, everyday comfort — the way Indian home cooking is meant to be.

And yes — it still comes in a tub.

Because that’s how home-cooked food travels when it’s meant for someone specific.

It’s one of my favorite things we make.
I hope you try it.

🙏🏽

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Where to Find Backyard Buffalo Chicken Bhuna

You can find our Chicken Bhuna and other everyday Indian foods at:

• Cowfeathers
• Native Sun
• Grassroots
• Diane’s
• Ward’s (Gainesville)
• Spinster Abbott’s
• Boeing
• 1748 Bakehouse

🛒 Now shipping nationwide