Malabar Chicken Curry

This recipe of chicken curry from the southern coastal part of India is popular for its spice quotient. Cooked with only minimum spices and grated fresh coriander, the masala paste is all what takes for a lip smacking curry like this. Just have some patience for about half an hour and it will pay off with a red hued curry with soft and succulent chicken pieces and lovely oil floating on top. Now that I call..yummm...!!

Step by step process:

Dry roast the whole spices for a minute.

Add the sliced onions, ginger and garlic and cook until the onions become translucent.

Add the grated coconut to them.

Stir continuously or else the coconut may burn.

Saute until the coconut become brown. Transfer this to a bowl and let them cool down before grinding to a fine paste using a little water.

Clean the kadai and heat oil. Add the sliced onion, chopped green chillies and half of the curry leaves to it.

When the onions become translucent add the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes become mushy.

Add the prepared spice paste and red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Cook until the oil separates.

Add the chicken pieces and sprinkle some salt over them. Cook the chicken pieces until the change their colour.

Add water and cook covered until the chicken becomes tender.

Malabar Chicken Curry

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken on bone

2 large onions – sliced

¼ cup of grated coconut

4 dried red chillies

1 and ½ tsp fennel seeds

½ tsp methi / fenugreek seed

20 curry leaves

2 green chillies – roughly chopped

1 tomato – chopped

1 and ½ tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp red chilli powder

1 and ½ inch ginger – peeled and roughly chopped

6 fat garlic cloves – roughly chopped

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 small cinnamon stick

¼ cup of coconut oil / any white oil

Salt

Method:

In a kadai dry roast the fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, dried red chillies, coriander seeds, black peppercorns and cinnamon stick on low flame for a minute.

When you can smell the spices, add a handful of the sliced onions, half of the curry leaves, chopped ginger and garlic, curry leaves and half of the chopped green chillies to them.

Sauté and cook them until you see the onions turning a little reddish.

Add the grated coconut in the end, and fry until the coconut turns brown.

Switch off the flame and transfer these spices to a blender.

Let them come to room temperature and then grind them to a fine powder using a little water.

Clean your kadai and heat the oil.

Add the rest of the sliced onions to them. Also add in the chopped green chillies and the rest of the curry leaves.

Sauté until translucent and then add the chopped tomatoes to them.

Sprinkle some salt over them and cook until the tomatoes disintegrate and the oil start to separate at the edges.

Add the prepared spice paste to it and cook until the oil separates.

Add the red chilli powder and turmeric powder.

Add in all the chicken pieces to them.

Sprinkle some salt over the chicken pieces for the seasoning.

Stir to coat the chicken pieces nicely with the prepared spicy curry mix.

Put cover and let the chicken cook for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, stir them to flip their sides and cook again for another 3-4 minutes.

When the chicken pieces are nicely browned from outsides, add 2 cups of water.

Stir and mix.

Put cover and cook them covered until the chicken pieces are fork tender. This will take around 30 minutes of time. Check every 5 minutes to prevent the curry and the chicken from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan / kadai.

Check the chicken after 30 minutes. If it is not cooked yet, cover and continue cooking.

If the chicken is cooked, uncover the kadai and simmer on medium flame until the gravy thickens and the oil separates.

Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve hot with simple white rice.