Chicken recipes are not only easy to cook but liked by many compared to the other non vegetarian specialities. This recipe is more similar to the minced mutton/kothu kari recipe in terms of the basic onion paste, but very easy to cook, just 3 whistles in cooker and it is done. It yields a good amount of the curry that goes well with plain rice, briyani, dosas or chapathis. For the dry chicken there is no laborious process needed, simply saute the onions and add all the chicken from the curry, a lip smacking side dish gets ready in minutes. Believe me everyone in your family will relish this dish.
This dish is slightly adapted from my dad's version ( If you have read the minced mutton curry you might find the difference in preparing the onion paste). Basically, I make it more simple :). Using more onions gives a lot of volume to the curry. It tastes best the next day too, so i make it a little extra to pair it with chapathis or dosas.
INGREDIENTS
For the onion paste:
1 cup of pearl onions peeled and slit once vertically
1 tbsp chilli powder (adjust according to taste)
1 1/2 tbsp coriander powder
2 tsps of oil
For the curry:
few curry leaves
1 piece of cinnamon
2 cloves
2 elachi
2 sliced big onions
1-2 chopped tomato
1 inch ginger slightly crushed
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 kg chicken
1/2 cup coconut ground
2 tbsp of oil
few coriander leaves to garnish
Tempering:(optional)
2 tsp of sesame oil (preferably)
1 clove
small piece of cinnamon
curry leaves
4 pearl onions vertically sliced
Dry chicken:
1 tbsp of oil
1 tsp of mustard seeds
2-3 very finely chopped big onions
2-3 tsp of pepper powder (adjust according to taste)
coriander leaves to garnish
Method:
1. Heat oil in a pan and add pearl onions. Saute till they are transperant. Add coriander powder and chilli powder, mix well for a minute till the raw smell fades. Take care not to burn them.
3. Cool the mixture and grind it to a fine paste. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add whole spices and wait till they release fragerance.
4. Add chopped onions, curry leaves and slightly crushed giner, saute till the raw smell leaves. Add chopped tomatoes and saute for a min. Next add chicken, turmeric powder and salt, give it a nice mix.
5. After 5 minutes add the ground onion paste along with some water. Adjust the water according to the consistency of the gravy required. Add salt, mix well and cook covered for 3 whistles. After the pressure releases the gravy looks like the second picture with the oil floating on the top.
6. Again bring it to a boil and check if the chicken has cooked enough. Generally three whistles are good enough if not cook for some more time. Finally add ground coconut, mix well and boil for a minute then switch off. Now seperate the curry and chicken pieces (with little curry).
7. If you wish to temper the curry, prepare and add to it.
8. Chop big onions as fine as possible. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and curry leaves to it.Add onions and saute till they caramalize.
9. Add the chicken along with some curry and saute till they begin to move as one single mass. This consistency has a special taste. Add pepper powder and coriander leaves, mix well and switch off.
It pairs extremely well with any tiffin varieties like idli , dosa, chapathi etc., or with just plain rice, jeera rice or briyani.
Notes:
Pearl onions add unique taste to the curry so do not skip them. In the least case use pearl onions for the onion paste and for the curry use big onions, but there will be a difference in taste slightly.
Adding onions as i have mentioned yields a good volume of curry. If you wish you shall reduce them too.
For the dry chicken, try to chop the onions very finely so that they blend well, which enhances the volume as well as taste.
The consistency of the dry chicken should be very dry, which gives it an extraordinary taste.
Using coriander leaves enhances the flavour of the curry and dry chicken.
Thanks for reading the recipe, if you like this recipe please leave a comment below.
