Chettinad chicken with steamed rice
Sunday chicken in Tamil homes: chicken on the bone in a dark, fiery gravy of freshly roasted dried red chillies, black pepper, fennel and whole spices ground with coconut, cooked with small onions and curry leaves in gingelly oil. If you have kalpasi and marathi mokku, roast them with the spices too. Eaten with rice, and just as often with dosa or appam.
- 1 h 10Time
- 48 minHands-on
- 4Portions
- 39 gprotein per portion
- 790kcal per portion
Ingredients for 4 portions
- 800 gChicken curry cut
- 3 mlTurmeric
- to tasteSalt
- 8Dried red chillies
- 1 tbspCoriander seeds (sabut dhania)
- 1 ½ tspBlack pepper, whole peppercorns
- 1 tspFennel seeds, for the masala
- 1 tspCumin, seeds
- 2 gCinnamon, a 3 cm piece of stick
- 4Cloves
- 1 gCardamom, 3 pods
- 1Star anise
- 1 tspPoppy seeds (khus khus)
- 50 gGrated coconut
- 3 tbspGingelly oil
- 3 mlFennel seeds, for tempering
- 2 sprigsCurry leaves
- 15Small onions (shallots), peeled and sliced
- 1 tbspGinger-garlic paste
- 2Tomatoes, chopped
- ≈ 250 mlWater
- 10 gCoriander leaves, chopped
On the side
- 350 gRice, sona masoori or ponni
Method
- Wash the chicken and mix it with the turmeric and a little salt. Keep aside while you make the masala.
- Dry-roast the dried red chillies, coriander seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds for the masala, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, star anise and poppy seeds in a pan on a low flame for 4–5 minutes, until fragrant and the chillies are crisp. Add the coconut and roast 2 more minutes until light golden. Let it cool.
- Grind the roasted spices with a little water into a fine paste.
- Peel and slice the small onions and chop the tomatoes.
- Heat the gingelly oil in a kadai and add the fennel seeds for tempering and the curry leaves. Add the small onions and sauté until golden, about 7 minutes.
- Stir in the ginger-garlic paste and sauté for a minute until the raw smell goes. Add the tomatoes and cook until mushy.
- Add the chicken and sauté on a high flame for 5 minutes until it turns white. Stir in the masala paste and sauté for 3–4 minutes until the oil starts to separate.
- Pour in the water, add salt and cover. Cook on a medium-low flame for about 25 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the chicken is tender.
- Meanwhile, wash the rice, put it in a pressure cooker with 2½ times its volume of water and cook for 3 whistles. Let the pressure drop by itself.
- Uncover and let the gravy cook down for a few minutes until thick and coating the chicken. Sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve with the rice.
