06 November 2009

'A'mazing Chicken curry

Last Sunday we had our dear friends-cum-family, A and A over at our place for lunch..the As also brought along their lovely little son A, who is now a chirpy, chweetie, totally-adorable-two-month-old..with so much 'A' involved, I had to make sure I made something that would be of 'A' class!

So I sat down with my laptop to search for some interesting chicken curry recipes, and then (cant believe my luck) in just some time stumbled on Sailu's blog 'Sailu's kitchen'...this is a goldmine of Indian food recipes and if sailu's recipes don't make you drool, her photos will!!..I don't know how she manages to have an unending treasure of recipes...totally cool, I say!

I ended making Sailu's 'Spicy Chicken Masala recipe' but with some changes to the recipe...please do see the original recipe here!


Ingredients:
Marinate:

2 lbs chicken, washed and cut into small pieces (I used just the legs and thighs)
3 tbsp curds
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1/2 tsp kasuri methi (my tweak; omit if you don't like it)
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste (again, my tweak)
Marinate in the fridge- preferably 2-3 hours or at least for 3o mins

When you are ready to make the curry:
Dry roast and make a fine powder:
1” cinnamon
3 cloves
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp black pepper seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
(I tweaked the recipe just a little here: went in for some fresh coriander and fennel seeds. I LOVE the flavour of freshly ground coriander and fennel seeds in chicken curry. Also, Sailu has 10-12 curry leaves in her recipe- I omitted these simply because I am not a fan of curry leaves in chicken curry)

Soak:
6-7 cashew nuts
4-5 tbsp milk

Rest of the ingredients:
3-4 tbsp oil
2 big onions finely chopped
1 large tomato finely chopped
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
3/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1tbsp coconut milk
1tsp lemon juice
coriander leaves for garnish


-Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a cooking vessel. Add the onions and saute till pink. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute further for another 3-4 minutes on medium heat.
-Add cumin powder, pepper powerd and combine well and fry for another minute.
-Add the tomatoes and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Combine well and cook till oil separates.Turn off heat. Cool and grind the cooked masala, along with the soaked cashews and milk. Keep aside this masala paste.
-Heat 2 tbsp oil in a cooking vessel and add the marinated chicken and cook on high flame for 4-5 minutes, reduce heat and cook covered for another 4-5 minutes.
-Add the ground masala paste, and the freshly roasted masala powers and combine well. I also added a tbsp of coconut milk and a tsp of lemon juice for some flavour.
-Cook till chicken pieces are soft and you get the desired curry consistency. Adjust salt.
-Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

The verdict? This is one 'A' class chicken recipe..the cashews-onion-tomato paste gives the curry a superb consistency and the freshly ground spices add perfect flavour and heat...my guests loved the curry....this one is definitely a keeper!

Enjoy,
V

P.S. Dont go by the pics; unfortunately, they just dont do justice to the curry!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the timely blog....now I know what I can cook up for tonite's dinner :-)

Aditya Khatkhate said...

I bet it is an "A" class recipe.. :) It looks just amazing and less to say really tempting as well... i have been lately pondering on an idea of opening a site by the name "- V's Kitchen -" ;) what say blog readers ???

Archana said...

Hey V, long time...since I got phursat to read the blog [:D]. The pics look so good!! Although, I know non-veg food not my section yet just drooling over your recipe [:P].

Sailu's recipes (not only her food pics) are always good and I have always had an amazing experience with end-result.

Nice job!! As usual, very nice post :)

Vinaya said...

Priyanka,
Do try this out and let me know how it turns out..i hope u like it!

aadu,
V's kitchen will be full of experiments..as u can see, I try tons of recipes and then pass on the best ones to the readers!


archana,
Thanks so mcuh for the good words..and you are right about Sailu, her site seems absolutely amazing!!will definitely try more of her recipes!

Unknown said...

Hi Vinaya! Finally I made the chicken curry and it was really AMAZING! All of us loved it! Thanks a lot for posting it :)