Kerala chicken curry with coconut milk (Nadan chicken curry)

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kilogram chicken
• 2 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 4 onions (medium size)
• 4 green chillies
• 1.5 tablespoon ginger paste
• 1.5 tablespoon garlic paste
• 1.5 tablespoon chilli powder
• 2 tablespoon coriander powder
• 2 teaspoon fennel powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
• 3 numbers tomato (medium size)
• 3 sprig curry leaves
• ¾ cup Thick coconut milk
• coriander leaves
• salt
• coconut oil / vegetable oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Clean the chicken pieces. Marinate it with the ingredients listed under marination. Keep it aside for 30 minutes.
2. Thinly slice onions and green chilly. In a kadai, heat the oil. When oil is hot, add the sliced onions, green chillies, curry leaves, and salt. Adding salt helps the onion to get cooked fast.
3. Grind ginger and garlic into a fine paste. When the onions are lightly brown, add the ginger, garlic paste. Saute well till the aromatics release their flavor.
4. Once sauteed well, add chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala, fennel powder and saute. Add oil as needed to fry the masalas. I use home made garam masala. When you use store bought one, based on the brand you use you may have to increase garam masala measurement to 1.5 teaspoon or 2 tsp.
5. Add chopped tomatoes and mix it well in the gravy. Cover and cook until tomatoes are cooked. It might take around 5 to 8 minutes. Adjust salt in the gravy.
6. Add marinated chicken pieces to the gravy. Mix it well. Cover and cook in low to medium flame until water releases from the chicken. Then increase the flame to medium.
7. This is probably the key step in the recipe. Once chicken pieces are cooked, allow water to dry up. Don't make it a complete dry.
8. Then add chopped coriander leaves and thick coconut milk. Refer notes on how to prepare coconut milk. Adjust the salt and allow it to boil.
9. The final dish has semi thick gravy which makes it perfect with pathiri, any sort of rice variants ( ghee rice, pulao), chapathi, parotta/paratha, appam or any other Indian breads. Get it to the consistency that you like. Then, switch off the flame.

NOTES

1) Preparation of coconut milk from grated coconut - Grind 3 cup grated coconut with ¾ cup lukewarm water. ¾ cup thick coconut milk can be extracted from this. Luke warm water helps you to extract coconut milk well.

2) I sometimes prepare this chicken curry quickly from the leftover chicken roast of the previous day. Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a pan. Add the chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala, fennel powder as needed. Roast the masalas and then add the leftover chicken roast. Once it starts boiling, add coconut milk and allow it to boil. Masala powders and Coconut milk quantity are based on the leftover chicken quantity and the gravy consistency you need.

Source: A little bit of spice