Chettinad Chicken

I'm a big fan of chettinad cuisine, just the thought of the Beef Chettinad that I had in Goa, during our vacation in Decemeber, still makes my mouth water. But I haven't tried a lot of chettinad cuisine at home, other than this Egg Chettinad I had made long back. Rj had to go out of station on a family emergency n wanted to make something nice for him for dinner the day before he left.




In a situation like this, I find it easy to rely on cooking expert Sanjeev Kapoor's recipes. I have complete faith in his recipes, like I always say they will never let you down, even if you are trying it for the first time! That's how I decided on  Sanjeev Kapoor's Chicken Chettinad recipe. I have followed his instructions to the last dot n' it was amazing. I have always favoured my Darbar Ki Karahi and Murgh Makhani recipe for chicken if I want to make chicken it for a special occasion, but I have to say, this recipe is gonna be a stiff competition to all my previous chicken recipes. So here you go...




Ingredients:

1. Chicken : 500gms/ half a kilo
2. Dry Red Chilies: 5 whole pods
3. Coconut: 1/2 (scraped)
4. Poppy seeds (khuskhus): 1 tsp
5. Coriander seeds: 1/2 tsp
6. Cumin seeds: 1/4 tsp
7. Green cardamom: 1no
8. Clove: 1no
9. Cinnamon: 1/2 an inch piece
10. Star anise: 1/2
11. Fennel seeds (saunf): 1/2 tsp
12. Ginger: 1 inch piece  (roughly chopped)
13. Garlic: 5-6cloves
14. Oil: 1/4 cup (the original recipe used olive oil, but I used regular sunflower oil)
15. Onion : 1no (medium) chopped
16. Curry leaves: 10-12
17. Tomato: 2 small or 1 large (chopped)
18. Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp
19. Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
20. Lemon juice: as per taste
21. Coriander leaves: 1tsp (chopped)
22. Salt: as per taste

Method:

Step 1: Roast dry red chillies, coconut, poppy seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, fennel seeds in 1 tbsp of oil

Step 2: Grind the above into a paste along with ginger and garlic. (my mallu instinct worked overtime n' i tried using my new stone pestle n' mortar unsuccessfully to do this, so I had to do a little twist later, which I will mention)

Step 3: Heat the remaining oil in a kadai/wok and fry onion till golden. Add curry leaves and the ground paste and sauté for some time.

Step 4: Add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste. (at this stage I could see that my paste needs to be a little more ground n ground the same in a mixer grinder to a fine paste. That is the reason why you can't see any tomato pieces or curry leaves in my pictures) Once I ground the same into a thick paste, I sauteed them for a min more in the same kadai without adding more oil.

Step 5: Add chicken and mix. Cook for five minutes and then add two cups of water, lemon juice, cover and cook till the chicken is done.

Step 6: Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves.




It is best served with hot rice or chapathi or even paratha. But I served it with puttu, coz after taking time out to decide on what to make n' the whole process above I had time only for something simple like puttu. :) Happy Cooking!!!

Beef Chili Dry- (Beef Olarthiyathu)

I grew up eating this for every other meal….really I could combine this with anything. This also happens to be the only non veg I really like. I don’t like chicken, pork, fish or mutton. So it was very important I quickly learn how to make a decent dry chili beef. Let me specify that this will be the Kerala style with coconut pieces (which my husband picks out from his share n’ dutifully gives it to me). He doesn’t like coconut in his food n’ I love it… my dishes normally tend to be a little spicy. So you can adjust the level of spice according to your taste.

Ingredients:

Beef- 1/2 kg (cut into small pieces)
Chili Powder- 1 tbsp
Coriander Powder- 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder- 1/2 tsp
Ginger- 1 inch piece (crushed)
Garlic- 6-7nos (crushed)
Small Onion- 10nos (crushed) - (Sambar Onions or Kerala Onions)
Coconut Pieces- as per taste (optional)
Cinnamon- Small piece
Cloves- 2-3nos
Peppercorns- 5-6nos
Oil- 1-2 tbsp
Onion- 1/2 (finely sliced) - (big normal indian red onion)
Green Chili- 1-2 (finely sliced) - (can be avoided if you don't like spicy food)
Curry Leaves
Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Sauté the cinnamon, cloves and crushed peppercorns, add crushed onion, ginger n’ garlic pieces; Add all the powder, salt & coconut pieces once the onion is fried. Stir till the powder looses its raw taste.

Step 2: Add the above to the beef pieces and marinate for 10mins.

Step 3: Cook the beef in a pressure cooker on low fire for 10 more mins after the 1st whistle. No need to add water the marinated meat will have enough water content. (this can be stored for later as it is n’ the tadka can be done just before a meal)

Step 4: Do a tadka (little oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, onion and green chili) in a wok/deep pan and add the cooked beef, cook it for 5-10mins n’ its ready.