Easter Chicken Curry

Ingredients

Chicken – 500 gm, cut into medium size pieces

To grind:

• Kashmiri chilli powder – 1 tbsp
• Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
• Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
• Garlic chopped – 3 tsp
• Ginger chopped – 2 tsp
• Pepper powder – ½ tsp
• Cloves – 4
• Cardamom – 2
• Cinnamon – a small stick
• Fennel seeds (perumjeerakam) – ½ tsp
• Poppy seeds (kashakasha) – ½ tsp

For Masala

• nion – 3 medium, finely sliced
• Small onion (shallots) – 6, finely sliced
• Tomato – 1, chopped
• Non-sour yogurt (pulikkatha thairu)- ¼ cup
• Boiling water – ¾ cup
• Thick coconut milk – ½ cup
• Cashew paste – 2 tbsp

For garnishing

• Boiled egg – 1
• Fried cashews – a handful

Instructions

• Grind the ingredients listed under ‘to grind’ label, with 2 tbsp water, to a fine paste. Take half of the ground paste & apply to the cleaned chicken pieces. Add salt also to the marinated chicken & keep it aside for half an hour. Meanwhile heat oil in a pan & add sliced onions & salt. Cook till it becomes golden brown in color. Remove half of the cooked onions to another plate & keep it aside. Add small onions to the onions in the cooking pan. Cook for a few minutes. Add tomato & cook till it becomes soft. Add non sour yogurt to this & mix well. Add remaining half of the ground masala & fry it till the oil starts appearing. Add marinated chicken pieces to this & mix well. Add ¾ cup of boiling water and cover and cook the chicken.
• Add cashew paste and the kept aside cooked onions to thick coconut milk. Stir well. When the chicken is almost cooked, add coconut milk mixture to the curry. Cook till the gravy becomes thick and the chicken pieces are coated well with the masala. The consistency of this curry is semi dry chicken, it has a pasty masala.
• Garnish the cooked chicken with boiled egg & fried cashew. Serve hot with pulao/ghee rice/appam/roti etc;

Notes

This curry is towards a spicier side, so please adjust the measurements to suit your taste. I used coconut oil for this recipe. If you want to make it extra special, you can use ghee.