Chicken in gravy with cashew nut

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1 kg (1 inch cubes)
Onion - 3-4 big (thinly sliced)
Potato - 1 big (peeled and chopped to 1 inch cubes)
Tomato - 2
Curry leaves - few
Ginger - 1 inch piece, chopped fine

Garlic - 7-10 cloves, chopped fine
Mustard seed - 1 tbsp.

Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tbsps.
Garam masala - 2 tbsps.
Chili powder - 2 tbsps.
Salt - to taste

Milk - 1/2 cup
Water - 2-3 cups
Oil- 4-5 tbsps.

Ghee - 1 tbsp.

To marinate:
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tbsp.
Salt - 2 1/2 tbsps.
Black pepper (coarse grind) - 3 tbsps.

To make the paste:
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 10 cloves
Cashew nut - 25 full roasted cashews (without skin)

Clean chicken and cut into 1 inch cubes. Add the turmeric powder, salt and black pepper and mix well. Keep aside for 15-20 minutes.

Take a big wok with thick base (cheenachatti) and add oil and ghee (if you do not count calories, and love the taste of ghee, substitute oil with ghee). When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and wait till they splutter.

Add onions and sauté them till they are golden brown. Add curry leaves, chopped ginger and garlic and sauté them for half a minute. Add tomato and sauté till the juices start to flow out and tomato starts to become pulpy.

Add coriander powder, garam masala, chili powder and salt and sauté for half minute. Add the cashew nut paste and sauté again for half a minute. Now add milk, followed by water. Wait for half a minute, and then add chicken pieces and potato cubes. Make sure there is enough water to cover the chicken. Close the wok with a lid and cook over medium flame.

PS:

1. It took about an hour for the chicken pieces to get the flavor fully. Best is to prepare it an hour before the serving time, and let the chicken pieces get the full flavor of the gravy.

2. Thanks to Tys for the push - without that, this post might not have seen the daylight :)

Spicy Aromatic Chicken Curry

Marriage have made me lazy - the weekends which were a flurry of activates are now very less - most Sundays we laze @ home. Sunday cooking is something I love, and many a times, I improvise or come up with new recipes. ( Touch wood, no one ever fell ill after what I prepared :))

Chicken - 1 kg, cut to medium / small pieces
Onion - 4 medium size, thinly sliced
For the masala:
Coconut - 1 whole, grated
sun dried red chilies – 6
mace – 1
Black cardamom – 1
Green cardamom – 4
Bay leaf - one small
star anise -1
cinnamon bark – a small piece ( around 5 cm length)
Thyme - a small pinch
Fenugreek seeds - a small pinch
clove - 4 nos
coriander powder - 1 table spoon

Put the grated coconut in a heavy based non-stick pan and dry fry it over medium flame till it turns dark brown. Put the flame to low and add all other ingredients and keep it on the flame till you get a nice aromatic smell. Let it cool and then make a fine paste of this using your mixer-grinder - do not add more water than required it to make it a fine paste.
Clean the chicken and cut it to medium / small pieces. Mix the chicken well with this masala and a handful of curry leaves and marinate for an hour.
Heat 4 tables spoon oil in a wok with heavy base, add the onions and sauté them till they become translucent. Add the marinated chicken pieces along with the masala and add 3 cups of water, cook the chicken in high flame for fifteen minutes (keep the wok covered while chicken getting cooked)
After 15 minutes, remove the lid and adjust the water level and cook for another 15 minutes on medium flame. Sprinkles curry leaves just before the chicken is taken off the flame.
Goes well with ghee rice / plain rice/ Idiyappam (nool puttu) / appam etc.
PS: if you need the dish to be more hot, use only sun dried red chilies – don’t use chili powder or green chilies.