Chettinad Spicy Chicken

Need a spicy chicken recipe that goes excellent with rice & all tiffin varieties.......Stop here.... Read below............Proceed to the kitchen.

Ingredients

Chicken - 1/2 kg (cut into small bite - sized pieces)

Ginger - 2 inch piece

Garlic - 6 pods

Green chilli - 2

Gingelly oil (Nallenai) - 3 sp

Cinnamon (Pattai) - 1 inch piece - 4 Nos.

Cardamom (Elachi / Elakkai) - 3 Nos.

Cloves (Kirambhu) - 5 Nos.

Bayleaf - 1 (medium sized)
Whole Pepper (slightly crushed) - 1/2 sp

Big onion (very finely chopped) - 1 large

Tomato - 3 (very finely chopped)

Coriander powder - 1 sp

Red chilli powder - 3/4 sp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 sp

Garam masala powder - 1/2 sp

Chicken masala powder -3/4 sp (optional)

Salt - To taste

Method

1. Cut the chicken into small pieces (so that the masala gets incorporated into it), wash throughly and keep aside.
2. Grind ginger, garlic and green chillies to a fine paste adding necessary water.
3. In a pressure cooker under medium heat, add oil.
4. When oil is bubbling hot, add cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaf and crushed pepper.
5. When these start to splutter, add onions (very finely chopped so that it gets nicely fried).
6. When the onions are deep fried but not brown, add the tomatoes.
7. Fry well till the tomatoes turn mushy. (make sure the onion & tomatoes got mixed with eachother and oil starts oozing out)
8. To this add the grind paste and fry for another 3 min till the raw flavor goes off.
9. To this, add the the masala powders and salt. Fry for another 2 min in a low - med heat. Don't burn.
10. Add the chicken pieces and mix them together with the whole masala.
11. Add sufficient water (this quantity of water determines the final gravy consistency. So care needs to be taken).
12. Check for salt & chilli powder.
13. Close the cooker & cook in a medium heat for  5 - 8 whistles.
14. Serve with white rice / Idli / Dosa / Chappati / Parotta.

Note

1. The taste of this recipe lies in ' how patiently the ingredients are fried in a medium heat'.
2. Never burn the ingredients while frying.
3. Pepper can be added as whole (20 Nos.) instead of crushed.
4. Chicken oozes out lots of oil. So better check on the oil added.
5. Tastes excellent when the gravy thickens. So if found too watery, simmer (don't boil) in a low - medium heat till the required consistency is reached.