Pepper Chicken Dry

                                       

Occasion: Cousin's Birthday

Why chicken?? Because he loovves chicken, not that he doesn't like cakes. He loves eating anything and everything. People who have seen him will agree with me :). Its always a pleasure to cook for someone who loves to eat and also to get appreciated.

Being a vegetarian its always been a challenge for me to cook non-veg. It took me N number of times to get it right.  Lot of cookery shows and lots and lots of bloggers helped me get it perfectly done. Thanks to all of them.

Cooking chicken is not that difficult if you understand the size of the cuts. For the following recipe I have used 1 kg of boneless chicken cut into 2 inch cubes. In case if you are like me who don't like to touch the chicken please ask the shopkeeper to cut and clean it for you or go ahead and train your husband to do it :).

THE SPICE MIX:

The following spice mix recipe is something I derived from Masterchef Australia. I have modified it according to my husband's taste buds. You can make any changes to it and if it turns out better than this please do let me know. Vegetarians can use this spice mix to cook cauliflower or mushroom.

- Dry roast the following ingredients for 8 to 10 mins in low flame or until you get the aroma.

- Cumin/Jeera/Siragam - 2 tbsp

- Black Pepper Whole - 3 tbsp

- Dry Chilli red - 4 to 5

- Corriander Seeds/ Dhaniya/ Kothamali - 3 to 4 tbsp

- Fennel Seeds/ Saunf/ Sombhu - 2 tbsp

- Cinnamon Stick/ Dalchini/ Pattai - 1 inch

- Cardamom/Elachi/ Elakkai - 4 to5 with pods

Once its roasted grind it coarsely. I used a mortar and pestle to grind and it looks like the below picture. 

The spice mix amount is for 1 kg of boneless chicken.

Now for the chicken

- Wash the chicken, drain all water, mix it with Turmeric and keep it aside
- Heat 3 to 4 tbsp of oil in the pan, add Mustard and Curry leaves
- Add the Spice Mix and cook it for around 10 seconds
- Add chopped Ginger and Garlic. Since I ran out of Garlic I used Ginger-Garlic paste which I added after onions.
- Add chopped of 2 large Onions and cook until its transparent
- Add chopped 3 large Tomatoes and cook it for a minute
- Add salt according to your taste
- Add the Chicken and cook it for around 4 to 5 mins
- Now add a cup of water, close it with a lid and cook it for 10 mins stirring occasionally
- Open the lid and cook it till the water evaporates and you have a nice thick gravy.

Enjoy it with warm rice or chapati.