Kerala Style Chicken Curry

Kerala Style Chicken Curry aka Nadan Kozhi, is a fragrant South Indian creamy coconut curry. Generous pieces of chicken in a rich aromatic Kerala curry sauce bursting with South Indian flavours of curry leaves, black pepper, fennel and coconut. 

This Kerala chicken curry goes well with plain rice, ghee rice, appam or any breads like roti, paratha or chapathi.

Ingredients:

• 600g-650g of chicken, with bone or boneless
• 1 medium size onions, thinly sliced
• 1 medium size tomato, finely chopped
• 500g potato, cubed
• 2-3 green chillies, slit lengthy
• 2 tbsp ginger & garlic paste, pounded finely
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1½ tbsp coriander powder
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• ¼ tsp garam masala
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 2-3 sprigs curry leaves
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1½ tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cooking oil or coconut oil
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Tempering 1:

• 4-5 cloves
• cinnamon, about 2 inch
• 1 bay leaf
• 2-3 petals star anise
• ½ tsp fennel seeds

Tempering 2:

• 2 tsp oil
• 2 tbsp finely chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 sprig curry leaves

For marination:

• ¼ tsp red chilli powder
• ¼ tsp black pepper powder
• a pinch of turmeric
• ½ tsp salt

Method:

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Add the marination ingredients to the chicken and mix well. Keep it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

In a cooking pan, heat the oil on medium high heat and and do the tempering 1 with the given ingredients. Add the sliced onion, green chillies and curry leaves. Sauté it with a pinch of salt until transparent. Add in the pounded ginger & garlic paste, fry until the raw smell disappears, takes about3-4 minutes. Add in all the powdered spices and fry for another minutes.

Add the marinated chicken, chopped tomato and sauté for 4-5 minutes or until the chicken is half cooked. Now add in the cubed potatoes and give it a mix. Add 1 cup of water and cook it covered, until the chicken and potatoes are cook. 

Once cooked, add in the coconut milk and let it cook to a boil. Meanwhile, heat another pan and do the tempering 2 with 2 tsp of oil. Once the oil becomes hot, add in the chopped onion, garlic and curry leaves. Fry until the onion becomes golden. Add to the chicken curry and also add in the chopped coriander and lemon juice. Mix well & serve immediately.