FenGa chicken curry (Serves 4)

Today I was in the mood to invent a recipe of my own.  Since we had some nice chicken available why not a chicken curry recipe. I wanted to use spices that were not usually highlighted in the traditional chicken masala and to avoid big players like ginger. Both of us were impressed by the outcome and seems like the recipe will be put to use again at our home very soon!

Chicken (boned) 1 lb (cut to medium size pieces)
Red onion 1 big, thinly sliced
Garlic 4-5 pods, chopped
Green chilly 1 no, chopped
Tomato 1 big, cut to quarters
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Fennel seeds 1 tsp
Cloves 1 no
Cardamom 1 no
Whole peppercorns 4-5 nos
Red chilly powder ½ tsp
Coriander powder 1 TBSP
Turmeric powder ½ tsp
Salt as needed
Oil 1 -2 tsp

Preparation

Heat a heavy bottomed pan at medium high flame and add the oil. When hot, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter. Throw in the sliced red onions and sauté until light brown color. Meanwhile, crush together garlic, green chilly, fennel seeds, peppercorns, cloves and cardamom using a mortar and pestle. Add this to the onions and cook until a nice aroma develops. Now reduce flame to low and add the powders. Now add about 2-3 TBSP water and give a good mix. This will let the masalas to mix well with the onions. Increase flame back to medium high and add the tomato followed by cleaned chicken. Mix well to coat with masala. Add around ½ cup water, salt and cook covered until chicken pieces are tender and cooked through. Remove cover and cook the curry until the gravy thickens. By now the color of the curry will be reddish brown as you can see in the pictures. This is an excellent sidedish for appams, idiyappams, pathiri or even rotis…

Cheers!!!
Suji