I thought I had a good chance of catching up on
the slack in blogging after posting two in October, but it’s November 30th,
and with 2 incomplete drafts not magically completing themselves, I am going to
resort to my backup plan – a recipe!
This time, it’s for something I have cooked
probably 3 times, and if mine, but more importantly, Sucharita’s memory serves
me correctly, it has always tasted great!
I first cooked this when Sucharita was probably
in high school and was visiting us during a summer break. As I didn’t want to
cook the usual curries, which she was happy to eat as long as there was chicken
in it, I decided to try something different – still had chicken in it, still
spicy, and from and Indian recipe book, so can still be called Indian food. It
is from a book called "the food of INDIA" that I picked up from Costco as an impulse buy. My version is modified slightly to make it
simpler.
Ingredients
3 lbs boneless skinless chicken (cut into pieces of a size that you prefer)
2 tsp cardamom seeds (you can remove these from cardamom pods, but buying the seeds from an Indian grocery store will make this a lot easier)
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 cup plain yogurt (I always use whole milk yogurt, either Verka or Mountain High)
1 tbsp ground pepper (best if freshly ground)
2 tsp salt
1 can (approx. 12 ounces) coconut milk
6 to 10 green chillies, cut in halves lengthwise (based on your preferred spice level)
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp chopped cilantro (for cooking)
Cilantro for garnishing
Note: you can use less yogurt and/or coconut milk if you want the chicken to be drier.
Grind the cardamon seeds, and mix in a bowl with the ground pepper, ginger and garlic paste, salt and yogurt. Add the chicken and coat well and leave in the fridge to marinate for at least an hour.
Heat the cooking oil on medium heat in a heavy pan. Add the marinated chicken along with all the ingredients in the bowl, and fry for a couple of minutes. Stir in the green chillies, and fry for an additional minute. Add the coconut milk and cilantro, bring to a boil, and let it simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Stir in the lemon juice, and season with additional salt if needed. Add the cilantro and serve over Jasmine or Basmati rice.
Enjoy!
