Chettinad chicken curry

Chettinad chicken is one of my all time favourites among chicken dishes.

Chettinad is a small part in southern tamilnadu which is famous world over for its unique cuisine.The flavour of freshly grinded chillies, coriander and fennel, coconut and all other spices gives it a fiery taste.Once you taste any chettinad dish you will never forget the taste of it.
I adapted this receipe from one of the Tamil cookbook magazine and it turned out great.

ingredients:

Chicken 1.5 lb - cleaned and cut into medium sized pieces
to marinate - 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 pinch of turmeric and some salt

2 medium size onions
8 garlic cloves
1 inch ginger
1 medium size tomato chopped
few sprigs of curry leaves

To roast and grind:

1 inch cinnamon
4 cloves
8 red chillies
2 tblsp coriander seeds
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
2 tsp shredded coconut

Method:

Clean the chicken pieces and marinate them by adding the chilli powder, turmeric for atleast 30 mins.Cut 1 onion into small pieces, peel the garlic and ginger.Fry these in a pan and grind them to a smooth paste.Roast all the spices without oil, finally add the coconut and grind them together to a smooth paste

Chop the remaining 1 onion and the tomatoes.

Take 3 tsp of oil in a pan and add the curry leaves, chopped onion and fry well.
To this add the onion-ginger-garlic paste and fry till the raw smell leaves.
Now add the roasted spice paste and fry well.To this add the chopped tomatoes, 1/2 tsp of turmeric and fry well till the oil leaves the sides of the pan.Now add the chicken pieces and stir well so the masala coats the chicken well. Add salt and check for the spice level.
Add 1/2 cup of water and close tightly with a lid.Reduce the heat to medium and allow it cook for 10 - 15 mins. Add 1/2 cup of chopped coriander leaves and mix well before switching of the stove.

Serve it hot with Rice, chappati, puri's or even Idli's

Updated with some new pictures that I took when I made this curry recently.

Check out my other interesting chicken recipes below:
 'Chettinad Chicken Varuval / fry'
Chicken/Muttton Kuzhambhu