South Indian Chicken Curry – recipe by Nik Sharma… with a few little changes…

This recipe is fantastic! It was so tasty… I have not really made many Indian recipes though Murray & I really like Indian cuisine so I decided to look up recipes by Nik Sharma & found this one for South Indian Chicken Curry.

I found the recipe for this chicken dish on Nik Sharmas’ website A Brown Table... here is a link to the website if you want to look up some other recipes or see this one!

I did not have all the spices needed for this chicken recipe so I went to an Indian spice store & no problem, got what I needed…the recipe calls for freshly grated coconut…I didn’t have this so I used dry unsweetened coconut… also I did not have black peppercorns so I used ground pepper ….& also, Murray does not like cloves so I used less then the recipe called for & I used ground cloves….  Even with the changes I made, this chicken was excellent!

Here is the recipe as I made it, you can check out the original recipe to compare…here is the link to it

Ingredients

2 lb chicken.. I used skinless chicken thighs

2 tbsp oil

1 large red onion

1 large clove of garlic

1 cinnamon stick…which I randomly had in my drawer…. if you don’t have one use some ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 green cardamons *** this is the spice I had to go buy

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp ground chili powder

1 tsp tumeric

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp salt

1 can coconut milk *** you can use light

2 tsp cilantro leaves

Method 

1. Prepare your ingredients, dice the onion & mince the garlic. Set aside
2. The cardamon is used with the pods, so I rinsed then .. (not sure if that was necessary) … they are used cracked, set these aside!
3. Chop the cilantro , set aside
4. The recipe called for skinless chicken, so if the chicken you are using has skin on it , then remove it & trim off any excess fat. Set aside
5. Heat the oil in a large saucepan/stockpot 
6. Add the red onion & garlic, saute until the onion softens & starts to be translucent
7. Add the cinnamon, pepper, the cracked cardamon pods, garam masala, chili powder & turmeric, stir & cook for a minute   *** ( I added the tomato paste here as well
8. Add the chicken to the pot in a single layer as best you can & brown it… turning it over to make sure both sides are browned
9. Now, add the coconut & give it a stir
10. Next, add the coconut milk & salt…
11. Bring this to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer, covered & cook for about 50 – 60 minutes…
12. When the chicken is cooked adjust the seasoning if you need to…adding more salt if necessary
13. Serve the chicken garnished with the chopped cilantro
14. I served this with rice

Enjoy!