Name: Yogurt-Marinated Chicken in a Black Peppercorn Sauce (Chettinad Kozhi)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 12 to 15 medium-size to large fresh curry leaves; 1 small red onion, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced; ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric; 1½ teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 6 medium-size cloves garlic; 2 tablespoons canola oil; 2 teaspoons black peppercorns; 1 chicken (3½ pounds), skin removed, cut into 8 pieces (see box); ½ cup plain yogurt; 1 cinnamon stick (3 inches long), broken into smaller pieces; 3 to 5 red Thai or cayenne chiles, to taste, stems removed; 6 green or white cardamom pods; ½ cup shredded fresh coconut; or ¼ cup shredded dried unsweetened coconut, reconstituted (see Note); 1 teaspoon tamarind paste or concentrate; 2 tablespoons yellow split peas (chana dal), picked over for stones; 2 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, stems removed, cut in half lengthwise (do not remove the seeds)

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

Chettinad, a region in Tamil Nadu, in the southeast of India, is known not only for its fiery foods showered with black peppercorns, red chiles, tamarind, and coconut, but also for its inhabitants, the Tamil-speaking, industrious Chettiars: bankers and businessmen, many of whom traveled to what were then called Ceylon and Burma during the 19th and 20th centuries to conduct commerce. This is a classic curry of the Chettiar community. Savor it over a mound of steamed white rice to absorb some