Name: Chettinad chicken
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 2 cloves garlic, crushed, or 10 ml/2 tsp garlic purée; 2.5 cm/1 in fresh root ginger, grated, or 10 ml/2 tsp ginger purée; 2.5–5 ml/½–1 tsp chilli powder; 45 ml/3 tbsp sunflower oil or light olive oil; 1 large onion, finely chopped; 2.5 cm/1 in piece cinnamon stick, broken into smaller pieces; 10–12 black peppercorns; 2 green cardamom pods; 2 cloves; 5 ml/1 tsp coriander seeds; 2 whole dried red chillies, torn into pieces; 5 ml/1 tsp fennel seeds; 5 ml/1 tsp cumin seeds; 30 ml/2 tbsp white poppy seeds; 25 g/1oz/¼ cup desiccated (dry unsweetened shredded) coconut; juice of ½ lemon; 5 ml/1 tsp salt, or to taste; 4 large chicken quarters, about 1kg/2¼lb in total, skinned; Plain Boiled Rice, to serve; 10–12 curry leaves; toasted flaked coconut, to garnish; 2.5 ml/½ tsp ground turmeric; 2 tomatoes, chopped; 1 star anise

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Complete Indian Regional Cookbook

By Mridula Baljekar

Published 2017

About

This recipe, Kozhi Varatha Kosambuk, comes from the trading community in the area known as Chettinad. The curry is quite fiery as it uses both chillies and black pepper, but you can reduce these to suit your palate. The chicken is cooked with distinct aromatic spices such as fennel, cloves, star anise, fresh ginger, cumin and cardamom pods for a unique flavour. Creamy-white poppy seeds help to thicken the sauce.

Ingredients

Asia
India
Tamil Nadu: Chettinadu
Main course
Stew
Spicy
Gluten-free

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