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

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.