Chettinad chicken

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

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
Gluten-free
Spicy

Ingredients

Method