Monsoon Coast

Spicy Kerala Chicken curry

This is the Southern Spicy cousin our Bengali curry, featuring exquisite deep spicy flavour of our Kerala Chaunk balanced with our mild Moghul Curry. The sauce is completely vegetarian and can even be made vegan by swapping almond or coconut cream in this recipe for regular cream.

Substitute the chicken with lentils, beans, chickpeas or paneer and you will have a fantastic mild vegetarian meal to please anyone.

Ingredients: 

10-12 pieces of chicken (legs, thighs or drumsticks or boneless thighs), skin removed

Salt & pepper

For sauce

2-3 TBL butter or oil

2-3 TSP Kerala Chaunk

1 large onion, finely chopped

1-2 tsp Moghul Curry

3 garlic cloves, minced.

1 TBL ginger, minced

1-380ml can tomato sauce or puree

½-¾ cup water

1 tsp salt, or to taste

1 cup whipping cream

3 TBL fresh cilantro, chopped

4 Servings
Instructions: 

1 – Remove skin from the chicken. Sprinkle with salt, pepper. Grill chicken on BBQ over medium low heat until almost done (10-15 minutes). (Alternatively, add olive oil to a sauté pan and fry chicken pieces over medium heat until almost done.)
2 – Heat oil or butter in a medium pot on medium heat. Add Kerala Chaunk. Bloom spices in oil for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and popping.
3 – Add onions and Sauté medium-low heat until soft (10-15 minutes).
4 – Add ginger and garlic, cook for 1-2 minutes.
5 – Add Moghul Curry and tomato sauce or puree, and half the water and salt. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 10 minutes.
6 – At this point you can whir the sauce with a hand blender or regular blender to make it smooth or leave it a bit textured with the whole spices. You can also cool and freeze it.
7 – Add the chicken stirring to coat with the sauce, slowly bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered until chicken is tender about 30-45 minutes. (20-30 minutes for boneless chicken)
8 – Remove lid and reduce sauce or add more water according to desired consistency.
9 – Just before serving, add whipping cream. Stir and simmer until heated through. Adjust seasoning and garnish with fresh cilantro.
10 – Serve with rice or chapati.