How to Cook Chicken Stew South Indian Style

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 25 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients needed to make Chicken Stew South Indian Style:

• 2 boneless chicken breasts, chopped into four pieces
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes
• 2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
• ¾ oz fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
• 1 green chili, slitted
• 8-10 curry leaves
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon, plus more for seasoning the chicken
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning the chicken
• 1 blade mace
• 1’’ cinnamon stick
• 4 cloves
• 2 star anise
• 2-3 green cardamom pods, slightly crushed
• 4-6 black peppercorns
• Flour, for dusting
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• Salt to taste
• Steamed rice, to serve
• Chopped celery leaves, to garnish

Cooking instructions for Chicken Stew South Indian Style:

• Season the chicken pieces with a dash of cinnamon, freshly ground black pepper as well as salt; dust them lightly with flour and set aside until required.
• Drizzle a tbsp of vegetable oil into a large saucepan and heat it over slow flame.
• Once the oil heats up, drop in the chicken chunks and stir-fry lightly so that they doesn’t catch any color and are just cooked; remove from heat and keep it aside.
• Pour rest of the oil into the same pan and add the whole spices, once the oil heats up.
• Saute the spices, while stirring them at times, until they begins to splutter and stir in the onions, ginger as well as curry leaves.
• Continue to saute the mixture for about 5 minutes or until the onions become lucid.
• Sprinkle rest of the ground cinnamon, black pepper, ground coriander and turmeric powder over the mixture and saute the mixture further for another couple of minutes, while stirring occasionally.
• Add a splash of coconut milk and bring the mixture to a gentle simmer.
• Return the cooked chicken pieces into the pan, along with the tomatoes and stir them well together to coat both the ingredients with the simmering gravy.
• Continue to simmer the mixture for about 5 minutes or until the meat is cooked properly.
• Arrange a bed of steamed rice on each serving plates and divide the chicken pieces between the,.
• Spoon the stew gravy over the chicken and top it up with chopped celery.
• Serve hot.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons