Achaari Chicken

Eureka - I finally got it! I formulated "SJ's law of JFI participation". It goes somewhat like this… the more I use a JFI ingredient in my daily cooking, the more likely I am to miss the deadline for the event. Potatoes, I had like a dozen recipes I planned to make. So easy… and I missed the deadline completely. Tomatoes, again something I use in so many of my daily dishes and again here I am, it almost slipped my mind. But no, this time I decided to make something and post it well in advance. Well… ahem.. errrr, the reason also had a little to do with the fact that I started to cook chicken and then realized I was out of onions, so I had to improvise.

Anyway, I had a lot of tomatoes and some Shaan achar masala handy and came up with this delicious recipe. I don’t usually use the ready masalas for non vegetarian cooking, but I do keep some ready spices handy for times when I am in a rush or feel plain lazy. My family's spice (as in chilly) toleration is somewhat low, if you can handle the heat I'd recommend sticking to the instructions at the back of the packet (at least for the Shaan brand of masala), I needed to make some changes to use less masala and add some other stuff.

Ingredients:
~1.5 pound chicken
1 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)

1 tsp saunf (fennel seeds)
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 green chilly (or more if you'd like)
4-5 large tomatoes (chopped very fine or pureed)
1 cup yogurt
~ 1/3 packet Shaan Achaar Gosht masala

Method:
Add some oil and fry the , kalonji, saunf, green chilly, garlic for a few minutes.
Add ginger and chicken and "bhuno" for a few minutes.
I was in a hurry and did not fry till the chicken pieces were browned. If you do this, it will taste even better.
Add, tomatoes, yogurt and a little (maybe 3/4 or 1 cup) water. Add the Shaan masala now. Cover and cook on low heat till meat is cooked and gravy is as think as you want. I like a little gravy to drown my rice or rotis in. You could add less water than I did and have a thicker gravy.
Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

This is my entry for JFI-Tomato hosted by RP.

Warning: The masala itself has salt, so usually you won't need to add salt. I added less masala than the recipe called for since it also makes the dish very hot (as in "jhaal" or spicy), so I added some salt as needed and added a little more tomatoes than the original recipe.

Chicken Chettinad

I've tried a few recipes from Nita Mehta's vegetarian cook-books and have been pretty happy with the results. So on my last trip to India, when I saw one of her cookbooks with chicken recipes, I didn't think twice before picking one up for myself.

Chicken Chettinad was the first recipe I tried. Of course I modified it quite a bit (modified some proportions and reduced the number of red chillies from 6 to 2!)

Ingredients:
2 lb chicken
3-4 tbsp oil
2 tomatoes

2 medium/small onions or 1 large one
curry leaves 10-12
2 tsp lemon juice
2-3 " piece ginger (grated or made to paste)
3 tsp minced garlic
turmeric and salt to taste

Chettinad masala:
3/4 cup grated coconut (frozen works just fine)
1.5 tsp saboot dhania (whole coriander seeds)
2-3 red chillies (more of you can take it)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp fennel seeds
3-4 green cardamoms
2-3 cloves
1" cinnamon stick

Method:
In one teaspoon oil fry the coconut, dhania, cumin, fennel, red chillies, cloves, cinnamon. Stir fry this till the coconut just starts to turn brown and you get a fragrant fried coconut smell. Keep aside till cool and grind to a fine paste.
Heat oil and fry the onions and garlic, till onions turn slightly brown.
Add curry leaves, then tomatoes and ginger and turmeric.
When the masala is well cooked, add the chicken pieces and bhuno for a 5-7 minutes.
Add the lemon juice, ground masala and water (if needed) and cover and cook till chicken is well done. I tend to check a few times in between to stir and adjust the water if needed.
Add coriander before serving if you'd like.

Variation: The original recipe called for 6 red chillies as well as added red chilly powder to taste. My family doesn’t handle a high spice level too well. If you can, do go ahead and add a lot more red chillies than I did. It tastes great either way.