This is my personal recipe, and it employs a blending of spices and a very integral 'dry' paste that forms the base of the dish. I first learnt this dry paste from my grandmother, and she told me that most of our meat dishes are cooked with this paste as a base because it helps in balancing the spice and thickening the gravy. So enjoy something that I've learned from my lovely gran!
A pound of chicken, boneless or if you like them with the bone, try for breast meat as it'll cook faster.
For dry paste:
One large onion, sliced
2/3 cup desiccated coconut.
Spice mix:
3 cloves,
8-10 black peppercorns,
Half an inch of Cinnamon,
One pod of cardamom,
One whole red chilli,
2 bay leaves
For the chicken
1 teaspoon Ginger Garlic Paste, (equal amounts of ginger and garlic blitzed into a smooth paste)
½ teaspoon Turmeric
1 ½ teaspoon Red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Oil for frying multiple things,
Pan for dry roasting and frying things in,
Water to cook chicken if you don't want burnt chicken.
How to make the things to make the thing(Method)
Dry Paste-
Take oil in a pan,
Fry the onions till they are nice and caramelised, little more shite brown than golden brown.
take the onions out, draining all of the oil,
Now in the oil that is there in the pan, add the desiccated coconut, fry it till brown(NOT BURNT BROWN).
Blitz the onion and coconut together with some water into a smooth paste. That is your dry paste(which is wet... Don't ask me why)
Spice mix-
Dry roast all the spices till they are nice and warm, and the aroma fills the kitchen.
If you have a mortar and pestle grind it into a coarse powder, or you can use an electric grinder. This is a nice spice powder you can add to a lot of things, it is warm, the cinnamon lends it a slightly sweet tone along with the cardamom.
Now on to make the chicken!!! (finally)
Heat some oil in a heavy non-stick pan,
Bung in the chicken, and add the ginger garlic paste, along with the turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt.
Stir and cook for a good six to ten minutes, letting the chilli powder and ginger garlic soak in...
Add the 'dry' paste, and a little water(about a quarter of a cup), turn the heat down and cook till chicken is tender, and the gravy dries up.
This is nice to eat with rice or with very thin rice flour pancakes we call neer dosa!