Cooking Pleasures: Indian Version Of Chilli Chicken

The word in the "Chilli Chicken" it self says that it is "Hot" 'n' "Spicy". Why I added "Indian"
tag to this name? Well it is much Indianized recipe. I will tell you some thing! When ever I try to cook some thing away from Indian kitchen, finally I end up making it Indianized. I think my hands are more friendly to the spices:-) which are used a lot in Indian Kitchen! Is the same with any of you too? If answer is "Yes" then Iam not surprised. Since, I understand the love and effection we all have towards our basic habits, unknowingly hidden some where in our minds, with which we have grown up, though we some times try to deviate ourselfs to new things which we want to adopt. And its is very very hard to leave them behind. Now! you all know "Basic Habits" here I mean reffering to the food! ofcourse!! After all we are all foodie's:-) What ever we talk, what ever the story we share, what ever ...ever....ever.......what ever!! we end up with our food post. With such an intention, Iam proceeding towards my todays post. So here I go..

Ingredients:

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3lb chicken (cut into small pieces)

2 big onions (cut into very thin layers)

2 medium tomatoes (cut into long and thin pieces)

3 tbsp yogurt(curd/perugu)

2 tsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp corn flour (mix in some water to form paste with out any lumps)

1 stem curry leaves

6 green chillies (chopped into small pieces)

3 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to your spice if needed)

2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp ajwain

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 garlic cloves (cut into very small pieces)

2" ginger (cut into very small pieces)

2 tsp coriander powder

1 flat tsp garam masala powder(optional)

Lemon juice extracted from 1 lime

2 tbsp finnely chopped cilantro

salt as required

Oil for cooking (prefferably 2 tbsp)

Method:

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First step is to marinate chicken for 45 minutes to 1 hr. Wash chicken well. Drain all water. Mix curd, salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, soya sauce, corn flour paste, cumin seeds and 2 tsp of oil. Mix all togeather well, so that each pieces gets well coated with the rest of the mixture and set aside.

Meanwhile, chicken gets marinated, make other ingredients ready as mentioned in the ingredients section.

After 45 to 60 minutes, take a wide and little depth pan. Heat oil. Add ajwain and green chillies. Fry for few seconds. Add curry leaves and fry till they turn crispy. Now add onions and fry till they turn to light brown on thw whole, in color.

Now add ginger and garlic pieces and fry for few seconds. Add the marinated chicken into this and mix well. Fry the chicken for 3 to 5 minutes on high with out closing the lid. See that bottom is not burned.

Now close the lid and reduce the heat to medium and allow the chicken to cook for 10 more minutes. Here if needed add very little water, as chicken will release some water on its own. Just see the bottom of the content is not burned.

Open the lid , add tomatoes and mix well. Close the lid again and allow the tomatoes to be cooked and the its juice gets into the rest of the contents. Cook approximently for another 5 minutes.

Add coriander powder and garam masala powder here if u need and mix well with rest of them. Allow it to cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. Finally, mix the lemon juice and cilantro.

To Garnish:

While serving, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and 1 green chilli cut into small pieces on the top of the dish.

Note: You can make onions and tomatoes into paste and can mix while marinating. Also vineger is added in chinese chilli chicken while marinating. You can avoid coriander powder and garam masala powder. Also can add green and red pepper while frying the chicken. This will lead to near by recipe of Chinese Chilli Chicken. Also in actual recipe of chilli chicken, the marinated chicken is deep fried first and the tossed in soya sauce and tomato sauce and and cooked with peppers for a while. That is exactly what is served to us in restaurants. To avoid deep frying and according to my spice taste, I Indianized this recipe:-)

Labels: chicken curry, chilli chicken, Indian chilli chicken