Thenga Varutharacha Kozhi Curry (Chicken in Sautéed Coconut Gravy)

This particular chicken curry is one common curry that is prepared in almost every home in Kannur but with slight variations in the amount of spices involved. This curry is normally prepared to go with Ari pathal or popularly known as pathiri which are thin rice pan cakes or rice rotis, neypathal, Steamed rice cake or our humble ?Puttu?, plain boiled rice etc. It has quite lot of gravy so it's a perfect curry for gravy lovers. I din?t give accurate measures here so that you can play around with the ingredients to suit to your own taste. You can add them or reduce them to your liking. I sometimes add less chilli powder, sometimes add more and so is the coconut and other spices including fennel seeds. I love the smell of fennel seeds and the special aroma that it imparts on the dish, so I tend to add more of it usually. One thing I would like to mention is that since I have used fresh spices rather than ground ones, the flavour will be really strong. So add them carefully so that you don?t end up over-powering the curry with the spices.


Thenga Varutharacha Kozhi Curry (Chicken in Sautéed Coconut Gravy)

Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
1200 g Chicken, cut into medium size pieces
4 med-large onions chopped (4 cups, 500g)
9 large cloves of garlic minced (2 Tbsp)
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 ½Tbsp - 2½ Tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1 ½ Tbsp Coriander powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
4 small tomatoes chopped (1 ½ cups, appx. 250g)
1 ¼ cup ? 1 ½ cups freshly grated coconut
3-5 cardamoms
4-6 cloves
3-4 small pieces cinnamon sticks (1 cm each)
½ tsp- 1 tsp Fennel seeds (Perumjeerakam)
1½ - 2 cups water
3 twigs curry leaves (Around 40 leaves)
2 chopped green chillies
2-4 Tbsp coconut Oil (Vegetable oil can also be used)

Preparation:
1.In a Large non-stick saucepan, heat oil. Add the chopped onions and salt and sauté until it starts turning golden. Add ginger and garlic and sauté for couple of minutes until raw smell goes off.

2. Add chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder and sauté for few seconds until the raw smell goes off. If the mixture is too dry, sprinkle little water so that you don?t burn the spices.

3. Add in the chopped tomatoes, stir well, cover and cook on medium flame until the tomatoes are well cooked and are mushy.

4. Add chicken pieces and ½ cup ? 1 cup water. Stir well. Cover and cook till chicken is almost cooked.

5. While the chicken is cooking, heat another frying pan. Add grated coconut, and all the spices (cloves, cardamom, fennel seeds and cinnamon). Dry roast it on low- medium heat until the coconut takes a golden colour. Grind these roasted coconut and spices using 1 ½ - 2 cups water to a smooth paste.

6. Add this to the curry along with curry leaves and the green chillies and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and cook for further 5 minutes until all the flavours are well blended.