Jeera Chicken Curry

Jeera Chicken  Curry - A delicious chicken curry, made of jeera (cumin seeds), shallot – ginger – garlic paste and other Indian spices. Best with rice / pulao / parathas / rotis …

Serves: 3 - 4

Ingredients

For the chicken:

600 g chicken pieces (net weight after cleaning), cut into medium size

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon red chilli powder

½ teaspoon salt

Wash and clean chicken pieces. Drain out water thoroughly. In a bowl, marinate chicken pieces evenly with turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt. Cover and keep aside for half an hour.

Other ingredients

2 tablespoon oil

3 big onions, thinly sliced

10 curry leaves

Spice paste

2 tomatoes, chopped

Marinated chicken

100 ml / ½ cup water

¾ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1 teaspoon chopped coriander leaves (optional)

For the spice paste (masala):

1 ½ teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)

1 teaspoon fennel seeds (perumjeerakam)

10 dried red chillies, halved

20 peppercorns

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

10 shallots (chuvannulli / small onion)

10 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon ginger, chopped

2 tablespoon water

Make a fine paste of above ingredients in a small mixer bowl with 2 tablespoon water. Keep aside.

Method

In a wide pan or karahi,  heat oil on a medium heat.  Add thinly sliced onions and fry till golden  color.

Add curry leaves and fry for 1 minute.

Add spice paste and stir well on a medium to low heat for 5 – 8 minutes until the raw smell goes and well combined with onions.

Add cubed tomatoes and stir well for 2 minutes.

Add marinated chicken pieces, 1/2 cup water (100 ml), and adjust salt to taste (or 3/4 teaspoon). Mix all the ingredients well. Cover with a tight lid and cook on a medium to low heat for 25 – 35 minutes or until done / chicken pieces well cooked /  gravy thickens.

Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves (optional) and serve with rice / pulao / rotis / rumali roti …