Goan Style Chicken Stew

Goan Style Chicken Stew - A tasty stew. Best with Rotis / appam / idiyappam (string hoppers) / brown bread / rice / pulao .. Basic recipe from ‘’The Essential Goa Cookbook ‘’ by Maria Teresa Menezes.

Serves: 3 – 4

Ingredients

For the chicken:

500g  chicken, cut into medium pieces

1/2  teaspoon salt

½  teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder

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

Other ingredients

1 tablespoon oil

2 big size onion, finely sliced

15 garlic cloves, sliced

1 – inch piece ginger, finely sliced

4 green chillis, slit lengthwise

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon cumin powder (jeera powder)

1 teaspoon coriander powder

3 tablespoon tamarind juice (soak small lemon sized tamarind in ¼ cup warm or hot  water for half an hour and extract 3 tablespoon tamarind juice)

Marinated chicken pieces

1 cup / 200 ml water (Indian standard measuring cup of 200 ml / 8 oz capacity)

½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

½ teaspoon pepper powder

½ teaspoon garam masala powder (or ¼ teaspoon clove powder + ¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder + ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder)

Method

Dilute  turmeric powder, cumin powder and coriander powder in 2 tablespoon water and keep aside.

Heat oil in a wide karahi / pan on a medium heat. Add sliced onions and fry light golden in color (color change from pink to light golden). It may take 15 – 17  minutes.

Add sliced ginger, garlic and slit green chillies. Fry for 5 minutes on a medium to low heat.

Add diluted spice paste and stir well on  a low heat for 2 - 3 minutes until the water dries up and raw smell disappears.

Add marinated chicken pieces, tamarind juice, 1 cup water, salt to taste, pepper powder and garam masala powder. Mix all the ingredients well. Cover with a tight lid and cook on a medium to low heat for 30 – 35 minutes until chicken pieces well cooked. Serve with  rotis  / pulao  / brown bread  / appam ..