Spice Girl Chronicles II: Coconut Chicken Curry

I cannot begin to describe just how much I love Indian food.  The flavours, smells and texture just does wonderful things to my senses, being a very picky eater (as a child I would only eat rice and stew, yam and egg, beans and little gari).  My fussiness when it comes to food is kinda serious as I would never touch most diary products (can't stand milk, butter, cheese not like I'm lactose intolerant) and bread, while I don't mind milk, butter and cheese cleverly hidden in food, I would run to the toilet to throw up if I catch a whiff of butter in anything or that funny smell of fresh milk.

I decided to do another Indian food post not because I have nothing else to cook/post but simply because most of the spices have short shelf lives (like 6 months averagely) so it's best to use them as quickly as possible before they lose their lovely freshness! Besides who cares how many times one cooks Indian food when they all come out insanely delish?!

Coconut Chicken Curry is a favourite of the house as it is devoured as soon as I finish cooking it.  I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as me and mine do.  Trust me the outcome outweighs the seemingly hard-work. 

     Ingredients

Chicken: Like 1kg but cut into manageable bitesize

Yoghurt: 1/2 Cup

Ginger-Garlic Paste (5 cloves of garlic to 1 thumbsize of ginger)

Coriander Powder

Turmeric Powder

Cumin Powder

1 Star Aniseed

Cameroun Pepper (or any pepper powder of choice, use as needed)

Poppy Seed (soak in a little milk for a few minutes and using a spoon crush to make a paste

Garam Masala Powder

2 Large Onion: Chopped

1 Large Cinnamon Stick or 1/2 teaspoon of powdered Cinnamon

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Salt

1 cup of Thick Coconut Milk (canned or you can make some yourself)

Coriander Leaves or sliced lemon (for garnishing)

Star Aniseed

Whole Cloves

Green Cardamom

METHOD

1. The first thing would be to marinate the chicken in yoghurt, turmeric, cumin and coriander powders, add half of the ginger-curry paste and cover (I sometimes poke holes in the chicken with a fork so as to allow flavour seep into the chicken). You can marinate for like 30 minutes but I prefer to keep mine overnight in a large ziplock bag in the fridge.

Adding yoghurt to chicken for marinade

2.  In a good sized pot heat oil and add sliced onions, once it starts sizzling throw in the star anise whole and cinnamon and fry for like 4 minutes, add ginger-garlic paste with Cameroun pepper powder and stir mixture for a minute and allow to saute for 4 minutes

3.  Add marinated chicken and stir a couple of times on high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce heat. Add Poppy seed paste and salt to taste. Give cooking a good stir. Allow to cook for 10 minutes with pot open 

4.  Add 2 cups of water and allow to cook for 12 minutes. Pour in Coconut milk and the Garam Masala powder and allow to cook for 5 minutes

Adding Coconut Milk to cooking

5.  Now your done! Don't forget to garnish with Coriander leaf before you serve with either steamed rice, basmati or coconut rice!

Coconut Chicken Curry garnished with Coriander Leaf

6.  Enjoy and go for as many helpings as your stomach can contain!

Enjoy!!

For questions relating to this recipe or any recipe at all, shoot me an email on ijawgal@yahoo.com

Read, Comment and Cook!!

Bex