Simple Chicken Curry with Curry Leaves and Coconut Milk

Again...I am here with another chicken curry with curry leaves and coconut milk. This rather simple Curry pata Diye Murgir Jhol is the brainchild of my childhood friend who cooks this chicken curry more often than it should be. She cooks it plain without any turmeric or red chilli powder...but I added them to get a beautiful colour. Lovely isn’t it?? There are  not many who loves curry leaves the way I love...but this recipe is so mild and fragrant that it will impress you once and for all, whether you like curry leaves or not.

My suggestion is eat this stew like curry with steamed Basmati rice...and it will be just heavenly!!

Heat oil and temper it with cinnamon stick, black peppercorns, bay leaves, green cardamoms and cloves.

Fry onion in that oil until their edges start to become brown and add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt.

Cook the spices for a minute to ward off their raw smell.

Add the marinated chicken into the kadai.

Mix well and cook the chicken covered until all the moisture evaporates.

Add curry leaves and coconut milk and cook until the chicken pieces are cooked from inside.

When the chicken pieces are cooked, simmer on medium flame until the curry thickens and finish off with fresh coriander leaves. 

And...oh!!! We just got our supplies from Indian market after almost 4 months. By the time, we ran out of rice, whole wheat flour and some whole spices. Some I bought from the Lebanese market but some I couldn’t find anywhere. My powdered spices were almost finished...and I was dreaded by the fact that what will do after. But thankfully that will not happen now. What a relief!!!

Simple Chicken Curry with Curry Leaves and Coconut Milk

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken on bone

1 can of coconut milk

1 cup of thick yogurt

Juice of 1 lime

15-20 fresh curry leaves

2 onions – sliced

6 fat cloves of garlic – minced

½ inch ginger – minced

3 green chillies - paste 

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp red chilli powder

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

3 cloves

3 green cardamoms

10 black peppercorns

Salt

¼ th cup of any unflavoured oil

A handful of fresh coriander leaves – chopped

Method:

Marinade the chicken with salt, yogurt, lime juice and chilli-ginger-garlic paste for at least 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a kadai and temper it with cinnamon stick, green cardamoms, black peppercorns and cloves.

Sauté for half a minute or until the oil becomes aromatic.

Add the sliced onions and cook them until they become translucent and the edges have started to become red.

Add the salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder.

Mix well and cook the spices for a minute or so or until the raw smell of the spices are gone.

Add the marinated chicken and all the marinade into the kadai.

Give a good stir and put cover.

Check after every 3-4 minute and stir, so that the chicken pieces do not stick to the bottom of the pan. Do this until all the moisture is evaporated and the curry has become dry.

Now put off the lid. Add the curry leaves and pour in the coconut milk.

Mix well and put cover again.

Simmer on medium flame until the chicken is cooked from inside.

When the chicken is cooked completely, open the cover and simmer until the gravy thickens a bit.

Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Finish off with fresh coriander leaves and put off the flame.

Serve hot with steamed hot rice or chapatti.