South Indian Spicy Chicken Curry

I havn't posted in a recipe in a while... I did make a few interesting dishes recently, but was a little busy to post the recipe. This recipe I made yesterday was something I came up with after getting inspired watching Sanjay Thummu of vahrehvah.com. His videos on youtube are so much fun to watch. His expressions are priceless and the best part is when you can see his mouth watering to what he has made!!! Other source of inspiration was this cooking show I was watching about this British guy traveling around India and trying out different dishes... His style was Unique and a little over the top for my taste as I felt that the spices he was adding was too much in quantity. Here is my version of a South Indian Spicy Chicken Curry -



Ingredients (in order of use):

1 cup Oil
1 Cinnamon stick
5-6 Cardamom pods
6-7 Cloves
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
4 medium sized Onions chopped
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 and 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
5-6 chopped green chilies
10 curry leaves
2 tsp coriander powder
3/4 tsp chili powder
1 and 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
4 pounds Chicken cut into small pieces
Ghee
Water
1 tsp Garam masala
Coriander Leaves

Method:

Heat the oil in whatever vessel you choose. I used a 10 inch wide, heavy bottomed saute pan. break the cinnamon stick and add that along with the cardamoms and cloves.
Then add the cumin seeds. Once you hear the cumin crackle add the chopped onions. make sure you don't burn the cumin seeds. This can happen if the oil is too hot!
After a minute add your salt and turmeric powder and continue to saute the onions.
Once they are brown, add the ginger garlic paste and saute till you see the ginger garlic paste mix up well with the onions. Now add the green chillies and curry leaves and then saute for 15 seconds. Add the coriander powder and chili powder and keep on moving the ingredients on the saute pan and make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. after around 10-15 seconds add the crushed tomatoes and continue to saute all the ingredients. The masala should be somewhat coming together by now. it should not be watery and should have a consistency of mashed potatoes. Add your chicken to the pan and mix the masala into the chicken. cook the chicken so it looses its pinkness. I added 3 tsp ghee at this point to saute the chicken which is optional. Once the chicken pieces appear to be seared seared add 3-4 cups of water. You can vary the amount of water here according to the amount of gravy you want. Put a lid on the saute pan and adjust the heat to medium and let the chicken cook for 5 minutes. Check every minute and half making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. After 5 minutes add the garam masala and mix it into the gravy. Taste the gravy and add salt if needed. Then add the chopped coriander leaves and mix that into the gravy as well. Shut off the heat after a minute, but leave it on your cooking stove covered to continue the cooking process. Serve it with rice!!

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!!