This recipe is my mom's favourite. Maybe it's something she picked up from her home in her childhood. My mom left home for studies at the age of 15 and then traveled to Bombay, Indore and finally Kuwait. The only time she spend home was one month a year when she had annual holidays at her nursing school or leave at her job place. Mom believes her training in culinary skills ended at 15 and whatever she did for the rest of her life is a mix and match of what she learned at her home. Mom's cooking involves the use of shallots and garlic. This was a tradition at her home and life in Kuwait taught her that Arabic cuisine used a lot of shallots too, so shallots continued to be a common ingredient in all of our dishes. Now I am quite lazy when it comes to cleaning shallots so I prefer onions. But onions taste way different from shallots and I compromise this difference for my convenience. But recently I got some cleaned shallots ( or Madras onion as they are known here) at a mall and so I decided to try mom's kozhi kothinurukiyathu. This recipe gets its name from the size of the chicken pieces. Mom used to dice the chicken along with the bones into small cube like pieces and she prepared it in a semi- dry form very different from the typical curries made at home. This being a dry preparation was always accompanied with moru curry ( a curry made with buttermilk) and rice. My hubby often reminisced his father cooking a special chicken curry which they named 'dad's chilli chicken' . I tried finding the recipe from my dad-in-law but he told me it was like any other chicken fry with lots of chillies added to it. But when I made mom's chicken kothi nurukiyathu my hubby told me this was exactly how his dad's chilli chicken tasted. But I would still call it kozhi kothi nurukiyathu and not chilli chicken. This post has been due since 2 weeks and I have been so lazy these days. I am not gonna make any false promises because life has become quite unpredictable and eventful at the same time recently. So I am gonna take it easy. So if you don't see me active here bear with me. I will be back.
Ingredients for Kozhi kothinurukiyathu
Chicken (Kozhi)- 1 kg diced into small pieces
Shallots- 20 pods
Garlic 20 pods
Ginger- 1 inch piece sliced
Curry leaves- lots
Coconut oil- 3 tbsp
Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
Chilli powder- 1 tbsp
Coriander powder- 1 tbsp
Garam masala powder- 1 tbsp
Salt- to taste
Directions
Mariante the chicken with all the powders, salt, sliced ginger and 1 tbsp oil and cook on low flame. Don't add any water the water from the chicken will sufficient to cook the chicken. When the chicken in cooked take the pot off the heat. In a pan heat the remaining oil and saute the crushed garlic, shallots and curry leaves. Once the shallots and garlic starts to brown add the cooked chicken.
I don't add any spices because the chicken is already cooked with spices. But if you want it more spicy and aromatic you can add a tsp of garam masala and chiilli powder at this point. Cook the chicken for 15 minutes so that the shallots and garlic blends well with the spiced chicken. The chicken will get dry and crisp in this time if you aren't using a non stick vessel the chicken might even stick to sides of your pot/pan. Garnish the chicken with some fried shallots and curry leaves and serve with rice or roti.
Ingredients for Kozhi kothinurukiyathu
Chicken (Kozhi)- 1 kg diced into small pieces
Shallots- 20 pods
Garlic 20 pods
Ginger- 1 inch piece sliced
Curry leaves- lots
Coconut oil- 3 tbsp
Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
Chilli powder- 1 tbsp
Coriander powder- 1 tbsp
Garam masala powder- 1 tbsp
Salt- to taste
Directions
Mariante the chicken with all the powders, salt, sliced ginger and 1 tbsp oil and cook on low flame. Don't add any water the water from the chicken will sufficient to cook the chicken. When the chicken in cooked take the pot off the heat. In a pan heat the remaining oil and saute the crushed garlic, shallots and curry leaves. Once the shallots and garlic starts to brown add the cooked chicken.
I don't add any spices because the chicken is already cooked with spices. But if you want it more spicy and aromatic you can add a tsp of garam masala and chiilli powder at this point. Cook the chicken for 15 minutes so that the shallots and garlic blends well with the spiced chicken. The chicken will get dry and crisp in this time if you aren't using a non stick vessel the chicken might even stick to sides of your pot/pan. Garnish the chicken with some fried shallots and curry leaves and serve with rice or roti.
