Spice and Rice: Chicken Stew

March 27, 2016

Chicken Stew

Few years back while I was visiting my cousin and her new baby also got to meet her mother -in-law who had come over to help her out . That morning for breakfast they served homemade appams and chicken stew .

I have had a lot of chicken curries for breakfast , but this one was different it did not have a lot of spices very simple and delectable with chicken stewed in coconut milk with the whole spices aroma along with potatoes and carrots garnished with toasted cashews and raisins .

The new baby was for sure the star , but chicken stew came very close :) her mom-in-law made it so well that I had to take down the recipe and recreate it at home. And so I did like many times this recipe is one of my family's favorite breakfast dish goes really well with appams , pathiri and idiiappams .

What U need :

Organic Chicken - 2 whole chicken cut up in medium size pieces I used Cornish hen

Red Onion – 1 large sliced

Green chillies – 2 sliced optional

Curry leaves – 8 - 10

Carrot – 1 medium

Potato – 1 medium (russet )

Garam Masala – 1 ½ tsp

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Black peppercorns - 1 teaspoon powdered and whole

Ghee – 1 Tbsp for garnish

Cinnamon – 1 inch stick

Green Cardamom – 3 or 4

Cloves – 3 or 4

Star Anise – 1

Bay leaves – 2

Garam masala - 1 teaspoon (dry mix of cinnamon, cardamon, cloves , star anise)

Coconut milk - 1 cup

Cashews - 5-8 roasted in ghee preferably

Raisins - 1 teaspoon

Salt as needed

Marinate the chicken with ground pepper ,leave this for at least an hour.
In a large cooking pan, heat some oil or ghee is optional at this step add the whole spices and saute till the spices are heated up and exude the delicious aroma.
Add in the sliced onion, green chillies and curry leaves and cook until the onion is brown .
Then add the cube sized potato, carrots, and Chicken pieces along with enough salt and cover and let it cook on medium-low heat until chicken as well as the potatoes are almost cooked.
Add the garam masala to the stew cover and cook until the chicken is fully cooked and is usually 30 minutes totally so the chicken is fully cooked inside out.
Then add the coconut milk you can always add the thin milk first and towards the end add the thicker milk with cream, give it a stir make sure this is on a low flame cook for few minutes more.
Finally this step is the most crucial step this adds the authentic taste heat a separate pan , melt the ghee then add some thinly sliced onions fry this till brown and crispy , add the cashews and raisins to this and fry for a few seconds more add some garam masala , then pour this over the stew and turn off the heat. You don't need to stir as this point the ghee and cashews on the top of the stew give this dish a very authentic look.