Chicken Fry Masala

Chicken fry masala is a semi-dry preparation, with soft and juicy chicken bursting with flavours and is one of my favourite chicken preparations. Since chicken is cooked initially with water, it becomes really tender absorbing all the moisture and frying them later on gives it a completely different flavour. Adding curry leaves and green chillies at the end boosts the flavour of this dish and that heavenly aroma retains even after you dish out the chicken. This recipe is a modified version of special fried chicken that I posted a while ago. I simply gave it a twist by cooking the chicken further in an onion based sauce. It is simple to prepare and tastes too good. It pairs well with almost anything you can think of – rice, paratta, any roti/bread varities, biriyanis etc.

Note: You may adjust the spiciness by increasing or cutting down amount of chilli powder. These days I use a mixture of paprika and Kashmiri chilli to cut down the heat of my dish. I sometimes add just paprika to include green chillies in the dish. Adding green chillies along with curry leaves at the end boosts the flavour of this dish.

Ingredients:

800g Chicken cut into medium size pieces

6 large garlic cloves finely chopped (2 ½ TBSP)

1” thick piece of ginger finely chopped (1 TBSP)

1 Tbsp chopped curry leaves

3 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

½ cup water

For the Masala:

4 tbsp coconut oil/vegetable oil

2 large onions thinly sliced

1 large tomato sliced

1 twig curry leaves chopped

2 green chillies (slit lengthwise) - optional

¼ tsp garam masala

A pinch of salt

Coriander leaves to garnish.

Little ginger and garlic reserved from the marinade

Preparation:

1. Clean chicken and marinate it with Chilli powder, paprika, turmeric, chopped curry leaves, salt, chopped garlic (reserve ½ TBSP for masala) and chopped Ginger (reserve 1 tsp for masala). Cover the bowl using a cling film and refrigerate for a minimum of half hour.

2. Cook this marinated chicken along with ½ a cup of water until chicken is cooked, and smothered in spicy sauce. If there is more liquid, boil it off keeping the lid open until 2-3 tablespoon of cooking liquid is left in the pan.

3. Tip the cooked chicken with sauce into another bowl. Keep the sauce pan back on heat and add oil.

4. When oil is hot enough, add sliced onions with a pinch of salt (Addition of salt cooks the onions faster). Sauté until it starts to turn golden. Add the reserved ginger and garlic and sauté all until onion turns golden. Add sliced tomato and stir. Tip in chicken along with cooking liquid and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the tomatoes go just soft. If the dish goes really dry here, add few dashes of water.

5. Add in chopped curry leaves, chillies and garam masala. Mix well and cook for further 2-3 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot along with chappthis, pooris, parattas, rice, biriyani etc.