Ingredients (Serves 4)
- Chicken with bones – 1 kg, cut into small pieces
- Coconut oil – 2 tbsp
- Whole spices – green cardamom – 5, cloves – 6, bay leaf – 1, cinnamon stick – 1 inch broken, whole pepper – 1/4 tsp, fennel seeds – 1 tiny pinch, star anise -1 small
- Onion – 1 medium-sized, thinly sliced and chopped into half
- Ginger – 2.5 tsp, thinly sliced
- Garlic – 3 – 4, chopped
- Green Chilies – 6 – 7, slit
- Curry leaves – 1 sprig
- Thin coconut milk – 1.5 cup
- Potato – 1 medium, cubed
- Carrot – 1 med-sized, cubed
- Thick coconut milk – 3/4 cup
- Garam masala – 1/8 tsp
- Pepper powder – 1/4 tsp
- Salt – As required
Method
1. Clean and cut the chicken to small pieces. Crush the whole spices very slightly in a mortar and pestle. This step is optional.
2. In a kadai/cheena chatti, heat some coconut oil and add whole spices and sauté for a few seconds. Now add sliced onion, a pinch of salt, ginger, garlic, green chillies and curry leaves.
3. When the onion becomes soft, stir in the thin coconut milk. You just need to add 1 – 1.5 cup thin coconut milk since water will ooze out from the chicken also. Bring to a boil over medium flame. Add the chicken pieces and salt. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add the potatoes, carrots, few curry leaves and mix well. Cover with the lid and cook over medium – low flame, stirring occasionally, until chicken and vegetables are completely done.
4. Add thick coconut milk, few curry leaves, sprinkle a pinch of garam masala powder if required, 1/4 tsp pepper powder(optional) and mix well. Cook for 1 – 2 minutes over low flame. Check for salt. Switch off. Keep aside for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with appam/ idiyappam/ pathiri / chapathi etc.
Tips :
1. You can also prepare this stew by pressure cooking the chicken and vegetables together over medium heat for 1 whistle. But slow cooking is always more tasty.
2. You can prepare mutton stew the same way. But first, pressure cook mutton with 1/2 cup water, 1-2 green chillies, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp garlic, few curry leaves and enough salt for at least 2 whistles. Then you can follow the above method.
3. Fry 3 sliced shallots in coconut oil / ghee and add to the curry when it is done. That will give a unique flavor to this stew. You could also garnish it with fried cashews.
i tried it..turned out really good…thanks for the recipe..btw you havnt mentioned abt the green chillies in the steps:)
Thanks a lot for pointing it out..i did the correction 🙂
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yesterday too i tried this stew, when one of my friends and his family visited us.. really delicious!! this time I avoided garam masala..but turned out very very tasty and we served that with Idiappam..this dish can be served to people who dont like much hot spicy. thank you once again!
I tried this recipe today and it turned out really good. Thanks a lot
And one more thing it is almost impossible to recognize the captcha for posting comments. I tried almost 10 times
can u pls tel me if i can keep it jus lik that for next day coz u said it tastes better then?
very nice to see this recipe…i would like to know about good healthy soups too….hope you consider my request
Am talking out of context here, Maya. My thought arose from your writing “slow cooking” in your notes. My question: do you have any recipes on your website that are prepared using slow cooker (preferably, a 3.5 quart size)? If not, any other website you know which carries Indian recipes, slow cooked? Thanks.
I am trying this receipe today. Seeing all ur comments I hope it turns out well for me too….
I made the chicken stew yesterday and we are this with appam. The curry was fantastic and I do highly recommend everyone who passionate about cooking try this recipe.
Tried this chicken stew with idiyappam and it came out well… Thanks for the recipe..
Came out awesome .,
Thanks maya🥰
Made it. Turned out really good. Very good recipe. Thanks Maya.
Perfect recipe. This was my best stew so far. One variation I did: I made a smooth paste of the garlic, ginger and chillis and I added it with the chicken so that it wouldn’t get stuck at the bottom and burn at the onions stage.