Kukulhu Riha

We do have a quick chicken curry recipe here on Lonumedhu. But that one’s got tomato paste in it and uses a premade spice mix. This chicken curry here is a bit more traditional. It’s really, really yummy when you have it mixed with roshi.

Serves: 4-5

Ingredients:

• ½ tsp. cumin seeds
• 2 & ½ tsp. coriander seeds
• 8 dried red chillies  (or to taste)
• ¼ tsp. whole black peppercorns
• 3 cardamoms
• 1 inch cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
• 900 grams curry cut chicken
• ½ lime
• 1 tsp. grated ginger
• 1 tsp. grated garlic
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 large onion
• 1 tbsp. ghee
• 5 curry leaves
• 6 inch raanbaa (pandan leaf)
• 1 & ½ cups water

Instructions:

1. Heat up a pan on medium heat and add the cumin, coriander, dried red chillies, black peppercorns, cardamom seeds and cinnamon.
2. Dry roast the spices by stirring and tossing them frequently until you can smell their aromas. They are going sizzle and pop a bit too.
3. Remove the spices from the pan, let them cool down a bit, and then transfer to your grinder.
4. Add the turmeric powder to the grinder as well and then grind everything together until you get a fine powder like consistency.
5. Prepare the chicken by removing the skin.
6. Place the chicken in a bowl. Squeeze in the lime; add half of your garlic and ginger along with 3 tsp. from the ground spice mixture and half a teaspoon of salt. Mix well, cover and leave to marinate for at least half an hour.
7. Slice the onion thinly.
8. Heat the ghee in a pot over medium heat, and add the onions, curry leaves and raanbaa.
9. When the onions soften and start turning brown, add the remaining ginger and garlic, and let the mixture cook for another half a minute.
10. Add the chicken along with ¾ cups of water. Put the lid on, and bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the chicken is cooked through. For us this took around 20 minute.
11. Combine the remaining ground spice mixture with ¾ cup water and pour it into the pot. Mix well and adjust salt. We had to add half a teaspoon. If you want your curry to be drier, you can of course add less water in this step.
12. Let the curry cook for another two minutes and that’s it.