Chicken Stew- Kerala chicken curry (Video Recipe)

This simple recipe is every Malayalee's favorite and if you have Appams along with it, its heavenly.

It is lightly spiced coconut milk flavoured curry with just a hint of spices. You can make it a vegetable stew by just adding some carrots, beans, peas etc or a chicken stew. You can also combine both veggies and chicken to it and make a delicious kerala style stew. It is mostly combined with appam (thin lacey pancakes) or idiyappam (string hoppers / steamed rice noodles). We also have it with breads and with dosa some times. The addition of vegetables along with chicken gives it a different texture as well. Many recipes add cashew paste to the curry to make it thicker. I usually make them without the cashew paste  and only add coconut milk with the veggies and chicken/ mutton.
Kerala is famous for its usage of coconut, and this dish is no different to all the other kerala dishes where coconut milk and coconut oil is used to give that authentic flavour. Let's see how its done. Video updated

You can check other chicken recipes Here

Ingredients:

• 350 - 400 grams Chicken, with bone cut into small pieces or boneless 
• 1 inch Ginger, chopped
• 1 Carrot (Gajjar) , peeled and cubed
• 1 Potato (Aloo) , skin peeled and cubed
• 1 Onion , sliced
• 2 Green Chillies slit 
• 1 teaspoon Black pepper powder
• 1 tsp Chicken masala (Optional)
• Salt to taste
• Coconut milk- 100 ml
• Coconut Oil , for cooking
• Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs

Method: 

1. Begin by washing the chicken pieces and cut them to small pieces. Keep all the vegetables cut and prepped.
2. Heat coconut oil in a pressure cooker, 
3. Add in the ginger & green chillies. Saute for 1 min
4. Add in the sliced onions and saute until they soften. 
5. Add the vegetables- carrots, potatoes and saute for 10 minutes
6. Add pepper powder along with chicken masala (if using)
7. Saute' for 1 min. Add 1 tbsp water to avoid burning. 
8. To this add chicken and salt to the masala. Saute well until it is evenly coated. 
9. Add some water and pressure cook for 1 whistle
10. Allow the pressure to release naturally and see water quantity
11. If you want the water to be lesser, make sure to boil the curry a bit till you get desired consistency
12.  Pour in the coconut milk and give it a nice stir on low heat. 
13. Remove from flame. Make sure you don't boil much after coconut milk is added. 
14.  Serve with hot Appam/ Kerala Appam's

Notes:

• We personally do not like peppercorns in our curries, instead we add pepper powder. Though the authentic curry does include peppercorns. You can add few if you like. You can also add add cinnamon stick, cloves, and peppercorns and let them fry for few seconds.
• Before adding water to the chicken, make sure to saute it for atleast 5 mins, so that all the masala's are combined well and the chicken releases its juice. This is key in giving the curry a good taste. 
• Try and use coconut oil to get that authentic flavour. If you do not have coconut oil, you can use sunflower oil. 
• Chicken masala is optional, but I suggest to add to make the curry more tasty 
• I add the canned coconut milk. I had a 200 ml pack and added half of it. You can make coconut milk from scratch and add or also use the powdered version. Follow instructions given on the pack. 
• I add carrots and potatoes usually and once curry is almost done, I mash few potatoes in the curry to give it little thickness. You can add cashew paste if you want to add thickness to the curry. Add the cashew paste along with chicken and cook. 
• For cashew paste, soak few 3-4 cashews in warm water and grind it to paste after 10 mins. 

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