Kerala Style Chicken/Mutton Stew

We had a small get together on our longest day of the week – Yeah you guessed it right - Friday. And the menu was Appam & Chicken Stew.

Ingredients:

Chicken                                --    ½ kg

Potato                                  --    1 medium

Carrot                                  --    1 medium

Onions                                  --    2 medium ones

Garlic                                   --    2 big cloves

Ginger                                  --    1 medium piece

Green chillies                       --    4 - 5

Cinnamon                            --    1 inch piece

Cloves                                  --    4 - 5

Whole Pepper                      --    8 - 10

Garam Masala                    --    1 tsp

Pepper Powder                   --   ½ tsp

Curry leaves                       --   1 stem

Coriander leaves                --   2 -3 stem

Shredded Coconut              --   Half a coconut

Oil                                        --    2 tbsp

Salt                                      --    to taste

Preparation of Chicken Stew:

Sprinkle hot water in a cup of shredded coconut. Squeeze it tightly to extract the thick milk out of it. Strain and keep aside. Add ½ cup of water in the remaining coconut and extract the milk using a mixer or blender. Strain and keep aside. This is the second milk. Repeat the process to extract the third milk.

Crush the whole spices using a mortar and pestle. I do not have it here, so I use the other side of my knife as the pestle and the cutting board as the mortar.Heat oil in a pan and fry the crushed spices until the aroma comes out.

Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and salt. When the onions become translucent, add garam masala and fry for 2 minutes. Now add the chicken pieces, cubed potatoes and carrot. Stir in the third coconut milk, cover with a lid and let it cook on a low flame.

Once the chicken is 80% cooked / if the mix becomes too dry for the chicken to get cooked, add the second coconut milk.

When the chicken is completely cooked, switch off the flame; add the first coconut milk, sprinkle some pepper powder and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve with hot vellappams.

The same recipe can be used for mutton stew as well. Mutton needs more time to get cooked and so might need to add more coconut milk or water while cooking.

Recipe Courtesy: Amma