Pepper Chicken Fry

South-Indian style Pepper Chicken Fry Recipe

                            

Step 1.
Clean the chicken. [Once I’m done cleaning the chicken with water, I use 2 tsp. sesame oil and 1 tsp. turmeric powder to mix with the chicken and wash them one last time before it’s used for cooking]. If your chicken pieces are big, cut them into medium size pieces.


Step 2.
Set the ingredients to make the chicken pepper ready on the kitchen table. Keep a dry wok on the stove in medium flame. Add the black pepper and fennel seeds. Dry roast them until the pepper gives a popping sound and the fennel seeds turn slightly golden. This steps takes around 8 minutes
 

Step 3.
Once the fennel seeds turn golden and the black pepper release the roasted aroma, add cumin seeds. Roast until the cumin seeds release a nice flavorful smell (identifiable by the slightly enlarged size of the cumin seeds). Cumin seeds gets roasted very quickly. Takes about 2-3 minutes. Once done switch off the stove.
 

Step 4.
Cool down the roasted spices. Until then we’ll finish the chopping jobs. Peel, wash and chop the onion. Wash and cut the tomato. Wash the curry leaves spring. Cut the fresh coriander leaves. Keep the cut vegetables aside. Peel the garlic cloves and remove the ginger skin. Grind them together without adding water. We do not need a smooth paste, blend just until you do not see any big chunks of garlic/ginger inside the mixie jar. Keep the freshly ground ginger-garlic paste aside

 

Step 5.Once the roasted spices are cooled to room temperature, grind (crush) them in the mixie for few seconds. Again, we do not need a nice powder. We need a coarsely ground powder. Whir them for about 5 seconds
 
Step 6.Keep a dry wok on the stove in medium flame. Pour the oil in it and let it get heated for two minutes. Add the chopped onions. Sauté the onions nicely until they become translucent. Takes about 7-10 minutes.
  
Step 7.
Once the onions turn translucent and slightly golden, add the ground ginger-garlic paste. Mix well and cook for 3 minutes, until the ginger-garlic paste lose their raw smell.

 
Step 8.
Once the ginger-garlic paste release a nice aroma, add the cleaned chicken pieces. Mix them well. Sauté the chicken for 5 minutes, until they turn pale

 
Step 9.
Once the chicken turn pale releasing it’s juice, add salt and turmeric powder. Mix well.
 
Step 10.
Add water (1/2 to 3/4 cup should do fine. Just up to the level of the chicken) and mix well. Close the wok with a lid and cook the chicken. Once the chicken is cooked (takes about 10-12 minutes), open the lid and mix the content well. Cook without the lid until the chicken absorbs almost all the sauce (water).
 
Step 11.Once the chicken absorbs all the water, sauté the chicken nicely for 2 minutes and add the chopped tomatoes. Mix well and cook for 2 minutes (until the tomatoes turn soft and mushy)

 
Step 12.Squeeze the lime juice from the lime. Mix well. Then add the powdered spices. Mix well
 

Step 13.
Cook for 5 minutes. Then add curry leaves and finely chopped coriander leaves. Mix well. Close the lid and reduce the flame to low (sim) and leave it closed until the tomato juice is completely absorbed by the chicken. Once the chicken turns dry, switch off the flame. [Do not have the chicken too much on the stove since it’ll turn very hard. Switch off flame once it turns to dry consistency]
 

 
Step 14.
Serve hot with Biryani/Capathi/Rice.