kolhapuri chicken

My mom-in-law is the best cook in the whole world. My husband is from Goa, and Aayi makes the most amazing fish and chicken I have ever tasted. I feel I still have a long way to go before I can cook like her. Here is a recipe that turns out really great. It’s different from Aayi’s chicken saguti recipe, but tasty nonetheless.





Ingredients
1 full chicken cut up, around 2 ½ pounds (we get ours from halal store, so it tastes like the one back home)
8 cloves garlic - grated
1 inch piece ginger - grated
2 big onions – sliced, keeping aside 1 table spoon chopped
2 tomatoes - chopped
½ cup dry grated coconut
2 inch piece cinnamon
2 green cardamoms
5 cloves
1 black cardamom
10 black peppers
2 tablespoon kolhapuri masala
1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder
1 tbl sp Green coriander
½ tsp tamarind paste
Salt to taste
2-3 tbl sp oil





Wash the chicken well. Marinate with salt, kolhapuri masala, ginger, garlic and kashmiri chili powder... Keep aside at least for 1 hour.

Heat 1 tbls sp oil. Add sliced onions and fry till brown. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and dry coconut. Fry on slow flame till coconut turns brown. Then cool and grind to a fine paste, using a little water.

Heat oil in a pan, add the chopped onion and fry. Add the marinated chicken and fry for 10 mins.
Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry for 10 more mins.
Add the ground masala, a little salt and mix well. Add 1 cup water and cover and cook for about 30 mins, till the chicken is done. You can add more water if required. Garnish with green coriander.

Traditionally, all the masalas are roasted separately, and then coconut and onions are also fried separately. But that takes too much time and so I just fry everything together.
If you do not have kolhapuri masala, then you can use 1 tbls sp coriander powder, ½ tsp turmeric powder, 2 tsp chili powder and a little garam masala powder. And while frying the onions and coconut, add 1 tsp sesame seeds and 1 tsp poppy seeds. It will taste a bit different but still be good.