Pepper chicken is perfect for winters and is very easy to make from Kerala cuisine. This recipe needs no grinding masala, no elaborate cooking, made with simple and basic ingredients.
Ingredients:
1 cup onions [chopped]
1 cup tomatoes [chopped]
Salt as required
5-6 pepper corn
¼ tsp red chili powder
¾ tsp garam masala powder
1 sprig curry leaves
½ tsp cumin or shahi jeera
2 to 3 green cardamoms
1 inch cinnamon stick
3 cloves
2 tbsp oil
500 grams chicken
2 tsp ginger garlic-paste
⅛ tsp turmeric
Salt to taste
Method:
Wash chicken and drain off the water. Marinate chicken, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric and salt. Keep it aside until needed.
Add oil to a hot pan, add cumin, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom and allow them to sizzle.
Add curry leaves and ginger garlic paste. Fry till the raw smell of ginger garlic goes off.
Add onions and fry till they turn golden.
Add tomatoes and salt. Fry till the tomatoes turn mushy and soft.
Add red chili powder, garam masala and coarsely crushed pepper corn.
Fry everything well till the mixture looses all the moisture.
Add chicken and fry for about 3 to 4 minutes.
Cover and cook on a low flame till the chicken turns tender. If the chicken doesn’t ooze out enough water to cook, then add little water. Cover and cook. If you want to have gravy, switch off the stove.
If you prefer a dry version, cook without lid and evaporate the moisture in the chicken. Fry till all the moisture dries up.
Serve hot with rice and rasam.