Pepper chicken masala

Black pepper originated in Kerala. From here it spread to the rest of South and Southeast Asia where it became an important spice plant.

Today we have a variety of dishes using this wonderful spice.

Black pepper is one of the most versatile spices used in virtually in all savory cooking. In order to keep the fragrance and flavor intact, it is generally ground just before preparing dishes and added at the last minutes in the recipes.

Pepper chicken is great to have along with Appam / Porotta/ Ghee rice. Insha'Allah, I will be posting these recipes in the near future.

Lets have a look at out Pepper Chicken masala.

Ingredients

1. Chicken - 500 gm
2. Onion - 2 halved and sliced.
3. Green chilly - 3
4. Ginger and Garlic chopped - 1 tsp each
5. Tomato chopped - 2 medium
6. Corriander powder - 1 tbsp
7. Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
8. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Curry leaves- a handful
10. Dhanya leaves chopped-1 tbsp
11. Cloves - 4
12. Cinnamon sticks - 2 small pieces
13. Whole pepper - 1 tbsp
14. Salt- as required
15. Coconut oil - 2 -3 tbsp

Preparation method:

First, clean the chicken and cut into medium sized pieces.

Take a cooking pan. Heat the oil. Add the cloves, cinnamon and whole pepper. Heat it for 1min, till you get the aroma of the spices.

Now, add the onion, green chilly, ginger garlic and saute it well. Add 1/2 tsp salt. Saute the onions well till it starts turning brown.

Add the tomatoes and saute it well again. Add the corriander, turmeric powder, pepper powder and saute it will till the tomatoes gets coooked and it becomes a paste form.

Add the chicken and mix it well till the masala gets coated well on the chicken. Saute it well again for 5 mins.

Now it's time to add water. Just add enough water to cover the chicken. Reduce the flame and cook till the chicken is done.

Check the salt and add more as required. Add the chopped dhanya leaves.

Serve it hot with appam :)