Chicken Korma

The chicken korma here is a classic, most basic chicken korma. The chicken is the hero here along with the coconut milk. This chicken korma is creamy, luscious and perfect with dosas or rotis. There’s no ginger-garlic or green chillies in this korma but you won’t miss any of it. This is how we make chicken korma at my husband’s place. At my mom’s place we grind together whole spices along with ginger-garlic and green chillies for a fiery hot, masala spiced korma. I like both versions. I have to, itsn’t that the ideal marumagal formula?

Blogging Marathon #33 week 3 calls for food with fiction and I am going to tell you my own story. If you’ve read my post on Joint-family you’ll already know how deeply I feel about the joint-family setup. Oh, I do. In a joint-family setup food choices are well, non-existent and I’ve come to realize the gaping differences between our families – mine and my husband’s. They couldn’t have been more different and this one dish - chicken korma is symbolic of that. My family is mostly vegetarian, my husband’s family is like Raj-Kiran in “En Rasavin Manasile” – hard-core, die-hard non-vegetarians. Idli and Dosai are the staple at my husband’s place, the bottom shelf in the fridge is the designated Idli/Dosai batter shelf (How come refrigerator ads always show a big black forest cake, cut fruits, tall glasses of iced coffee all left open by the way, but never idli batter or yesterday’s rasam? Extreme dramatization is something I am never able to take lightly). 

Idli/Dosai is just another tiffen at my mom’s place. We love Upma at my mom’s place but it’s hated vehemently at my husband’s. We don’t even use the same kind of rice – puzhungal arisi (par-boiled rice) at my husband’s and pachai arisi (raw rice) at my mom’s. Thick creamy payasam, light non-tangy sambar, bulls eye and bombay toast are beloved at home. At my husband’s place however payasam is always thin and runny, sambar is tangier, it is omelette rather than bulls eye and toast is only for those sick ailing days. My husband and I are no better. We cannot decide on a restaurant even if Godzilla were chasing our car. We drive around arguing which place to go to and we come back arguing about the place we went to. Ours is a love marriage – Can you tell?

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 25 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Chicken – ½ kilo cleaned and rinsed

Onion – 2 large chopped fine

Tomatoes – 3 large chopped fine

Whole Fennel seeds/Saunf/Sombu – 2 tsp

Red chilli powder – 3 tbsp

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Coconut milk – 2 cups or extracted from 1 big coconut

Oil – 2 tbsp

Method

1.    Heat a kadai/skillet and add oil. When hot, add the fennel seeds. Then add the chopped onions and sauté till they turn translucent. Add the tomatoes and sauté till they turn soft.

2.      Add rinsed chicken and mix well. Cook on high till the chicken turns white. Then add turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder. Mix well. Cover and cook on medium-low till the chicken is cooked through and tender – about 15 minutes or so.

3.    Uncover and mix well. Add the coconut milk and stir well. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. When it is about to boil, switch off. Garnish with freshly coriander leaves if desired. Serve hot with dosa or roti.

Notes

1.    Make sure to use thick coconut milk for a creamy thick kurma. If your coconut milk is too runny, then the kurma will also be runny.

2.       If you wish, you could add a dollop of fresh cream towards the end for extra creaminess.

3.      There’s no ginger, garlic or green chillies in this kurma. You could add these if you want more masala.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#33