Kerala style Chicken Stew

Mild spicy chicken stew in coconut milk broth

Simple, hearty, wholesome – my go-to dinner option. Does not need any prep. No marination, not a lot of chopping and grinding. It’s a one pot recipe leaving minimal mess and clean up at the end too! And if this wasn’t enough, its too delicious for being this simple to make, and perfectly what you need on a winter night!

My dear friend Anu first gave me this recipe and since then it has pretty much become a staple in my weekly menu! Anu always has these simplest of recipes that are unbelievably delicious.

You will need:

½ kg chicken – bone-in pieces, cleaned, washed and drained

1-2 tbsp coconut oil (using another oil is fine too, but best to use coconut oil for flavor)

Dry spices – 2 cloves, one cardamom, one inch piece of cinnamon, 10-15 black peppercorns roughly crushed

One onion finely chopped

10-15 curry leaves

1 green chilli slit

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

Salt

Half a can of coconut milk

• Heat coconut oil in a saucepan. Add the dry spices, curry leaves, onion, green chilli and ginger garlic paste (in that order) in the oil when its not too hot.
• Add some salt, so that the onion leaves moisture and doesn’t become golden. Cover the pan and sweat the onions without letting them brown.
• Once the onion is soft, add the chicken pieces and mix well. Cover cooked for 15-20 minutes on low flame. Taking care that you don’t lose Steam (water) or brown the mixture. The chicken will leave moisture, which you want to retain.

• At this point add about a cup of hot water and cook for another 5 minutes. The chicken should be cooked, till it falls off the bone and is tender.
• Once the chicken is cooked, add the coconut milk and simmer for a minute.
• Adjust salt as needed, turn off the heat and finish with freshly chopped cilantro

Enjoy piping hot with steamed rice, neer dosas, appams, idiappams or can be enjoyed by itself as a soup if you are looking for a light dinner.

You can make a vegetarian version of this recipe (link here ) and here’s the recipe for Neer dosas.