Last December when I was pregnant with Ayaan, I had invited few of my friends and their parents (who were visiting them) to dinner. I told aunty that I love chicken and she told me she will make something for me. She had only 1-2 weeks until she returned to India. She was very sweet to take out time in the busy schedule to cook and send a big batch of chicken curry.
If there is one spice that is commonly used in Indian cooking that I cannot stand, it is black cardamom. I have tried it in different ways and somehow I never liked the aroma of it. But that cardamom did something magical to this chicken curry. It reminded me the chicken curry that I used to love eating in restaurants back home. I won’t lie, I did not want to share it with V or Ishaan. Yes, I was very mean. Comeon, I was 7 months pregnant and someone had sent me something that I really loved. I must have given them just few spoons of curry and I pretty much finished everything else. Then I asked aunty for the recipe and she was very kind to share it with me.
I have tried this couple of times. I did not want to buy black cardamom for this one dish, so I prepared it without that few times. But it never came out like aunty’s. Then I bought a small pack of black cardamom and tried again and it made such a huge difference to the curry.
Pictorial:
Half cook the chicken in spices.
Heat oil and fry whole spices, ginger-garlic paste.
Add the powders, fry for few minutes. Add chicken and cook.
| Chicken Curry with Black Cardamom | Print |
- 1 kg Chicken
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 cup roughly chopped onion (this will go into paste)
- 1 cup of dry coconut
- 2 tbl spn poppy seeds (khuskhus)
- 1 tbl spn sesame seeds (til)
- 2 tbl spn ginger garlic paste
- A pinch turmeric
- 2 tbl spn coriander powder
- 1 tbl spn red chili powder
- 1 tbl spn spn garam masala
- ½ tea spn cardamom powder
- Salt
- 2" cinnamon
- 2-3 cloves
- 3-4 black cardamom(masala velchi/moti elaichi)
- 3-4 peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- Dry roast poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dry coconut, cool them and grind to powder.
- In a pan, heat oil and fry the roughly chopped onion till they are golden brown and grind to a paste.
- Heat oil and add finely chopped onion, 1 tbl spn ginger garlic paste.
- Fry till the onions are translucent.
- Add turmeric, coriander powder, red chilli powder, fry for a minute.
- Add the chicken, salt and cook till chicken is halfway cooked.
- In a separate pan, heat oil and add whole spices.
- Add remaining ginger-garlic paste, ground coconut, poppy seeds, sesame seed powders, onion paste, cardamom powder, garam masala.
- Fry for few minutes and then add the half cooked chicken.
- Add water to bring it to required consistancy. Adjust salt.
- Serve hot.
9 Comments for “Chicken Curry with Black Cardamom”
Nina Mehta
says:Shilpa,
I am very keen to try this out, but am a little confused about the roasted onion paste – when do we add it to the chicken?
Nina
Shilpa
says:Nina, thanks for pointing out. Updated.
JayanthiSindhiya
says:Fantastic curry with chappathi,awesome
MariKo
says:This looks like a quick recipe to make. I’m always looking for varieties of chicken gravy dishes with some dramatic difference in flavours. Thanks for this post.
rajeev
says:hi,
what is the need of the poppy seeds in the dish?
Shilpa
says:It gives thickness to the dish
Anju
says:Hi Shilpa, long time reader here. Can I use fresh coconut instead of dried?
Shilpa
says:Yes
Dave
says:Hey Shilpa dark & smokey just love black cardamom just finished it off with a bit of coconut cream & fresh coriander – hope you don’t mind adding just a little bit of sweetness but this is great thx