Peppercorn chicken curry

On Sunday we cooked our first proper meal since becoming parents to a baby girl. For the past few months we have hardly cooked anything as my mom would do most of the cooking while she was here visiting us. Since then Salil has been busy with work and me with the baby so we've mostly just ordered or had ready meals. A few days of eating out and we were already craving a nice home cooked meal so over the weekend, since we could take turns looking after the little one, we thought of cooking some nice spicy chicken curry. We marinated the chicken and left it overnight in the refrigerator, ready for the curry on Sunday afternoon. You could marinate the chicken for an hour before cooking but ideally leave it marinating overnight as this enhances the flavour and makes the chicken pieces tender.

Ingredients 

350 gms chicken thigh fillets, skinless and boneless

2 medium onions, halved and sliced

1 large tomato, cut into quarters

1 tsp coriander seeds

3 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste (I used some store bought paste from a jar)

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp red chilli powder (optional)

2 tbsp plain yogurt

2 tbsp oil

Water (as required)

Method

Cut the chicken thigh pieces into chunks and marinate it in the ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, red chilli powder (optional) and yogurt.

Dry roast the peppercorns and coriander seeds for about 30 seconds, remove and keep aside.

Heat the oil on medium heat and fry the onions till lightly brown. Keep aside 1/3 of the onions and grind the rest of the onions with the peppercorns, coriander seeds and tomatoes into a paste.

Fry the paste in the remaining oil (from frying the onions) for 3-4 minutes. Add the kashmiri chilli powder followed by the marinated chicken and fry for a couple of minutes. Reduce the heat and cover and cook for 10 - 15 minutes.    

Add about a cup of water (or as required), add salt and the remaining fried onions and cook for further 15 minutes or until the chicken pieces are cooked.

Serve with parathas or rice.