Chettinad Pepper Chicken

Chettinad Pepper Chicken is one of my favourite dish from  the  Chettinad cuisine .Chettinad is a region  from state of Tamil Nadu. Chettinad cuisine  is popular for spicy flavorful  dishes .Chettinad cuisine  uses lot of  spices like  pepper stone flower  star anise etc.

Chettinad cuisine  has a plethora  of stupendous  dishes one of  which is  Pepper Chicken which  is one of most  popular dishes from this  cuisine the   other  being  chettinad chicken  which  ill be posting  soon.
This  pepper  chicken  is  fiery and lip smacking ,the ingredients  used  here  are  simple and  easily available. The main hero of this dishes  is freshly crushed pepper which is  added at the  end to bring out the  flavor  .This  pepper  chicken  goes well  with  rice/pulao/appam/roti or porottas. Do try this  delicious  Chettinad Pepper chicken

Ingredients
500 gm chicken
salt
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2  tsp lime j̀uice
1 tsp pepper powder

2 onions  chopped
2 tomatoes
1 1/2 tbsp freshly crushed black pepper
2-3 cardamom seeds
3-4 clove
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp red chilli powder
 1 tbsp  coriander  powder
 1 tsp fennel powder
2-3 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp lime juice
 1 1/2 tbsp oil
salt

Method

• Wash the  chicken  pieces well  add salt ,pepper, lime juice and  turmeric  powder  and leave  aside for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile  chop the  onions and  tomatoes  fine.
• Heat the  vessel  add oil once  oil is  hot add  whole spices, curry leaves followed by  onion and  ginger  garlic  paste
• Fry well  till raw smell  goes off and the onions turn  light brown.
• Then  add the chopped  green  chillies and  chopped  tomatoes,saute well  till it turns  mushy.
• Add the  coriander  powder  and  chilli powder  ,fennel  powder and  saute  for  a  minute
•   then add the chicken  pieces  and  saute for 4 to 5 minutes.
• Add about 1/4 to  1/2 cup water and  mix well.
• Cover with  a  lid and  let  it  cook over medium flame  for  10  to 12 minutes
• The  chicken  needs to be tender and cooked  well
• Check  for salt , add if  needed
• Lastly  add the  crushed  pepper and mix well .
• Switch the  flame  off and  add lime juice and  serve hot with  rice/chapati,paratha or poori

notes

• I have   come  across  many  chettinand recipe  and  some  state that  the chicken is  never  marinated i always  like to  use marinated  chicken hence  have  applied  salt turmeric  and  lime juice
• adding  green  chillies  is purely  optional you  can  skip  green chilles and  add 1 tsp red chilli powder more  instead
• Also  some use  whole  red chillies instead of  chilli powder you  can  add 3 to 4 broken  red chillies  and  skip  green  chillies
• Amount of pepper  added depends on your  tolerance  level  but  this  dish gets  its taste and  flavor from  pepper .
• Don't skip  curry leaves it gives a  unique  flavor
• you  may  use  chicken  on bone  or completely  boneless  the choice  is yours.