Quick and easy chicken curry

We all want to eat good, delicious and a variety of food, preferably freshly cooked. Well, it is very hard for working women to toil all day at work and come home and cook dinner everyday! And it is not enough if you just cook! It is the cleaning up and the doing the dishes that is even worse! Well, I did day hard.. Not impossible! You see I am one of those women I just described above. That is the exact reason and the very purpose of this blog: to share with everyone quick and easy recipes which are realistic, genuinely quick and easy to make and without too many pots and pans to scrub afterwards!

One such recipe is this super-easy chicken curry that I am going to share with you all today. This recipe was shared  with me by one of my cousins, Usha, who is an excellent cook herself! There is hardly anything that Usha does not cook! And whatever Usha cooks, comes out absolutely delicious! You see most of my cousins cook well. We get it from our grandmother, who was an amazing cook! We are fortunate to have in us that small part of her gene.We are 25 first cousins all having the same grandmother! My grandmother had eleven children.
Coming back to the easy chicken curry, you can make it in under 30 minutes which includes the minimum amount of time required for marinating the chicken. If you already have chicken marinated and sitting in the freezer( like I do), then it is even faster! I tend to chop my veggies as I am cooking in the order that it is required. This way when the onions are sweating in the pan, I have the chopped tomatoes ready! I am bringing this to Fiesty Friday # 54! My dear friend Sonal@simplyvegetarian777 & Josette@thebrookcook are co-hosting this week! I am sure they will do a great job!

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs & drumsticks : 2 lbs ( 1 kg), chopped into medium pieces. ( you can leave the skin on if you wish, I take mine off).
Coconut oil: 1 tbsp
Ginger: 1 inch piece, minced
Garlic: 4-6 cloves, minced
Onion: 1 big, chopped fine
Tomato: 1 big, cut into big chunks
Potatoes: 1-2 chopped into big pieces( quarters).
Green chillies: 3-4, chopped fine( may need couple more if adding coconut milk). Adjust based on required spice level.
Jeera ( cumin seeds): 1/2 tsp
Pepper corns: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
Coriander leaves: 1cup, chopped
Mint leaves: 1/2 cup, chopped
Garam masala powder: 1/4 tsp
Coconut milk: 1 cup ( optional).
Salt: as per taste

For marination of the chicken:
Lemon juice: 1-2 tbsp
Salt: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/2tsp
Black pepper powder: 1/2 tsp, freshly ground.

Method:

Clean the chicken and marinate it with lemon juice, haldi ( turmeric powder), salt and pepper powder for 15-20 minutes.

Heat coconut oil in  a pressure pan.

Add cumin seeds ( jeera), then add chopped garlic, sauté for 10-15 seconds, add ginger, sauté for another 10-15 seconds.

Add in the chopped onions, sauté for few minutes until the onion sweats. Now add in the peppercorn, haldi powder, green chillies and tomatoes.

Sauté for 30 seconds.

Add the marinated chicken and chopped potatoes.

Let the chicken brown a little.

Add cilantro and mint leaves, salt, garam masala powder.

Add in the coconut milk and stir( optional). I do not add coconut milk as I get plenty gravy just cooking without it and I like the taste without the coconut milk.

Cover the pressure cooker, pan. Add  the weight( whistle) and cook for 1 whistle. Turn off the flame when you hear the sound of the first whistle.Do not open the pressure cooker until all the steam ( pressure) has been released.

Serve hot with steaming hot rice/ roti/bread/idlis.

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

Every time you buy chicken, clean it, cut it into desired size pieces, marinate it and freeze it in portions.
The day you decide you are going to make it, in the morning put the packet in the fridge to thaw. By the time you come back from work, the chicken would have thawed and will be ready to be cooked! How easy is that!

Tip for healthy living:

On this blog, I have mentioned this several times. Whenever possible buy and use organic, free range chicken. These are chicken that have been raised in healthy living conditions with organic feed .Chicken that are not raised in this fashion have antibiotics and pesticide accumulation in them which can in turn get into our bodies.This can especially affect children due to their smaller body size. 

Food for thought:

We often repent of our first thoughts and scarce ever of our second. Horace Walpole