Chicken Varuval

Have you try taking pictures on a gloomy day? I choose the wrong day to cook this dish but I already marinate the chicken the night before so I have no choice but cook it. I took over 50 shots of this dish but only a handful turns out decent. The rest, dark, blur, out of focus and etc.

Anyway, this is a must order dish for me if I eat at the Nasi Kandar or Indian Rice stall in Malaysia. I just love the taste of this flavorful dish. I’ve been cooking this dish so many times, and each time I tweak the recipe and came up with this. Finally I think I nail the taste of it. I hope you try this out, as I am pretty sure you are going to like it too.

Ingredients:

Half chicken – skin, fats removed and cut into bite size pieces
10 dried chilies – cut into half, remove the seeds and soak in water for 10 min
2 sprig curry leaves
3 shallots – sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic - chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
3 cardamom pot
2” cinnamon sticks
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp sugar
Salt to taste

Marinate:

1 tbsp grated ginger
2 clove garlic – finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp meat curry powder
½ tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

1. Clean the chicken and pat it dry. Combined marinate ingredients and add it to the chicken. Mix really well and set it in the fridge to marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
2. Heat up some oil over medium heat, fried the chicken until golden brown (I pan fried it instead of deep frying) Remove from oil and set it aside.
3. Remove most of the oil from the frying pan; leave about 2 tbsp of oil. Add the shallots and garlic. Stir fry until fragrant and lightly brown. Add in the curry leaves, dried chilies, cardamom pot and cinnamon stick. Continue to stir fry until fragrant.
4. Add in the chili powder; toast the chilies powder in the oil for a few seconds. Add salt and sugar and finally add in the chicken. Continue to turn and toss until chicken coated with all the aromatic. If it is too dry, add in 1 or 2 tbsp of water. Finally add in the black pepper. Mix well.
5. Dish out and serve with rice.

I am submitting this dish to to Muhibbah Malaysian Monday roundup, created and hosted by Sharon of Test with a Skewer and Suresh of 3 Hungry Tummies.