Chicken Varuval

My old office used to be at Brickfields and for lunch my colleagues and I like to go for Indian food. As you all know there are plenty of good Indian restaurants at Brickfields. One of our favorite place to eat is the corner kopitiam near the river bank. I forgot the name of the Kopitiam. We really like the banana leaf rice there. In my opinion they served the best Indian food. One of our must order dish is their Chicken Varuval and fried fish. Their Chicken Varuval is dry, almost paste like gravy and extremely spicy. I tried cooking this dish here and I got this recipe my ex-colleague and is the simpler way of cooking Chicken Varuval

Ingredients :

1/2 chicken - cut into small bite size pieces
1 pcs of cinnamon stick
2 cardamoms
1 pcs of star anise
1 tbsp of black soy sauce
10 curry leaves
1/2 cup of water (optional)
Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

Blended ingredients :

2 medium size onions
5 cloves of garlic
2" of ginger

To make into paste

2 tbsp of curry powder
2 tsp of chili powder
2 tsp of tumeric powder

1) Heat up oil and add in cinnamom stick, cardamons, star anise and curry leaves. Stir fry for a few second until frangrant.
2) Add in the blended ingredients and sautee until it turn light brown.
3) Add in the curry paste and stir fry for a minute.
4) Add in the chicken and stir fry until chicken well coated with the paste. Add seasoning.
5) Add in black soy sauce and a bit of water if chicken get too dry. Cover and simmer slowly until chicken is really dry and done.
6) Check seasoning and serve warm.

Note : I didn't add any water because the chicken I used discharged lots of liquid. You can reduce the amount of chili powder if you want it less spicy.

Chicken Varuval with Potatoes

Whenever I think of eating something flavorful and spicy I will make this dish. This is a dish that I will cook over and over again so much so that even Carlos is eating it now. He actually finished over half a plate of it that day. I have another recipe of Chicken Varuval here but this time I did some slight changes to it and also added some potatoes to the dish. Although the list of ingredients might looks like a lot but it does not take a long of time to make this. For this dish you can adjust the level of spiciness to your liking.

Ingredients:

3 pieces chicken breast – cut into bite size pieces
1 stick cinnamon
2 cardamom pods
3 medium size potatoes
2 green chilies - sliced
1 medium size onions – sliced thinly
A small bunch curry leaves
1 tsp black pepper
Salt and sugar to taste

Grind into paste:

5 cloves garlic
2” ginger
4 shallots
½ tsp salt

Make into a paste with a bit of water

3 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp chili powder (more or less depend on how spicy you like)
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder

1. Clean and cut the chicken, marinate it with the blended paste for half an hour. In the meantime peel and cut potatoes into bite size pieces and pan fried it until soft and set it aside.
2. Heat up about 4 tbsp of oil in a non- pan, add in cinnamon stick and cardamon pods. Stir fry until fragrant and add in the chicken, and spread it evenly into a layer and let it pan fried until lightly brown on one side and turn it over and do the same to the other side.
3. Once the chicken is evenly brown, move the chicken to the side of the frying pan and add in the curry paste. Continue the stir the paste until fragrant. Add in the onions, curry leaves and chili. Mix everything together and well coated with the paste. Add in about ½ cup of water and stir until well combined. Add in a bit of salt and sugar.
4. Add in the potatoes, stir, and lower down the heat and cover. Let it simmer until everything is cooked and water evaporated. Add in black pepper, Stir well and check seasoning.
5. Dish out and serve with warm rice.

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.