{"id":19078,"date":"2017-01-16T23:38:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T22:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=19078"},"modified":"2017-01-16T23:38:29","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T22:38:29","slug":"chicken-in-tomato-sauce-and-indian-spices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=19078","title":{"rendered":"Chicken in Tomato Sauce and Indian Spices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"indian_chicken_to\"The first weeks of this\u00a0year look like one incessant\u00a0Indian cooking session:\u00a0I have made several batches of the\u00a0fantastic chilli pickles (from the previous post<\/a>), I have finally learnt how to prepare easy naans\u00a0and, last but not least,\u00a0I have made\u00a0about a dozen different old and new Indian dishes, among which\u00a0this chicken\u00a0in sauce. I relied here on\u00a0my own mixture of spices, which, given the complex and intimidating Indian culinary heritage, was a high-risk decision. This time I was lucky to obtain\u00a0a palatable aromatic\u00a0meal,\u00a0no matter how far it was\u00a0from the genuine Indian harmony of flavours.<\/p>\n

The recipe is based on this\u00a0Indian-Style Chutney<\/a>\u00a0(my very first attempt to experiment alone\u00a0with Indian spices),\u00a0much loved and preserved\u00a0in big amounts for the past five years.\u00a0Since I\u00a0am crazy for\u00a0its spice combination, I thought I might work on it a bit and adapt to a chicken and tomato dish. I kept the seasoning\u00a0almost unaltered, making some small modifications, such as skipping the vinegar or\u00a0adding garlic and ginger, extremely frequent in Indian sauce dishes.<\/p>\n

TIPS: Try your best to find nigella seeds\u00a0(they are available in Indian shops and on internet). For me they are a very important ingredient here. (And if you worry what to do with the\u00a0remains, they can be used in many European dishes too, for example sprinkled on buns, bread, baked snacks, etc..).<\/p>\n

Preparation: about\u00a02\u00a0hours<\/em><\/p>\n

Ingredients (serves two, if served with a light vegetable side-dish)<\/em><\/p>\n

2 small chicken legs\u00a0or two big chicken thighs,\u00a0skinned; if you intend to eat the dish Indian way, i.e. with your hands, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces<\/em><\/p>\n

1x 400 g can of tomatoes (or, of course, fresh tomatoes, if you read this recipes while they are in season)<\/em><\/p>\n

2 tablespoons coconut oil<\/em><\/p>\n

1 medium\u00a0onion, very finely sliced (or 2 big Western shallots)<\/em><\/p>\n

2 big garlic cloves, crushed<\/em><\/p>\n

2\u00a0cm grated\u00a0fresh ginger<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon mustard seeds<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon fennel seeds<\/em><\/p>\n

2 teaspoons\u00a0nigella (onion seeds)<\/em><\/p>\n

2 or more\u00a0dried chili peppers whole (without stalks) or torn into pieces<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon powdered chili<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/3 teaspoon turmeric<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon salt<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon sugar<\/em><\/p>\n

fresh coriander leaves<\/em><\/p>\n

Heat the oil in a shallow pan.<\/p>\n

Stir-fry the whole dry spices (apart from chilli and turmeric powders) and whole chillies at medium heat for about 30 seconds\u00a0(or more, until they start yielding a wonderful aroma). Make sure you don’t burn them.<\/p>\n

Add the sliced onion and stir-fry until golden brown.<\/p>\n

Lower the heat, add\u00a0the garlic and the ginger, stir-fry for about 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

Finally add the chopped tomatoes and when they start to boil, add the chicken, the salt, the sugar and the chilli powder.<\/p>\n

(If using chopped fresh tomatoes, let them simmer\u00a0until they disintegrate and create\u00a0a thick chunky sauce; then only add the chicken,\u00a0the salt, the sugar and the chilli powder.)<\/p>\n

Covert the pot and let it simmer for at least one hour (until the chicken meat falls off the bone). \u00a0I prefer to simmer at very low heat for at least 2 hours.<\/p>\n

Add water during the cooking process if necessary.<\/p>\n

Serve with chopped coriander leaves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first weeks of this\u00a0year look like one incessant\u00a0Indian cooking session:\u00a0I have made several batches of the\u00a0fantastic chilli pickles (from the previous post), I have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[185,35],"tags":[12,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19078"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19078"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19099,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19078\/revisions\/19099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}