Chettinad Chicken Curry

I am very obsessed with the word “chettinad”, to me they are very tasty and really spicy to eat and they are the best. Any restaurant or any food with a chettinad tag to it drives my attention and every one can guess I gonna order only that. I lived in Chennai for a very short period of only six months and within that short time I had visited almost all of the chettinad restaurant there. Not just visiting restaurant, if anyone says I have the authentic chettinad recipes I waste no time to take the recipe from them. This recipe I got it from internet long time ago that’s before I started blogging and during my transit from Illinois to North Carolina I misplaced it, though I have prepared this recipe many times, its always difficult for me to remember all the ingredients and more over the method of cooking is what adds the taste to it and I also have no idea from which site I got this recipe, so didn’t get a chance to prepare it until now during these holidays while cleaning my old crap I got this recipe back and I was so much delighted and prepared it the following Sunday and relished it so much. I actually made for breakfast, as a side dish for idli and every one loved it, especially my boy who always prefers dosa for idli, loved idli with this chicken curry.

Ingredients
Whole cut chicken – 1lb
Pearl onion/sambar onion – 15
Tomato – 2 chopped
Garlic – 10 cloves
Green Chilies – 2 slit
Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tsp
Cilantro to garnish
Oil – 4 tsp
Salt to taste
To marinate
Yogurt – 2tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 2-½ tsp
Chili powder – 1tsp (use to your taste)
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt
To Grind
Coconut – 3 tsp
Poppy seeds – 2 tsp
Fennel seeds – 1tsp
Seasoning
Cloves – 5
Cinnamon – 1inch
Cardamom – 2
Fennel seeds – 1tsp
Pepper Corns – 1tsp
Curry leaves - 5

Method
Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients under 'to marinate' and set aside for minimum half an hour.
Dry roast poppy seeds and soak in hot water for 5 mins and grind with coconut and fennel seeds.
In a big pan, heat oil and add all the ingredients under 'seasoning', one by one and when its aromatic add onion, garlic and green chilies and sauté for 5 mins and add the tomato and fry till tomato is soft and mushy.
Now add the ginger garlic paste and mix well and add the marinated chicken and mix and add little water or as much water depending on the consistency to need and cook closed until the chicken is cooked well.
Add the coconut paste and cook for just 5 mins and garnish with lots of cilantro.
Enjoy it with rice.