Recipe - Chicken Xacuti

Chicken Xacuti

Serves  2-3

Preparation Time  30 Minutes

Contents: Chicken

Ingredients

800 gms of chicken

2 medium sized onions

1 cup of grated coconut

2 one inch sticks of cinnamon

6 cloves

4 dry red chillies

½ tsp of turmeric powder

2 tblspns of poppy seeds (khus khus)

1 tspn of carom seeds (ajwain)

1 tspn of cumin seeds

1 tspn of peppercorns

1 tspn of fennel seeds (saunf)

4 Star anise (phoolchakri/badiyan)

1 ½ tblspns of coriander seeds

4-6 cloves of garlic

1/3 cup groundnut oil

1 tblspn of tamarind pulp

¼ tspn of grated nutmeg

Salt to taste

Recipe

1. Wash, clean, remove the skin and cut chicken into twelve pieces. The size of the pieces used is normally a little smaller than the one used for chicken curry.

2. Peel and chop the onions.

3. Heat a little oil and slightly brown the grated coconut and keep aside.

4. Now dry roast cinnamon, cloves, red chillies, turmeric, khus khus, ajwain, cumin seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, star anise and coriander seeds till a nice aroma is given out. Grind to a paste together with garlic and coconut.

5. Heat the remaining oil in a thick-bottomed pan and sauté the finely chopped onions till brown.

6. Add the masala paste and cook till oil separates. Add the chicken pieces and saute for sometime. Add two cups of water and salt, bring to a boil and add tamarind pulp and grated nutmeg.

7. Simmer for five minutes and serve hot with steamed rice.