Cilantro Curryleaf Green Chilli Chicken

Chicken is my life. It's my reason for living. In any form. Tandoori. Tikka. Not KFC (ew no). Kababs. Grills. Tenders. Strips. Roasts. Gravies. Bakes. Shredded. Meatballs. On the bone. Without bone. On pizzas. As sausages. As keema. In patties. In pastas. In burgers. In soups. In salads. In gravies. In rolls. In sandwiches. In a ragu. In my face.

And I love cooking with it. It's just so easy and so quick and so ridiculously versatile. Any gravy or sauce would do. Butter garlic? Mushrooms? Tomato? Butter chicken? Thai green? Thai Red? Green Indian? Bengali style? Soups? With that in mind, and a HUGE bunch of coriander wilting away in the fridge, I embarked upon the journey of making Coriander Curry Leaf Green Chicken. Luscious, green and consider it healthy for the amount of greens you are consuming, and how little oil there is.

Now look, in this entire debate of breast meat vs thigh meat, I will always, till my dying breath side with thigh meat. It's soft, moist and layered with its own juices, and just so amazingly flavourful. Breast meat is a piece of an eraser, unchewable and tasteless and dry. So I'm going to go with thigh meat here in this recipe. Preferably bone-in because that's the best, but boneless thighs cut up into nuggets is good too.

Coriander Curry Leaf and Green Chilli Chicken

Recipe adapted from Uma's Kitchen Experiments

You need:

• 800 gms boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
• a bunch of cilantro leaves
• 2 sprigs of curry leaves
• 1 capsicum
• 1 small tomato chopped.
• 1 large onion or 2 medium onions finely diced.
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp
• 1 tsp coriander powder.
• A handful of fresh green chillies
• Juice of 1 whole lemon
• a pinch of turmeric powder
• Salt
• Chilli powder
• Ginger and garlic, minced together, 4 tsp

The How:

• Wash and drain the chicken pieces. Add the lemon juice, salt, chilli powder, 2 tsp of the ginger garlic mince and mix well. Let it marinate for at least 30 min.
• Till then, separate the cilantro leaves from the root, wash very thoroughly and chop it up roughly.
• Separate the curry leaves from the stem and wash thoroughly. Wash the chillies and the capsicum and dice them as well.
• In a blender, add the cilantro leaves, curry leaves, chillies and capsicum. Add just a splash of water, and blend till very finely ground into a paste.
• Now in a kadhai, add 2 tbsp of oil. Let it heat.
• Once it's smoking, reduce the heat and add the cumin seeds.
• Once they splutter, add in the onions and one slit green chilli. Fry till soft.
• Add the rest of the ginger garlic mince and fry till the raw smell is gone.
• Add the chicken along with any marinade, and stir to coat it.
• Cover and leave on a low flame for about 10-15 minutes. Keep stirring once in a while.
• Once the chicken is half done, add the tomato and the coriander powder. You can add more chilli powder if you like your food really hot. I left it out. Mix well.
• Once the raw smell of the spices go, add the green paste. Mix well to incorporate.
• Cover again and cook on low flame till chicken is completely done. Taste to adjust for salt.
• And done! Serve hot with rotis or rice.

That's it!