Chicken in Creamy Tomato Gravy

By pixen

Mild chicken curry with 'secret ingredient' that's a delicious accompaniment to rice, couscous or breads and yogurt, achar, pickles, chutneys or vegetables.

Ingredients

• To be blended until smooth with 2 tbl Coconut Milk:
• 1 tbl Cooking oil
• 1.5 kg Chicken meat - washed and cut to pieces (I used chicken thighs)
• 2 nos Onion - medium size, sliced into rings
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
• 1 tsp Tumeric Powder
• 2 tsp Garam Masala
• 3 tsp Chilli Powder
• 4 cloves Garlic
• 1 tbl Fresh Ginger - finely chopped
• 1 tbl Poppy Seeds
• 2 tsp Fennel Seeds
• 3 pods Cardamom - smashed and reserved the black seeds
• 150 ml Coconut Milk - fresh 1st-pressed thick coconut from 1 coconut
• 1 pc Star Anise
• 1 pc Cinnamon Stick
• 4 nos Large Tomatoes - roughly chopped
• 1-2 nos Limes - quartered

Preparation

Step 1

1. Pat dry the chicken meat before frying.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan/pot. When it's hot, add in the chicken pieces slowly in batches into the pan. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until browned. Remove and keep aside in another plate. Continue to fry the rest of the chicken.
*When it's finished, remove some of the oil from the pan (the extra oil came from the chicken skin/fat) but use enough oil for the next step.
3. While the pot/pan is still hot, add in onions and stir-fry until golden in color. Stir in the grounded cloves, tumeric, garam masala and chilli powder. Stir for 1 minute and add in the pre-fried chicken pieces.
4. Add in the blended spice mixture, remaining of Coconut milk, star anise, cinnamon stick, chopped tomatoes and water. Give the chicken and spices a good stir so that the meat is well coated.
5. Cover the pot/pan and simmer in medium heat for 30-45 minutes or until the meat is tender and the gravy thickens to your preference. Serve with some quartered limes at the side with steamed rice and plain yogurt. You can even add some vegetables like cucumber, onions, okra, achar or pickles.

Notes:
As the pots or pans use are different with individuals, the gravy may take longer to thicken. Since the chicken meat produced more liquid into the gravy, you need to adjust the time accordingly.
You can use packed or tinned coconut milk if you can't find fresh pressed coconut milk.
If you don't have grounded cloves, you can pound/grind about 1 tbl of cloves until fine. Scoop the powdered cloves into the required measurement and leveled the top.
Use quality cardamoms - discard any browned or dried seeds or pods.
Lastly, if you still unsure about the poppy seeds, you can use grounded Cashew Nuts, Pine Nuts or Candlenuts as thickening agent for this recipe.