Cashewnut Chicken

I use dry fruits and nuts quite a lot in my cooking. I grew up eating them in different dishes (savoury and sweet) so I guess I just reach out to them when I want to stir up good ol' childhood memories. 

My mother makes an equally delicious almond chicken (again a white sauce but totally different taste) and I will write about that in summer but for now, let's cook this dish. 

This is one of those dishes you whip up on a special day or for someone special. It is decadent and delicious (my partner hates chicken but always takes an additional helping when I make this :D).

I admit I could have done a better job of photographing this but sometimes, photographing sauces like this one, is very difficult and with a hungry family looking at the dish very eagerly, you eventually have to give up and say, "Fine, let's eat" :D

When I make this again, I will post better pictures.

Note: The toppings of potatoes and capsicum (bell pepper) are optional. Some people I know hate bell pepper. If you do too, it's perfectly okay to keep it aside. I personally love topping my sauces and curries with fried potatoes because they add a great texture to the dish. If you have dietary restrictions, it's fine to omit potatoes. 

Ingredients

*Grind this mix first -

2 green chilies

1 teacup full of cashewnuts broken roughly

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 cm whole cinnamon

Keep that aside. 

  

Now on to other ingredients -

1 large onion or 2 small ones chopped roughly

200 ml coconut milk

4 chicken breast pieces cut into 3-4 pieces each. Try not to make them too small. 

1 big capsicum (bell pepper) or 2 small capsicum chopped into slices

2 big potatoes sliced into thick wedges (like french fries)

1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste (make this fresh)

2 tablespoons oil (I use olive oil for this dish)

Salt to taste

Whole Spices -

1 big bay leaf

5 black whole peppercorns

2 cloves

2 green cardamoms opened, seeds extracted and smashed. We will use the  powder

Method 

Marinate the chicken in salt and ginger-garlic paste for 30 minutes to an hour.

In a big deep bottomed vessel, add 1 tablespoon oil.

Heat the vessel on low.

Once hot, add the chopped onions and fry for about 8 - 10 minutes.

Once the onion is soft, you add the ingredients under "whole spices".

Stir-fry for 10 minutes (keep the heat on low) and then add the chicken. 

Mix the chicken with the spices and onion.

Cover and allow to cook for 10 minutes. Basically, we allow the chicken to cook in its own juice.

Next, you add the ground mix listed out at the *top (right after ingredients).

Stir-fry for 5 minutes. 

Next, add the coconut milk.

Mix gently, cover and allow the chicken to cook. 

After 8-10 minutes, take off the cover and continue cooking on a slow simmer.

The idea is cook the chicken and to thicken the sauce. 

Add some salt at this stage. Not too much. We have added salt during marination, so keep that in mind.

While the chicken is cooking, you add some salt to the potato wedges and pan fry them in the remaining oil. They should get golden and be cooked. Make sure they are slightly crispy. Add the capsicum slices next. These need to stay on the pan for about 2-3 minutes.
Alternately, you can always use a grill pan and grill these vegetables. It does give a unique taste to the dish. I have occasionally also oven baked the potatoes when I have made this dish during parties as I always have the oven on for starters, desserts etc. 

Once the chicken is done, add these potato and capsicum slices on top and serve.

This dish goes really well with rice or even hot phulkas/rotis/parathas. 

Hope you enjoy it!