Kudamilagai Kozhi Varuval

Clean, wash and cut the chicken with bones into bite size pieces and marinate either with lemon juice or yogurt and keep aside. Chop the regular onion finely, mince the green chili…. you don't want anyone to mistake it for bell pepper and bite on it. Roughly chop the tomatoes and cut the bell peppers into big cubes. Sambar onions are optional, peel their skin off and keep them whole. They are the ones which catches the eye of a nosy critic and from then on people would ponder on all your recipes. Those cute little buddies are loaded with flavours so add them in your other preparations whenever possible.

Heat oil in a big frying pan, sizzle those curry leaves and cumin seeds. I have used whole garam masalas and added them at this stage. You can substitute those with garam masala powder and add at them in later part of the preparation. Add finely chopped onion, whole sambar onions, bell peppers, green chilies and fry for a while or until the onion turns slightly brown. Now add the tomatoes, ginger and garlic. Let them cook for few minutes. At this stage add the chicken pieces, bring the flame to medium low, cover with a lid and cook for 5 to 6 minutes to fully cook the chicken. When done add turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and black pepper powder and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. You can add salt and garam masala powder(just a substitute for whole masalas) at this stage. Keep sauteing over medium flame until the masala turns dark brown which would take about 8 to 10 minutes. Switch off and serve hot with mixed rice of your choice.