Maggie chicken curry

It was funny how today morning I decided to make a chicken curry with the less than half kilo of chicken available in my freezer.

Like always, I had a recipe in mind when I started cooking. Today, the plan was to make a tomato chicken curry and I started accordingly. La la la… :D :D it was until I got the masalas mixed up and ended up making what I decided to call the Maggie chicken curry :D :D. There is a reason why I chose this name.

So when the garam masala jar and the cinnamon jar got mixed, uff!!! It was a disaster, is what I thought. But… the resulting curry tasted as if it was a chicken curry made with Maggi noodles tastemaker, only that there was no tastemaker :D :D

Cinnamon powder was the key!

Now the excitement of having saved the curry clubbed with the discovery of a possible secret of the tastemaker, this was a winner for me :D :D

What I used

1. Coconut oil: ½ cup
2. Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
3. Curry leaves: as many as you want
4. Sliced onion: 1
5. Cardamom: 4 pods
6. Cloves: 4
7. Salt: as per need
8. Diced potatoes and carrots: 1 each - optional
9. 3 tomatoes pureed with ¼ teaspoon salt and garam masala
10. Cinnamon powder: 3 teaspoons
11. Garam masala: 2 teaspoons
12. Pepper powder: 1 teaspoon
13. Chillies (kaanthari): 5 depending on how spicy the curry should be
14. Chicken: 400 grams
15. Coconut milk: ½ cup-1 cup depending on how much gravy needed

How I made it:

I made this in a mud pot coz that was the only free pot that day

1. Heat the oil, splutter the mustard seeds with the curry leaves, cloves and cardamom and saute the onions till soft
2. Required salt goes in along with the carrots, potato and chillies
3. You can skip the carrots and potato. I added it coz there was so less chicken and 3 hungry tummies to feed. So volume was a necessity ;-) So it’s not necessary to add veggies
4. Once the veggies have mingled well, in goes the cinnamon powder, garam masala and pepper powder and cook for 3 minutes
   PS: There was a panic akin to the realization that I married a cinnamon instead of garam masala (UFFF!!!!) and the whole pot smelling like cinnamon buns instead of the tomatoey chicken curry that I had so envisioned – you can completely ignore the panic part coz you already know you are making Maggie chicken
5. Then add the tomato puree and mix everything well with half a cup of water
6. When the contents start to boil, add in the chicken pieces, coconut milk and cook with the pot covered for about 40 minutes till the chicken is well-cooked

This really tasted like Maggi and like Maggi noodles, the smells fades after a while. Then it becomes really spicy. It tasted very good with rice and am sure it would be wonderful with just about anything that any chicken curry is a combo with :D :D