Naattu kozhi kuzhambu

Naattu kozhi kuzhambu / Country chicken gravy is a gravy made with country chicken / naattu kozhi. I came to know that fresh country chicken is available in one of the Indian stores here in Mississauga, Canada. So I thought of giving it a try. This is the first time i have tried naattu kozhi kuzhambu, so i was bit worried about the result but it came out really well. It goes well with white rice, pulao, idly and dosai, even with chappathi.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg or 1 lb – Country chicken / Naattu kozhi
• 1 no – Onion (chopped finely)
• 1 no – Tomato (chopped finely)
• 1 tsp – Ginger garlic paste
• 1/4 tsp – Turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp – Coriander powder
• Salt as needed

For marinating chicken:

• Chicken as mentioned above
• 1/4 tsp – Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp – Ginger garlic paste
• 1 tbsp – Red chilli powder / Chicken masala powder
• 2 tbsp – Lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp – Salt

For grinding No1: Fry in oil and grind

• 1 tsp – Sesame oil
• 5 or 6 nos – Sambar onion / Chinna vengayam
• 1 or 2 nos – Green chilies
• 1/4 tsp – Peppercorns
• 1/4 tsp – Cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp – Fennel seeds
• Few curry leaves

For grinding No 2:

• 3 tbsp – Coconut grated
• 3 nos – Cashew nuts

Seasonings:

• 2 tbsp – Sesame oil
• 1 no – Cinnamon stick
• 2 no – Clove
• 1 no – Cardamom

Preparation method:

How to cook country chicken:

1. Cut chicken into big pieces. Wash them thoroughly with lemon juice and turmeric powder 3 or 4 times.
2. Take a mixing bowl, add washed chicken along with items given for marinating and mix well. Set aside for at least 1 1/2 hours.
3. Pressure cook marinated chicken in enough water along with bay leaf, cinnamon, clove(each one) for upto 7 or 8 whistles or until soft. Because country chicken takes longer time to cook than our regular broiler chicken.
4. Now chicken is ready. Do not throw away the water in which chicken is cooked. Keep it for later use.

Making of naattu kozhi kuzhambu:

1. Heat oil in a pan, fry and grind all the items given in the list for grinding (No:1) to a smooth paste. Set aside.
2. Grind coconut grated and cashew nuts in a mixer grinder to a smooth paste. Set aside.
3. Heat sesame oil in a pan, season with items given for seasoning. Add onion and ginger garlic paste and saute until translucent. Add little salt at this stage and then add chopped tomato, saute until mushy.
4. Now add cooked chicken pieces and saute for few seconds. Then add ground onion paste and saute for 2 or 3 mins until well coated on chicken.
5. Add turmeric powder and coriander powder along with required salt, saute until raw smell goes. Now add 3 cups of water (in which chicken is cooked), cover with lid and cook for 10 to 15 mins.
6. Finally add ground coconut paste and cook for another 5 to 10 mins. Naattu kozhi kuzhambu is ready and serve hot with white rice, idly and dosai, even with chappathi.

Notes:

• If you are using regular chicken then skip the pressure cooking process of chicken. You can directly add chicken after tomato is cooked.
• Do not throw the water in which chicken is cooked because it has lot of nutrition in it. My mom used to make soup out of this water. I always use this chicken water in cooking kuzhambu instead of normal water.
• Always wash chicken in lemon juice once or twice in order to avoid the stinky smell from chicken (kavuchi smell).

Cheerful Moments

• I got One Lovely blogger award from my blogger friends Priya Ranjit and WeR SAHM. Thank you both for your award.
• Priya Ranjit is one of my best blogger friends. She constantly appreciate my work/cooking. Thank you very much Priya for all your encouraging comments. She got a lovely blog http://cooklikepriya.blogspot.com/ with hundreds of innovative recipes with excellent photographs.
• WeR SAHM from Ezcookbook also shared the same award to me. They are 3 friends (Gayathri, Ishita and Subhashini) jointly sharing their wonderful regional recipes at http://www.ezcookbook.net/. They have well organized regional recipes from India. Thank you  for this lovely award. Keep rocking.