Kadai Chicken Dry: Indian Recipe

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Any standard Indian restaurant menu will feature a Kadai chicken. Being one of the most famous Indian chicken recipes it has many variations. We are mainly talking about the dry chicken recipe here, not the curry that has lots of gravy. The word 'kadai' in Kadai chicken refers to a special Indian deep pan. This Indian chicken recipe gets its name from this utensil because unlike many other meat dishes it is cooked in the kadai instead of a pressure cooker. Being cooked in the pan, it is usually a dry chicken recipe.

The recipe for Kadai chicken mentioned here is a basic one. You can always add your special touches to this simple Indian chicken recipe. Being iconic it is constantly subject to change.

Ingredients For Kadai Chicken:

1. Chicken (with bones) 500 grams
2. Dry Red Chillies 4-6
3. Green chillies 4 (cut into halves)
4. Onion 1 (chopped)
5. Garlic 5 cloves (minced)
6. Ginger 1 tablespoon (minced)
7. Tomato 1 (chopped finely)
8. Capsicum or green bell pepper 1 (sliced)
9. Red chilli powder 1 tablespoon
10. Coriander powder 1 tablespoon
11. Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
12. Garam masala (pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and star anise)
13. Coriander leaves (chopped) half cup
14. Oil 3 tablespoons
15. Salt as per taste

Procedure For Kadai Chicken:

• Marinate chicken with ginger garlic paste and salt for at least an hour. Meanwhile fry the dry red chillies in a pan, cool it and grind it in a mixer grinder.
• Heat oil in a kadai or deep metal pan. When it crinkles temper with the cumin seeds. Saute the onions in the oil for 3-4 minutes until they are golden brown.
• Put the chicken marinated in ginger garlic paste into the pan now and cook for 3-4 minutes before adding the tomatoes and dry red chilli paste.
• Sprinkle salt on the tomatoes so that they cook faster and finally add the green chillies and capsicum.
• Stir and cook for 4-5 minutes before adding the spices. You need to prolong every step of cooking this dish so that the chicken cooks well in the pan itself without pressure cooking.
• Add red chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala to the chicken, stir well and cover.
• Cook the chicken with the spices for 5-7 minutes; when you see the oil float over, add just half a cup of water.
• Cover and cook for another 8-10 minutes on low flame. Just before removing from flame add the coriander leaves for aroma.
• You can increase the flame in the end to concentrate the gravy.