Kerala chicken curry recipe with coconut milk (Nadan chicken curry)
Chicken curry with semi thick gravy well flavored with spices and coconut milk. It’s an easy and delicious nadan kozhi curry recipe. This recipe is our house favorite one and an evolved recipe over the time. It goes well with pathiri, any sort of rice variants ( ghee rice, pulao), chapati, parotta/paratha, appam or any other Indian breads.
Servings: 6 serving
Calories: 266kcal
Ingredients
- 1 kilogram chicken
Marination
- 2 teaspoon chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
Masala Gravy
- 4 number onion (medium size)
- 4 number green chilli
- 1.5 tablespoon ginger paste
- 1.5 tablespoon garlic paste
- 1.5 tablespoon chilli powder
- 2 tablespoon coriander powder
- 2 teaspoon fennel powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 3 numbers tomato (medium size)
- 3 sprig curry leaves
- ¾ cup Thick coconut milk
- coriander leaves
- salt
- coconut oil / vegetable oil
Instructions
- Clean the chicken pieces. Marinate it with the ingredients listed under marination. Keep it aside for 30 minutes.
- Thinly slice onions and green chilly. In a kadai, heat the oil. When the oil is hot, add the sliced onions, green chillies, curry leaves, and salt. Adding salt helps the onion cook faster.
- Grind ginger and garlic into a fine paste. When the onions are lightly brown, add the ginger, garlic paste. Sauté well till the aromatics release their flavor.
- Once sautéed well, add chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala, fennel powder and sauté. Add oil as needed to fry the masalas. I use homemade garam masala. When you use store-bought one, based on the brand you use, you may have to increase garam masala measurement to 1.5 teaspoon or 2 tsp.
- Add chopped tomatoes and mix it well in the gravy. Cover and cook until tomatoes are cooked. It might take around 5 to 8 minutes. Adjust salt in the gravy.
- Add marinated chicken pieces to the gravy.
- Mix it well. Cover and cook in low to medium flame until water releases from the chicken. Then increase the flame to medium.
- This is probably the key step in the recipe. Once chicken pieces are cooked, allow water to dry up. Don't make it a complete dry.
- Then add chopped coriander leaves and thick coconut milk. Refer notes on how to prepare coconut milk.
- Adjust the salt and allow it to boil.
- Adjust to the final gravy consistency, garnish with coriander leaves, and serve.
Notes
- How to Make Coconut Milk at Home
Grind 3 cups of grated coconut with ¾ cup of lukewarm water. This gives about ¾ cup of thick coconut milk. Using lukewarm water helps extract the milk more effectively. Always add thick milk at the final stage to avoid splitting. - Quick Curry Using Leftover Chicken Roast
You can prepare this curry quickly using leftover chicken roast. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add red chili powder, coriander powder, garam masala, and fennel powder as needed. Roast the spices, then add 1 cup of shredded leftover chicken. Once it heats through, pour in coconut milk and simmer. Adjust the spices and milk based on the amount of chicken and how thick you want the gravy. - Prevent Coconut Milk from Splitting
Do not let the curry boil after adding thick coconut milk. Always simmer gently to keep the texture smooth and creamy. - Optional Flavor Tip
Though not traditional, adding a small amount of ghee along with coconut oil gives a deeper flavor to the curry.
Nutrition
Serving: 336g | Calories: 266kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 60mg | Sodium: 691mg | Potassium: 340mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 946IU | Vitamin C: 24mg | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 2mg