Kerala special chicken fry!

Remember my very first post on this blog? That's right, my oil free chicken curry. From oil free, we are going to take a giant leap forward to a chicken fry that relies heavily on oil. So for all those health conscious people, who have even the slightest issue with oil and cholesterol and all that jazz, you can stop right here. For the rest of you who beleive in living life to the fullest, go ahead :)

In Kerala, we have "Toddy shops" or as we say in Malayalam, "kallushaap". Aaahhh...the very word makes me drool. My first experience at a toddy shop was because of my dear sister in law and brother in law. I can still remember every dish we had there. Right from the "puttu and duck curry" to the beef. But one thing we did miss there was some real authentic chicken fry. This recipe is from a popular show on a Malayalam channel titled "Asianet". The program is called "Foodpath" and hosted by one of my favorite anchors Raj Kalesh. I made a few minor changes to the recipe, just because of the non availability of the ingredients where I live, but the end result was truly scrumptious. Naveen and Amy, this one's for you guys!

INGREDIENTS

• 500 gms chicken, cut into medium pieces
• 1 medium sized onion, finely sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1 small piece ginger crushed
• 2 1/2 teaspoons red chilly powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
• Juice of 1 small lemon
• 1/4 cup oil
• Salt to taste
• Curry leaves, garnish

METHOD

• Wash the chicken pieces thoroughly. The final wash should be with vinegar and lemon juice to give the chicken a glaze.
• Marinate this with the lemon juice for 10 minutes to soften the pieces.
• Next marinate it with garlic, ginger,chilly powder, pepper powder, turmeric powder and sufficient salt. Keep this aside for at least half hour to 45 minutes.
• Take sufficient oil for deep frying. For me, this was a 1/4 cup, but some people may require more.
• Once the oil is sufficiently hot, lower the flame to medium. Add a few curry leaves.
• Now add chicken pieces. Each side should take approx 5-7 minutes.
• When the chicken is almost cooked, drain out the excess oil and set aside.
• Now, in the same oil, fry the sliced onion till golden brown. Ensure to reduce the oil. I used only about 4 tablespoons.
• Once the onions are brown, add the chicken and cook for another 5 minutes on medium flame.
• Drain out the excessive oil and garnish with curry leaves.

Tada, special "kallushaap" chicken fry is ready! Don't you want to see how it looks like?

I've garnished this with a few onion and curry leaves...

So, what do you think? The best way to know if your chicken's cooked sufficiently, is when it starts falling of the bone...but then again, you probably know that..:).

Do try this out and tell me how it turned out!