Black Pepper Chicken

P recently made this wonderful chicken kali mirch and it was so good that I had to note it down. Here's what he did:

500 grams roughly cubed chicken breast or thigh
4 tablespoons whole black pepper corns
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons ghee
3 cloves
15 dried curry leaves
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1 medium red onion sliced
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
3 cloves of garlic chopped finely
1 cup water

Coarsely grind the pepper corns, turmeric and salt. (It is perfectly all right for some whole pepper corns to remain.) Mix this powder with the chicken and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Heat the ghee in a wok; add the cloves, then the garlic and onion. Saute over a slow fire until the onion is tender and golden brown. Add the tomatoes and saute for about 15 minutes. Add the coriander powder and saute until the oil separates from the paste. Add the water and curry leaves. Once this sauce is boiling, add the chicken and cook covered. Once the chicken is cooked through, serve with basmati rice.

Compared to his usual dishes, this one was relatively quick to put together and is something that we will happily whip up mid-week or serve to friends. It seems like a lot of pepper but the curry leaves seem to cut that (adding an almost a sweet touch) and I just loved the pop of the whole pepper corns between the teeth.