Chettinad is famous for spicy non-veg items. These pepper gravies of chicken or lamb are specially made during the mass prayer to the ancestors which we call padappu.To serve the big crowd the gravy will be little watery but the taste can’t match the carefully made gravy made at home. In the padappu they use only pepper for hot taste. But for the small quantity we make at home, I feel that little chili powder should be added .I recommend the use of a glass of coconut milk also since the chicken and pepper are hot and especially during summer coconut milk will compensate little bit of heat. This preparation which I have blogged is one of our favorite item in a mess in our town. I personally met the old woman who cooks this in the mess, a member of the family who runs the mess and got the recipe. My elder daughter also loves this gravy and wanted me to blog it today itself so that she can serve it in my grandson Siddarth’s Birthday party tomorrow. He is turning two today.

Ingredients

Chicken -3/4 kg

Big onion chopped -2 cups

Tomato-2

Garlic-10 pods

Ginger garlic paste-1 table spoon

Curry leaves-little

Red chili powder-1 table spoon

Pepper fennel powder- 2 table spoons (keep some powder extra so as to add according to taste)

Coriander powder – 1 table spoon

Coconut milk thick- 1 cup

To season

Cinamon-3 small pieces

Bay leaf-1 small one

Clove-3

Pepper fennel powder

Take 4 table spoons of pepper and two table spoons of fennel seed (perungeerakam).Powder it well and store in a container. Use the required amount.

Procedure

Marinate the chicken pieces with the 1 table spoon chili powder and little salt and marinate for an hour.

Keep the kadai in the stove. In three to four table spoons of oil season the gravy with the items given in ’to season’. Add the garlic pods first. When it turns golden brown, add the ginger garlic paste, chopped onion and sauté well. Then add the tomatoes.Saute well till the tomato pieces are soft. Now add chicken pieces.Saute well till water oozes out from the chicken.Then add the coriander powder and half of the pepper fennel powder and sauté well.Close the kadai checking in between that there is water in the gravy. If there is no water to cook, mix 1 cup of water to ½ cup coconut milk and add. Cook for 15 minutes in low fire .This cooking time absolutely depends on the quality of chicken you use. In  US I have found the chicken getting cooked very fast.But here in India it takes pretty long time to cook in an open kadai. When you feel the chicken is almost cooked add the remaining pepper powder and the salt needed too. Always be careful while adding the pepper powder. Be sure that you don’t make it very spicy. So use your required quantity. Cook for 5 minutes. Now add the remaining ½ cup thick coconut milk and cook for 3 minutes. If you want the gravy to be little watery add 1 or ½ cup water to the coconut milk. Today  as a  whole I used 1 cup milk adding 1 cup water.