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Chicken pieces cooked and stir-fried with pepper and spices. It is a perfect preparation to serve to your guests along with rice or chapati (Indian bread). Never replace whole black pepper with pepper powder in this recipe. It is an easy recipe for Kerala pepper chicken fry preparation.
Kerala Style Pepper Chicken (Nadan Kurumulaku Kozhi)
For more Kerala chicken recipes, check out
Chicken tomato roast
Chicken Curry
Chicken Curry with grinded coconut
Chicken curry with coconut milk
Chicken Stew
Chicken cutlet
Chicken fry
Chicken biriyani
Ingredients
Marination
- 1 Kilogram chicken
- 1 ½ Teaspoons pepper powder
- ½ Teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 ½ Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
Masala
- 4 Onions (medium)
- 1 ½ Tablespoons ginger , crushed
- 1 ½ Tablespoons garlic , crushed
- 3 green chilli , slit lengthwise
- 2 ½ Tablespoons black pepper Whole
- 1 ½ Teaspoons garam masala
- 1 ½ Teaspoon fennel powder ( Perinjeerakam powder)
- 2 sprig curry leaves
- 3 tbsps coconut oil
- 1 cup Small Thin square size coconut slices (thengakothu, optional)
- 2 teaspoon vinegar (optional)
- salt
Instructions
- Marinate the cleaned chicken pieces with salt, pepper powder, turmeric powder and lemon juice. Keep it aside for 30 minutes.
- Crush the whole black pepper and keep it aside. Adjust black pepper according to your spice tolerance level.
- Thinly slice onions and green chilly. Grind ginger and garlic into a fine paste. Thinly slice coconut into square bite-size pieces. Check the notes for details on coconut bite-sized pieces.
- Heat 2 tsps oil in a pan and fry coconut pieces until it becomes golden brown color. Keep it aside.
- In a kadai/pan, heat the oil. When hot enough, add onions and curry leaves and saute well. Adding salt, helps the onion to get cooked fast.
- When the onions are brown, add the ginger, garlic and green chilli. Saute well till the aromatics release their flavor.
- Add garam masala, fennel powder and crushed black pepper. Saute well.
- Add marinated chicken pieces and stir around till the chicken pieces are well coated with the masalas. Don't add water.
- Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
- Now open the lid and cook until the water evaporates. Add fried coconut bite-size pieces.
- Add 2 - 3 tsps oil and saute it until it gets roasted/fried well. If you like extra sourness, add vinegar. I like to add 2-3 teaspoon of vinegar at the end for sourness. It's optional. Add it, only if you want it more sour. Best served with rice 🙂
Video
Kerala Style Pepper Chicken (Nadan Kurumulaku Kozhi)
Notes
You can use either fresh coconut square bite-sized pieces or frozen ones. Don't go for dried coconut. I have tried using both fresh and frozen ones. Thighs and mixed chicken curry cut pieces will work out for this. I don’t prefer boneless breast piece. It doesn’t have much fat on it. Boneless thigh piece is fine. Just cut it into 2-inch pieces and use it. This is a traditional Kerala style chicken in spicy brown gravy preparation. I have tried to keep the recipe simple by using simple ingredients, which are most of the time readily available in our kitchens and the method to this flavorful delicacy is very intuitive and easy to follow.Tastes best when prepared with chicken with bone. Though quite a few spices are used in this gravy, peppercorn is the magic ingredient here which adds a punch to the recipe. But strongly recommend you not to skip any of the ingredients listed.
Nutrition
Calories: 379kcalCarbohydrates: 15gProtein: 17gFat: 28gSaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 60mgSodium: 528mgPotassium: 398mgFiber: 5gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 150IUVitamin C: 25mgCalcium: 55mgIron: 1.8mg
Thanks for the recipe! This turned out very well :)
The snap itself is mouthwatering.... Have to buy chicken tomorrow ;-)
Let me know how it comes out for you :)
its a good recipe, but you have not mentioned the proportion of onions to chicken, lime used for marination and pepper used in the recipe...if you could tell that will be helpful for everyone who wants to try it...Thanks Jane
Hey Swati, I think you missed the ingredients list. All measurements are mentioned there..
Oh My bad then! Sorry its a gr8 recipe, I tried it...n it turned out good. thanks again
Really nice recipe! I'm a beginner in cooking but this recipe turned really great!! I love Kerala cuisine and this was exactly what I was looking to eat after a tired day of work. Thanks!
Thanks for ur super recipe........
Should we fry the onions in coconut oil? Can it be replaced?
Hey Zoyaneeb, You don't have to fry onions. Just saute it until they are soft and turn brown in color..
Tried this, came out well. Thanks a lot Jane :)
Jane its looks great:)