Lazy Saturday South Indian Chicken

On a lazy Saturday, I decided to try cooking something different from the usual chicken. I usually cook chicken using a few standard recipe's - Chinese (soy, oyster sauces), Thai (pre-canned paste), Indian (Tikka masala). A co-worker who is South Indian gave me some chicken to try last week - it was delicious! When I asked him for the recipe - he didn't quite have one. Completely understandable - I often concoct stuff and don't follow any recipe. Searched Google for 'South Indian Chicken' and found a recipe that looked decent on epicurous.com - I made some adjustments and gave it a try.

Left is a picture of the chicken while it was still being cooked. The spice mixture used in this dish was excellent with a flavour profile quite different from the usual north Indian Garam Masala flavour.

The final product turned out to be very flavourful BUT quite mild - a bit on the sweet side due to the onions. Note to self - add quite a bit more Cayenne pepper/chili powder and a few little chilli's next time. Below is the recipie I followed (adjusted from the epicurous.com recipe)

Spice Powder: (makes 3 tbsp)
Roast in a thick bottom pan the following - don't let burn. Soon as you smell stuff and the coriander seeds turn brown take it off the heat.
1tbsp Coriander seeds
1tbsp fennel seeds (very nice flavour)
1 teasp cumin seeds
6 cloves (should have added more as dish didn't have enough heat)
2 cardamon pods (forgot these completely - doesn't seem to have mattered)
1/2 teasp ground cinamon
1/2 teasp peppercorns (should have added more)
2 teasp turmeric (recipe called for 1/2 tbsp..)
1 teasp chili powder

Coconut milk
I decided that the canned one is wayyy too creamy so using the epicurious.com recipe I made the milk - turned out to be pretty good.
1 cup shredded frozen wet coconut - added to this 1 1/2 cup of boiling water. Let it sit for a while then put in a blender and let it sit for 1 hr and then strained it.

Curry
1 1/2 clove garlic
1 inch ginger
1 Jalapeno (shouldn't have deseeded)
take above three make a paste (or mix together in a chopper/food processor)
2 medium white onions finely chopped
3 cilantro stems with leaves finely chopped
1/2 breast chicken - cut into cubes
1 chicken thigh - cut into cubes
Marinate chicken in 1/2 tbsp of spice powder, oil, salt for 1 hr.
1 teasp black mustard seeds
2 tbsp above spice powder
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teasp tamarind paste concentrate dissolved in 1 teasp water
Salt to taste

(all done on medium heat)
Hit a bit of oil (coat the pan) - once heated brown the onions well. Once onions are browned put them to the side of pan so they don't get heat. Heat some more oil and add black mustard seeds - once these start to pop add the spice powder - let oil change colour and let the aroma fill the air (mix into oil and stir for 15-20 sec). Add ginger/garlic/chili paste - saute for 15 sec. Add chicken and let cook. Add chopped cilantro. At this point I should have added some whole peppercorns... after the chicken was almost cooked I added the tamarind water. Let chicken cook some more (15 min total since adding chicken). I added coconut milk - covered pan and let cook for 5 more min.

Smells AMAZING! Taste good - need to adjust heat by adding more pepper, cloves and chili powder