Pepper Chicken Masala

It's the peak winter time in Australia and the best way to beat the cold is with a hot n spicy Indian curry recipe. Even though my 'pepper chicken masala' didn't have the distinct peppery taste to generate that heat, but it still was very pleasant to eat with plain paratha's and mixed salad 😋😋

Pepper Chicken Masala

Serves: 4
Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking: 30 mins

Ingredients:

500 gms Chicken thigh pieces
2 medium size Onion (roughly chopped)
2 medium size Tomatoes (roughly chopped)
1 tablespoon Garlic paste
1 tablespoon Ginger paste
1 teaspoon  Red chili powder
2 teaspoon Whole Pepper (add more to make it more spicy)
1/4 teaspoon Turmeric powder
1 teaspoon Coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon Garam masala
1 teaspoon Kuskus(couscous)
6-8 Cashew nuts
2 tablespoon Oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

Direction:

1. Soak cashew nuts in warm water for 5 mins.
2. In a pan, boil kuskus and chopped onion in 1/2 cup of water  for 3-4 minutes.
3. Grind together soaked cashewnuts and onion mix to make a fine paste.
4. Grind chopped tomatoes and pepper to a fine paste.
5. Heat oil in a kadai add ginger-garlic paste and once it is light brown, add red chili powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder.
6. Once the raw smell goes away add chicken pieces and mix well.
7. Add 1/4 cup of water to it. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
8. Once the chicken is cooked well, add cashewnut-onion paste, salt and garam masala powder to it. Mix well and cook on low flame for another 5 minutes.Remove from fire.
9. Heat 1 tbsp oil in another pan and add the tomato paste to it and cook until the oil separates from the pan.
10. Add it to the chicken mix and stir well.
11. Garnish with coriander leaves and pepper powder.

Note: Instead of cooking the tomatoes separately, you can also add this to the chicken mixture and let it cook along with the onion gravy.