Kozhi Vattichathu ~ Malabar Roast Chicken

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I don’t know if I would call my weekend “relaxed”, but in a way, it was. After a long day on Thursday, I just wanted to be at home but the girls were adamant they wanted to go to the book fair which is happening at the Sharjah Expo Center. Very hesitantly, I braved the traffic of an hour to be at the fair and we had a good walk. I had already warned the girls that I wouldn’t be buying anything that day, so it was more of a walking and browsing session! Hehe… Friday was a very normal day, very much at home. Yesterday morning, we again headed to the book fair. This time, the girls had a program to attend so I took Humi along with me for company. We walked around, picked up a few books and spent some good time chatting. For the first time, I didn’t pick up any cookbooks. I didn’t find it worth it actually. Of late, I have been purchasing them online and I find them to be much cheaper than buying them physically from stores. I did pick up a few books for the girls even though I had told them that they would be getting no books till beginning of next year. So much so for self-made promises… I myself couldn’t hold onto it! 😕 Anyway, I am thinking of going there one more time, mostly to burn up some energy and not for books.

Somehow, the voracious reader that once I was is no longer lingering in me. I have a lot of books at home that I had purchased in the last few times of the fair still waiting for my touch. The only flipping I seem to do is of my cookbooks and that too for ideas for cooking and for some inspiration. Otherwise, I have been really backward in my reading. It is clearly affecting my urge to write (or type) as well. Sometimes, I really have a blank canvas and an inkless “pen” in hand when I open to do a blog post! I hope I can soon get back to some reading, maybe a couple of pages a day as I retire to bed. But somehow, that doesn’t seem to be happening as well… I guess, at the moment, all I need to do is to just keep myself relaxed… Hmm…

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Would you believe when I scheduled this post for this month, I got a little heart attack not remembering from where I tried this recipe? It has happened so many times to me, but Alhamdulillah, somehow after a frantic search of all my books and cutouts, I land up finding the source. Most of the time, I save up the recipe I try the same day or the day after so that I don’t end up forgetting. But when I try from cookbooks, I tend to fold up that page and keep to remind myself that I have tried it. However, with so many cookbooks, how am I supposed to trace which book did I refer to? 😀 After this incident, I have promised myself not to be overconfident about my memory. 😉

Kozhi Vattichathu basically means chicken in a dry sauce. You are supposed to cook the dish till the masalas literally coat the chicken and looks dry. However, as you see from the pictures, I didn’t move into that totally dry stage since my family expects some liquid to be in a non-vegetarian dish, irrespective of whether it is supposed to be fried. This recipe is adapted from Tasneem Azeez’s Malayalam book called “Malabar Cookery” which I picked up from the Sharjah book fair last year – by the way, the current edition is till November 11 and if you are in a mood to splurge on some books or simply burn up some calories, then go ahead! It has some really easy recipes and I am hoping to try most of them slowly. The best part of this dish is that the ingredients are straight forward and you can cook this dish till you need it – either the way I have pictured it here or a little further till the masala is all dried up and stuck to the chicken. A dish with simple flavors are always welcome for me, especially with this one really heavy on garlic! Off to the recipe…

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5 from 1 vote

Kozhi Vattichathu ~ Malabar Roast Chicken

Course Chicken

Cuisine Malabar

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken cut into meduim peices
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 3 large onions sliced
• 2 inch pc ginger peeled and grated
• 1 bulb garlic peeled and grated
• 4 green chillies minced
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped mint leaves
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• 3 to matoes chopped
• 1 tsp garam masala powder

Instructions

• Rub the chicken with turmeric, red chilli and salt and set aside.
• Heat oil in a wide saucepan.
• Add the onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies and the green leaves with a pinch of salt and saute till wilted.
• Add in the tomatoes, marinated chicken and garam masala and cook on close lid till done, stirring and tossing occasionally till chicken is cooked.
• If there is still fluid, cook on high flame once the chicken is done to make it dry.
• Serve warm with chapathis or as side for rice.