Chicken with Spicy Onions

This is another recipe out of India's 500 Best Recipes. It was good. I'm going to have to start using these cookbooks more, since I'm finding that the people who write them really know a whole lot more about food preparation that I, an occasional cooking blogger, do (fancy that).

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs	boneless skinless chicken (approx)
2 tsp	ground turmeric
0.25 tsp	chili powder
2	small onions
1 bunch	fresh cilantro
1 inch	fresh ginger (approx)
1	chili pepper
1 tsp	cumin seeds
1/6 cup	plain yogurt
1/6 cup	heavy cream
0.25 tsp	corn starch
	oil
	salt

Procedure:

Mix turmeric, chili powder, and salt to taste (I used about 1 tsp, which worked fine). Cut the chicken into small chunks (perhaps 1-inch squares or so) and rub with this. Fry until the outside of the chicken is sealed. Don't worry about cooking it through; you'll cook it more later. Set the chicken aside, covering it to keep it warm.



Chop the cilantro coarsely. Mince the ginger an dice the onions. Mix those three ingredients together. Mince the chili peppers. Fry about 3/4 of the cilantro mixture with the cumin and peppers for a few minutes, until the onions soften.



Return the chicken to the pan with the mixture. Cover and cook gently for about 15 minutes.



Turn off the heat. As the pan cools down a bit, mix the yogurt, cream, and corn starch. Fold those in. Bring the pan back to the heat and cook until the chicken is tender.



Just before serving, add the rest of the onions, cilantro, and ginger. Serve over rice. Makes 4 servings.



This recipe makes a very tasty meal that feels very Indian to me, a person who has never been to India. It's probably the turmeric and cilantro combination. I'm starting to really appreciate those spices together. The ginger helps too.

Where I failed in this recipe was the chili peppers. I ended up with peppers that were quite mild. If you see the size of the pepper in the picture you probably can guess this... the larger a pepper, the less scared you need be of it. This was fine since the dish is well seasoned by itself. However, a bit of spice would have added to it. I anticipate making this again.