Coconut chicken

A Chicken dish is a must for us non-vegetarians on weekends. This sunday the husband is away for some work and we the mommy and daughter duo are alone at home. So I got a 200gm of boneless chicken for two of us. First I thought of preparing some grilled chicken but then I realised I have a lot of curry leaves lying in the refrigerator and a packet of dry coconut. So I just cooked this chicken with lots of curry leaves and coconut. Do not know if any dish like this is already exist, but I named this version of mine as coconut wala chicken. Its a semi-dry preparation which we enjoyed very much with our regular plain rice, yellow dal, brinjal fry and salad. Some times things just turn out so well even when you experiment it for the first time and specially when my little one says "mamma its yummy" then I surely know that this was worth preparing in every way.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken : 200 gms washed and cut into medium sized cubes
Onion: 1 large sized finely chopped
Garlic & Ginger: 1tbsp crushed
Salt to taste
Black mustard seed: 1tsp
Curry leaves: 10-12 leaves
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder: 1 tsp
Cumin powder: 1tsp
Chicken masala:1 tsp
Slit Green chillies: 1-2
Oil: about 3 tsp
Tomato puree: 1 tbsp. (I used the store bought)
Dry coconut : 4-5 tbsp


Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds and allow them to splutter. Add the chillies, curry leaves.  Add immediately the chopped onions and stir till translucent. Now add the ginger & garlic and saute for few seconds. Add the tomato puree, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, chicken masala and fry until mushy. Now add the chicken pieces and combine properly with all the other ingredients. Cook the chicken for about 7-10 minutes covering with a lid , checking in between. As I have used boneless one so it did not take much of time to get cooked. So just before the chicken gets cooked completely, add the dry coconut and mix well. Cook for another 5-7 minutes with the lid covered, keep checking in between. I did not add water separately as the chicken releases its water and also addition of the tomato puree helps to form the semi-gravy texture. Put the flame off once the chicken is cooked left with little gravy.

If you want a proper gravy/curry of this dish, you can always add water.

Garnish with grated fresh coconut (I did not use as I was out of stock), onion rings and serve hot with rice/roti and enjoy.