CHICKEN THORAN or KOZHI THORAN

CHICKEN THORAN or KOZHI THORAN: The first time I had this dish was the last time we went for vacation to India. I had never heard of it before. In fact my at my husband’s place everyone is a big fan of this dish. He even showed me a whole street in Trivandrum where they would have stalls that sell exclusively chicken and this being the most important one. This happens mostly on Sundays.

This was the second time I am making it. It tastes good. It is quite a different take as compared to the other normal chicken recipes.  It is called chicken thoran, as it looks like any other normal vegetable thoran, with lots of scraped coconut. Scraped coconut, curry leaves and coconut oil are the prime ingredients apart from chicken which gives it the taste and aroma. This is a dry side dish and goes perfectly well with rice.

INGREDIENTS

Chicken – 500gm

Onions – 5

Chilli powder – ½ tablespoon

Scraped coconut – 1 ½ cup

Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon

Garam masala powder – 1 tablespoon

Curry leaves – 2 to 3 sprigs

Mustard seeds – 1 tablespoon

Fennel seeds – ½ tablespoon

Ginger – ½ “piece

Coconut oil – 3 tablespoon

Salt to taste

METHOD:

Clean and cut the chicken into small size cubes. Usually the chicken used is with bone, even though you may use boneless too. Chop 3 onions and slice the other two. Keep them separate. Chop the ginger.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and splutter the mustard seeds. Add fennel seeds and brown them. Add chopped onions and sweat them well. Add ginger and sauté. 

Just when the onions start turning brown, add chicken along with the sliced onions. Add salt, cover with a lid and cook.

 In the meantime, combine the scraped coconut, curry leaves, half turmeric powder and chilli powder and mix well. Either mix it with hand well or give a quick grind. Do not make into a paste. If you are mixing with hand, ensure you give rub the mixture well. This ensures that the flavour gets enhanced.

When the chicken is almost done, add the remaining turmeric powder and garam masala to the chicken and cook till done. Add the scraped coconut mixture and mix well. Saute till the dish becomes nice and dry. Do not overcook as the chicken might become dry.

NB: Do not add water at all to the dish. Shallots enhance the taste of the dish. So you may replace two onions with around 10 shallots.