Chicken Vindaloo - Chicken.. the Goan way.. muito deliciosa

This is a Goan (in fact, Portugese Indian-ized) style preparation often served in many special occasions and can be made with any kind of meat. Vindaloo is one such dish which is very popular among the Europeans and other Westerners. In this dish we can add potatoes along with chicken, but traditionally vindaloo dishes do not have potatoes. I usually thought that potatoes are a must, but after some research, I found that these potatoes are not a really essential ingredient.

For regular cooking, I will always be making the same type of chicken dishes, but this time I thought of making something different so ended up with this authentic dish. I tasted this once when I went to  a restaurant and liked this preparation a lot. This is a spicy hot and delicious chicken dish. This tastes much better if eaten a day after preparation as the flavours will be well absorbed into the chicken. One thing to notice is that if you maintain the same amount of vinegar, as this gets its excellent flavour with this vinegar.

Ramzan fasting has started and simple dishes like this has started popping up in my mind. If you want, you can adjust the amount of spices according to your taste.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken- 500gms
2. Cumin seeds- 1tsp
3. Coriander seeds- 1tsp
4. Mustard seeds- ½ tsp
5. Pepper corns- 1/2tsp
6. Dry red chillies- 3-4 nos (I added Kashmiri red chillies)
7. Fenugreek seeds- ¼ tsp
8. Cardamom- 3nos
9. Cinnamon sticks- 1
10. Ginger and garlic paste- 1 ½ tbsp
11. Onions (sliced)- 2nos
12. Vinegar- 1tbsp
13. Green chillies (slitted)- 2-3 nos (optional)
14. Salt- as per taste
15. Oil- 2tbsp

Method:

1. Grind cumin seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, peppercorns, dry red chillies,  fenugreek seeds, cardamom and cinnamon to a fine paste by using vinegar.Marinate the chicken with this paste and salt and keep it aside for some time.
2. Heat 1tbsp of oil in a pan, in that add the sliced onions till it turns golden brown in colour. Keep it aside and when it is cooled grind  to a fine paste.
3. Add the onion paste to the chicken and keep it aside for some time.
4. Heat the remaining oil in a pan and add the marinated chicken, slitted green chillies, salt and add little amount of water. Cook this on slow fire until the chicken turns tender and blended with all the marination, stirring occasionally. Serve hot with rice.