Hanaakuri Kukulhu

A special chicken curry for special days. This one can be enjoyed with Maldivian flatbread roshi. But we think it’s so much better with a Maldivian traditional rice like dhirifiyaa baiy (cumin & onion rice) or kaaliyaa birinjee.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 3 tablespoons fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 8 cardamom pods
• 1 inch piece of cinnamon
• 6 dried chillies
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 tsp. grated or crushed ginger
• 1 tsp. grated or crushed garlic
• 1 kg curry cut chicken
• ½ lime
• ½ tsp. salt (or to taste)
• 1 large onion
• 1 tbsp. oil
• 15 curry leaves
• 6 inches pandan leaf
• ¼ scotch bonnet pepper (or to taste)
• ¼ cup water
• ½ cup coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Heat a pan and add the coriander, fennel, peppercorns, seeds from the cardamom pods, cinnamon and dried chillies.
2. Toast the mixture on low to medium heat until the coriander seeds make a popping sound and you can smell the spices. You’ll have to stir at regular intervals so that the spices don’t burn.
3. Add the cumin, cook while stirring the mixure for around half a minute and remove the pan from heat.
4. Let the spices cool down. Then transfer to an electric grinder and grind to a fine powder.
5. Grate the ginger and garlic. Or you can crush them well using the back of a spoon.
6. Remove the chicken skin and add the chicken pieces to a large bowl. Add half of your ginger and garlic, lime juice, salt and 3 teaspoons of your ground spice mixture (we’ll be using the rest later). Mix everything together very well. Then cover the top and leave to marinate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. You can let it marinate for around 30 minutes if you’d like too.
7. Slice the onion thinly.
8. Heat up your oil in a large pot and add the sliced onions, curry leaves, pandan leaf and scotch bonnet pepper. Stir fry until the onions soften and you can see a hint of brown on them.
9. Add the remaining ginger and garlic and stir fry for around half a minute or until you can smell them.
10. Add the marinated chicken along with the water. Mix, put the lid on, bring it to a simmer and let it cook for 20 minutes.
11. Add the rest of you ground spice mix along with the coconut milk. Mix to combine and let it simmer for another 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
12. Have a taste and add more salt if you need to. We added an extra half teaspoon at this step. And that’s it.