Sunday, May 20, 2007

Elizabeth's Chicken Varuval (Dry Chicken)




Don't you feel for some comfort food on Sunday afternoons? I know I do its just something about Sunday when you feel like it would be sinful to eat anything from the can or anything simply prepared. When I was a little gal, Sunday was when we would have chicken or mutton or pork although in my aunty ally's place it was fixed..chicken was for Sundays and no one dared to mess with that schedule!!


So I thought today is good day for Elizabeth Fernandez' Chicken Varuval...one day over roti canai I cornered Aunty into teacing me the ropes for this dry dark brown chicken bits that are great on a hot day with a glass of beer too.

Ingredients:
-1 Chicken cut into very small pieces, washed and drained thoroughy - no water left.
-Big yellow onions about 3-4 sliced
-Big Jintan (Fennel) (2 tablespoons)
-Garlic (5-6 pips to grind with ginger)
-Ginger (a few thumb size piece, about 4 thumb sizes, add garlic, some water and blend well)
-Lots of good curry leaves
-Ghee or oil

Spices :
Cinnamon - about 3-4 broken into half
Cloves - about 6-7 pieces
Star anise - about 4-5, break it a bit.
Cardamon - about 3-4, smash it a bit
Depending on how hot you want the chicken, you will need about 4-6 table spoons of Plain Chilli Powder.
1/2 teaspoon of yellow powder
1 tbsp teaspoon of ground cumin powder

Method:

In a kuali, pour in ghee or oil (you will need lots of ghee or oil, bec this dish does not use any water so in order to ensure the meat doesn't urn you will be adding ghee and oil throughout the cooking process).
Once Oil/ghee is hot, put in the spices of cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cardamon and give it a quick stir, then quickly add the sliced onions, ground ginger/garlic and a good amount of curry leaves (try to break the curry leaves before putting it in). Nicely stir all this well and fry it till it smells aromatic, then add the jintan(fennel) and stir once again. Give less than 5 mins before you add in the chicken (make sure there is no water from the chicken and that the pieces are cut very small bec it will be hard to cook the meat if the pieces are big as there is no water).

Stir the chicken well and add how much of chilli powder you want with the cumin powder and yellow powder. From this point you will need to keep stirring and leave it to rest for 3-4 mins before stirring again and adding ghee or oil. Add salt after 10 mins and cook it this way until the chicken turns very dark brown (not till black though.)

Once it has reached the colour you like, taste it, if it is lacking taste as in salt, i would add some lime (big lime) juice or a dash of vinegar or some people give it a dash of thick dark soy sauce-very little though !!

Just before serving, add some more sliced onion (preferrably the yellow onion), curry leaves, big jintan, some chopped dry chilli, fresh green chillies (sliced in half) and more spices (if the dish is not spicy enough) and stir well and serve.


Note : You will have a very browned messy pot:-) Soak it over night with some dish soap and water. Don't use any expensive frying pan/pot for this dish.
It is a very dry dish so if having with rice, you may want to make "rasam" - which i did not dare make:-) I made sothi and 2 veggies. Enjoy.

Verdict :
We had a very satisfying lunch indeed.

P/S : Madam will be happy to note that this postings pictures were taken with a proper camera:-) So no more using dear hubby's handphone to post pictures here.
I do however need to figure out how to re-set the date function...its still stuck in 2004!!

20 comments:

Artimus Piles said...

yum yum yum. ok, it's not babi but now we're talking lah. this is food!!!

milee said...

Babi on the way I promise. These kind of meals are weekend meals at our place. Don't expect this on weekdays!

Minah Drama said...

Well done Milee esp the fact that you finally went out and bought batteries for the cam. Sothy recipe pls

milee said...

Didnt go out actually just rummaged through the drawers and found one battery:-)
Sothy recipe on the way.

Sophia said...

M.S says..
..Milee, mouth is watering already..It looks so damn good la. Thank you madam, I was just about to ask her for sothy recipe as well...

Whats next?

milee said...

M.S sothy recipe is in the mail:)
Whats next ahh...I haven't the faintest clue!! No leftovers except for the veggie...maybe if I have the time chicken curry with chappati...fingers crossed.

Anonymous said...

Milee....how come all these "finger licking" dishes were NOT presented on OUR table huh??? Anyway happy cooking...Excellent choices !!!

milee said...

If I can figure out who Mamamia is I may be able to answer the question posed:-) Is that you mum?

Anonymous said...

Milee,milee,milee...Do you remember..."mama, I just killed a man?"..Its your mama lah...very proud of your culinary skills.

milee said...

Wow mum thank you for gracing my blog with your presence:-) Shhhh mum dun spill the beans on my misdoings:-)My culinary skills are from you MOTHER.

Anonymous said...

even I guessed who mamamia was. what la you milee.tsk tsk tsk

Anonymous said...

Excellent recipe which i tried out last nite. It turned out great. I dare say it's 'Siri' approved.
If only i had sothy to accompany it. hmmph!

milee said...

hahah I like the "Siri" approval:-)) So happy you guys enjoyed it with your added twist and all.

Anonymous said...

Milee, da chic looks soo good .... but but before I try cooking it, I need a demo & tasting session ...... when huh :o)

milee said...

Request for demo & tasting session can only come from one person, my dear "plaster" fren:-) Finally dropped in ahh !

elaine said...

Hey milee,
Great website to share your passion!! I m definitely gonna try this varaval..hhmmmm....
Still havent gotten over your yummy vindaloo yet hehehe....
Keep it up!!!!

Unknown said...

So I too tried the chicken varuval,must say it turned out awsome only snag its a test on my patience.You know how I hate being in the kitchen for too long,pity Meriam did'nt get to try it.Tks Millee.

milee said...

Elaine - thanks for dropping by. You may just see the vindaloo posting here very soon:-)

milee said...

Delia...I knew that standing around in the kitchen for too long wasn't going to please you at all !! Al glad though that you tried it and liked it. Sophia will have to chew on the balance. Did you take a pic?

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