Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Indian style deep fried Chicken .

This is an authentic recipe for deep fried chicken. Long before the chicken 65 and kebabs starts showing up, this old version has been decorating the festive platters in India. There is an interesting story behind it also.
I heard this from my mom's aunt, my grandma who lived in Tuticorin, TN, India. She was an out spoken lady , blessed with great hospitality too. No one would return hungry / sad from her house and that was her motto also.
While preparing this fry, she told us how the women in lesser fortunate families prepared this fry. It occupied my mind and always wonder how they sustained a healthy relationship with such a big family. Lot to know:)
Coming to the story.....
In those days people lived in joint families or had a lot of kids. So ladies would secure some nice eatables and preserve them for the hubby who comes late after many have finished dinner and gone to bed. (Some 60-70 years back, people would prefer to sleep by sunset... funny.huh!).
While making the Kozhi kulambu , the lady of the house would drop all the chicken pieces in to the kulambu. Later on she would pick up a few pieces and preserve them for her hubby . Even though the elders knew it, they would pretend as they didn't watch them:) Good in-laws and lucky DIL ! As soon as the man arrived / takes bath , she would brush the cooked chicken pieces with the masalas and deep fry them to win over her his love. The man would have dinner in the vast kitchen itself and would leave a share for the wife .
You may ask about the others in the family , but the story ends here depicting the poverty and joint family culture at that time.
What a romantic citation . Right. .
Though these kind of stories may seem funny , we can understand the cravings of common people when hotels and restaurants were rare.
Here goes the recipe...



Ingredients:
Chicken drumstick - 4
Lemon juice / vinegar / curd - 2 tbsp
Red chilly powder - 2 tsp
coriander powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
chilly garlic paste - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
oil - 1 cup

Method:

Wash and clean the chicken drumsticks with some Turmeric powder.
Cut a few small slits on it or prick it with fork.
Bring 2 cups of water to boil. Add the chicken along with ginger garlic paste, Turmeric powder, salt and cook till the meat becomes tender.
Filter and reserve the soup for any other purpose or discard.
In a large mixing bowl add all the other ingredients except oil and mix well.
After the chicken pieces get cooled, add it to the masala prepared.
Heat oil in a wok.
After it reaches the smoking point, reduce flame and carefully slip the chicken pieces one or two at a time.
Fry till the outer layer turns red.
Then take it out using a slotted spatula and drain oil on paper towels.
Indian style deep fried chicken drumsticks is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve as side dish with any rice + non veg kulambu / rice + sambar / or as starter with Indian breads.

Short cut:

We can just drop the cleaned drumsticks while making a chicken curry and take them out after 10 minutes. Then let it cool , mix with the masala in the bowl and deep fry. In this way we can reduce the wastage of soup and minimise the effort to make a ginger garlic paste separately.

22 comments:

FH said...

Great story to read. My son loves to eat Drumsticks like these, will make it for him. Thanks girl! :)

Malar Gandhi said...

That is a touchy story...sounds like still will happen in the deep villages. Recipe and picture looks great.

Vrinda said...

Thank You so much for the lovely comment.My first visit here too.Chicken looks so crispy ,thats my son's fav..will keep visiting

Gita Jaishankar said...

Its romantic citation indeed Viki dear :) Girl you have been tempting a lot with chicken lately, chicken kuzumbu yesterday and now fry! They look so yummy!

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

When I see chicken cooked by you oh god it simply rouses me he he... I mean I am all into your dish... They have come out really perfect, seri yennakku???

Cilantro said...

I agree with you, good old days.
Love the recipe and the short cut method too. I am going to try the shortcut version.

ARUNA said...

OMG It looks sooooo gorgeous! Pls pass some vicky!

sathya said...

This is such a romantic one...
chicken looks yummy :)

Deepa Hari said...

Thats a great story Viki...love the drumsticks...looks yum.

Nandinis food said...

Chicken is crispy and my kids fav....The romantic story is like reading a novel.The picture makes me to grab all the pieces.

saffronapron.blogspot.com said...

Oh my my! That fried chicken looks awesome.

Varsha Vipins said...

oh..my my..torture to tummy..am so craving for this after all those veg treats for long 3 days..:(

Lavanya said...

great story..so touching!!
Drumsticks looks yummy..nice one vicky:)

Unknown said...

Was thrilled to read the word Tuticorin as i hail from that lovely town. Nice story n chicken is droolworthy!

Priya Suresh said...

Tats a lovely story...lov this deepfried chicken, feel like having it rite now!

Anu said...

Oops story is here and i posted the comment in previous post lol :D

Anyways nice one :)

Priya Sriram said...

Wow.. chicken looks so lovely and traditional Viki! Can I grab one now? :D

Chutneytales said...

Yummy drumsticks!
Im drooling here :)

Suparna said...

That was a nice read viki. Easy easy recipe for chicken drumstick .. any day game for the Indian style :) the pics are very tempting..thanks for the recipe!
Enjoy ur weekend!
TC

lissie said...

Hi Vicky, first time here...
Enjoyed the story... those drumsticks are so yummy!

Cham said...

Acha ...cho, u make me drool Vicky, absolutely delicous!

Subhie Arun said...

grt writes to read....recipes n pics look grt...thx for sharing...ur temting me alot wth chicken recips nowdays..heheh

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