Pepper Chicken

I learnt to cook chicken from my husband who taught me how to marinate chicken. His speciality in cooking is by using pressure cooker and his theory of cooking is "put all vegetables or non-veg in the cooker along with the masalas and let it cook for 3 whistles" . He is an expert in pressure cooker cooking. On the other side, I am always running away from pressure cooker which has whistles. It just scares the life out of me to hear the sound of the whistle and also because of all the reasons associated with the pressure cooker bursting because of the pressure. Anyways, I have somehow managed to overcome that fear when I want to cook my husband's favorite chicken curry, "Pepper Chicken". (Its a bit spicy though).

Ingredients:
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Chicken thighs or breasts

For marination:

1. *Soy sauce or curd or lemon extract: enough to completly coat the chicken pieces(*If you are using Soy sauce, accordingly reduce the amount of salt being added)

2. Crushed Pepper or powder: 2 tablespoons

3. Chilli Powder: 2 teaspoons

4. Coriander powder: 2 teaspoons

5. Turmeric powder: 1/4 teaspoon

6. Cinnamon powder (optional): a pinch

7. Wheat or Maida or Rice Flour: for making a thick gravy

8. Salt

For sauting with chicken:

1. Onion: 2 nos
2. Tomato: 2 nos
3. Grated ginger or paste: 2 teaspoons
4. Crushed garlic or paste: 3 teaspoons
5. Capscicum: 2 nos
6. Peanuts or Cashew (optional): a few
6. Coriander leaves for garnishing
7. Curry leaves: a few
8. Pepper powder: 1 teaspoon
9. Chilli powder: 1 teaspoon
10. Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon
11. Oil
12. Salt

Method:
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Clean the chicken pieces properly. Its a nice practice to clean it by soaking them in a mixture of water and turmeric. Clean all the cutleries used to handle chicken pieces before and after using them to prevent any contamination by poisenous bacteria.

1. With the help of a knife, make small slits in the chicken pieces before cutting them. This
helps the process of marination.
2. Cut the chicken pieces to bite size
3. Marinate chicken for one hour with the ingredients in the marinate section above
4. Meanwhile prepare the ingredients to be sauted by chopping the vegetables and arranging
the rest of the items.
5. Take a skillet or similar vessel and add 3 tablespoons of oil. Add ginger, garlic, and onions
and saute them until onions turn golden brown. Then add the rest of the sauting ingredients
except for pepper powder and add 2 cups of water and turn the heat to high and close the
vessel with the lid and wait until the water starts boiling.
6. At this point, add the marinated chicken pieces, along with the marinate in the marinating
vessel. Add water to cover the chicken pieces and stir to combine the
ingredients evenly. Close the vessel and wait until the ingredients start simmering.
7. Add the pepper powder when the ingredients start simmering and reduce flame to medium.
Stir uniformly. Cook until chicken pieces becomes tender and the insides of the chicken are
no longer pink.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve along with rice or chappathi.