Kerala Chicken Stew

One of the most popular chicken dishes from the southwestern state of Kerala in India. Chicken stew is just perfect as a hearty warm dinner or lunch. This Kerala-style chicken stew recipe has very well-balanced flavors with a creamy texture and is nutrient with the addition of veggies like carrot and beans. Chicken in this stew is just fall-of-the-bone tender and juicy.

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My Kerala style chicken stew recipe

We have become fans of Kerala-style chicken stew since the first time we had it in a Malabar restaurant (Malabar is coastal Kerala). It is warm and comforting like a stew should be, is best had with Appam or Dosa. Have cooked it hundreds of times at home and this recipe is a culmination of all those experiences.

It is creamy, rich, and mildly flavored with my spice blend with succulent chicken bone-in pieces. A chicken stew cooked Kerala style is had like a main course during lunch and dinner or many times for breakfast.

Chicken stew or also called ‘ishtu‘ is more creamy and mildly spiced than the varied stews or ‘Ishtoo’ available in other parts of India. All are a more complex take on the English stew with flavors from whole or grounded spices. The base of Kerala ishtu also differs from the north Indian variants. It is based on coconut milk and coconut oil is the primary flavor driver compared to the base of onion and ghee.

Why is it so popular

Mild flavors in Kerala-style chicken stew come from whole spices like bay leaf and cinnamon stick and my spice blend is made of cardamom, cloves, peppercorn, and funnel. Peppercorn and green chili are added for flavor and a little heat. Mind you, this stew is supposed to be only mildly spicy.

Chicken stew is also a healthy dish as in addition to good fat in coconut milk and coconut oil, you can be versatile with veggies to add to the stew. Typical additions are carrot, bean, and potato. These would most likely be there in your pantry. A good way to add veggies to your diet and especially for children.

You can go versatile by adding cauliflower or green peas too. With such amazing flavors, these veggies just blend well and no one would complain. Many recipes recommend the use of cashew paste. I have not used them as they tend to make the stew more creamy and heavy. My recipe with the use of coconut milk and oil is heavy as it is.

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Ingredients

For Marination

You need three things for the marination – bone-in chicken pieces, salt, and lemon juice.

For spice blend

This style of chicken stew gets its flavors from my spice blend of the following spices

• Cardamom
• Cloves
• Peppercorn
• Fennel

For making the stew

• Coconut Oil
• Coconut milk (Both thin & thick)
• Bay leaf and Cinnamon – Whole spices are used to flavor the stew and can be easily taken out while having the stew.
• Onion – sliced and sauteed.
• Garlic & Ginger – Crush these in a mortar.
• Carrot – Cut into medium chunks.
• Green beans – Cut into medium-sized cubes.
• Green chili
• Curry leaves – it is added twice while making the stew. Recommend getting fresh curry leaves and not dried ones.

For final tempering

• Curry leaves again – Get fresh ones.
• Sambar / Pearl Onion – Known as pearl onion or shallots, these are less pungent. In India, these are referred to as Sambar onions. They are smaller and slimmer bulbs than regular onions.
• Cashew halves – Halves are preferred but full cashews are ok too.

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How to make Chicken stew in Kerala Style

Marinate Chicken

Add all bone-in chicken pieces to a bowl. Pour lemon juice and sprinkle salt over them. Rub them thoroughly so as to evenly coat the pieces with salt and juice.

Prepare the Spice blend

• Roast the spices – cardamom, cloves, peppercorn, and fennel seeds in a pan over medium flame until they turn aromatic. This should take 30 seconds.
• Place the roasted spices in a mortar and using the pestle, pound them until they appear coarse. Pounding using a mortar releases oil that adds flavor.
• Also, use the mortar and pestle again to pound the ginger and garlic into a paste. Keep it aside.

Cook the stew

• Over medium flame, add cinnamon, bay leaf, curry leaves, chili, and sliced onions. Sauté them until the onions turn a shade pink.
• Add ginger-garlic paste and sauté again until the paste loses its raw smell.
• It is time to add chicken pieces and potatoes. Potatoes shall get cooked along with the chicken. Wait to see if the color of the chicken turns white. The white color indicates that the chicken is cooked. Henceforth we just simmer the chicken for slow cooking.
• Add the thin coconut milk and carrots and sprinkle salt. Mix everything well. Cover the pan with a lid. Allow it to simmer for up to 15 minutes on low heat.
• Time to add the thick coconut milk and spice blend. Mix everything and the stew base turns brown. Add green beans next and close the lid again. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes.

Tempering and plate

• In a separate pan, fry cashews in oil until they turn light brown. Keep them aside.
• In the same pan, fry onions and curry leaves until the onions turn brown. This caramelizes the onions and makes them a bit sweet. Curry leaves fried in oil bring out the flavor in them and impart some to the fried onions too.
• Now you need to add the tempered onions, curry leaves, and fried cashews on top of the pan as a garnish.
• Serve the stew in a bowl along with your favorite bread, appam, or rice.

Tips

• Use bone-in chicken pieces. You may get curry-cut chicken pieces and take the bone-in pieces from that. Bone-in pieces have more flavor and cook evenly. The bones release juices and water and that flavors the stew a lot.
• Use crushed ginger and garlic rather than using ginger-garlic paste. It will have a huge difference in flavor.
• The order of adding vegetables is important. Add the toughest veggies first so that it gets more team to cook and the softer veggies towards the end of the cook. You should add potatoes and carrots first and beans later as they quick faster.
• Alternatively, you can steam the veggies separately and add them towards the end. This is one way to add veggies to the stew.
• My recipe gets amazing flavors from slow-cooking the chicken. You will come across many recipes for cooking the stew on high heat. Let the stew simmer on a slow flame.
• I have used thin coconut milk instead of water to simmer the chicken and veggies. It just adds more flavor and helps in forming a creamy base for the stew. You may use water instead if you cannot get thin coconut milk.

Store

You may cook the stew until the garnish part and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. I would not suggest longer as it contains onions and garlic which do not stay fresh for long periods.

When you need to plate it, take it out from the refrigerator, and heat it for a minute. Fry the onions, curry leaves, and cashews used the garnish then and use them.

Serve With

Traditionally, Kerala-style chicken stew is served with other Kerala bread-like Appam and Idiyappam. This rice-based bread has a slightly sweeter taste. It is also had with Kerala parotta ( a paratha-like bread made with wheat flour in layers).

We have often had this stew with sourdough bread and it perfectly compliments the stew. You can scrape the gravy of the stew with pieces of bread. Also, it goes well with white, brown, or red rice (common rice in Kerala) and also Jeera rice.

Have it with your regular Indian bread like Roti or paratha and you will not complain. This flavorful stew just goes well with anything.

Other Popular Indian Curries

• Indian Mutton Curry (Stove Top & Slow Cooker)
• Street Style Egg Bhurji
• Dhaba Style Egg Curry
• Goan Prawn Curry
• Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry
• One-Pot Chickpea Curry (Chana Aloo)