Indian Long Pepper Chicken
I got a packet of Long Pepper for xmess, so I went on a search for recipes. I found an ancient recipe (h/t Indiaphile.info) and used it as a starting point. My recipe is significantly different, but still easy to make, homestyle and comforting. Long pepper is a delightful spice; it is lighter than black pepper and a bit floral. I highly recommend trying it! NOTE: you'll need to get it ground or have a spice grinder - the pods are VERY tough.
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
- 2 large, boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1" cubes about 1#, sub chicken tenders
- 2/3 cup whole milk yogurt or whole milk greek yogurt, DO NOT sub low fat here, it will be cooked at the end!
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground long pepper use a spice grinder or buy ground
- 1 Tbl ginger paste found at Indian store, frozen at grocery or microplaned fresh ginger
- 2 tsp garlic paste found at Indian store or paste up fresh garlic
- 1/2 tsp turmeric optional, I like the colour and it adds a bit of earthiness
- 2 Tbl ghee or sub butter
- 10 whole long pepper optional, if you have the whole ones
- 1 tsp whole mustard seeds black ones if you have them
- 1 lime sub lemon
- 2 Tbl whole milk yogurt or whole milk greek yogurt
- 2 cups basmati rice, prepared or any rice you like, or use naan
Instructions
- Combine yogurt, salt, long pepper, ginger, garlic and turmeric in a bowl big enough for the diced chicken. Stir chicken into marinade and hold in fridge for a couple of hours or overnight.
- In a large skillet, melt the ghee or butter over med high and add mustard seeds and long pepper pods (if using). Let them sizzle a couple of minutes. Remove the pepper pods since they are hard to eat - or leave them if you like whole spices.
- With tongs, take the chicken from the marinade and tap off as much marinade as you can, then put into the skillet. Set aside the remaining marinade. You should have one layer of chicken, if there's too much chicken, cook in batches to get a little colour.
- The yogurt marinade will melt off the chicken and create a nice cooking sauce. Cook the chicken about 4 mins on each side. If the sauce gets too dry, reduce heat a little and add a bit of water to loosen it up.
- When the chicken is cooked, turn down the heat to medium and add in the remaining marinade. Stir until marinade melts a bit.
- Turn off heat and add another 2 heaping Tbl of fresh yogurt and the juice of half a lime. Check seasoning.
- Serve over rice or with naan.
Notes
This recipe was a surprise! I really enjoyed the long pepper and yogurt. It is a very simple recipe w/out too many ingredients so you can really taste the delicate flavour of the long pepper.
This type of Indian food is my preference. It's homey and warm, but not too heavily spiced. If you like homey Indian, try my dal and kadhi recipes, too!