Chicken Payyoli

Ingredients

• 4-5 chicken thighs, cut into 2 inch pieces on the bone
• 6-8 garlic cloves
• 1 inch ginger, roughly chopped
• 6-7 soaked pandi dried red chillies
• 2 soaked Kashmiri dried red chillies
• 12-15 Madras onions
• Crushed black peppercorns to taste
• ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon fennel powder
• Salt to taste
• ½ lemon
• ½ cup cornflour
• Coconut oil for deep frying
• 2-3 sprigs of curry leaves
• 3-4 green chillies, slit
• ½ cup scraped fresh coconut

Method

1. Put garlic in the blender jar, add ginger, pandi red chillies, Kashmiri red chillies and Madras onions and blend to a fine paste.
2. Take the chicken in a large bowl, add the ground paste, crushed black peppercorns, garam masala powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, fennel powder, salt, and squeeze the juice of lemon and mix well so that all the chicken pieces are well coated.  Add cornflour and mix well. Set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
3. Heat sufficient coconut oil in a kadai. Add the curry leaf sprigs and deep-fry till crisp. Drain on absorbent paper. Similarly, slide in the green chillies and deep-fry till crisp. Drain on the same absorbent paper.
4. Now add coconut and deep-fry till golden brown and drain on the same absorbent paper.
5. Slide in the chicken pieces, a few at a time, and deep-fry on medium heat till golden brown, crisp and well cooked. Drain on another absorbent paper. 
6. Arrange the chicken pieces on a serving plate, garnish with fried green chillies, fried curry leaves and fried coconut. Serve hot.