Sri Lankan Chicken Curry

"Sri Lanka" is an island country off the southeastern coast of India. It was long known as "Ceylon," the English rendering of Portuguese "Ceilão," the name used by the Portuguese from the 1500s, when Portugal first became involved with the island (the Portuguese "partially" ruled the island for nearly 200 years). Naturally there are many Indian influences on Sri Lankan food, but the Dutch also had an impact on Sri Lankan cooking, and, like the Portuguese, the Dutch were involved in Sri Lanka, and had some "partial" governance there for about 150 years (mid 1600s until nearly 1800). The British became involved in Ceylon from the 1790s, a relationship which also included governance, which ended in 1948. Ceylon tea is world famous, but believe it or not, it was the British who started the tea industry on the island. Today there are hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans employed in some way in the tea industry. Ceylon gained independence in 1948, but it wasn't until 1972 that the nation's name was changed to "Sri Lanka," a term from Sanskrit and Sinhalese, both languages from Indo Aryan, a subdivision of the Indo Iranian branch of the Indo European language family. English is also an Indo European language, but from the Germanic branch.    
 
I know this recipe has an intimidating list of ingredients, but most are spices common in the cooking of the Indian subcontinent.* It's likely that curry leaves will be hard to find, unless you live in an area with people from southern Asia (like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand or Indonesia, all areas where curry leaves are commonly used). You can use the lime zest (peel) of one lime and a few basil leaves as a substitute, but it will not be exactly the same. If you have access to curry leaves, please give them a try.  

Ingredients:

2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken pieces 
3 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)** or vegetable oil
8 to 10 curry leaves (or zest of 1 lime and 4 basil leaves torn in half)
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or Indian chili powder)
3 chilies, whole, split open
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground fenugreek
2/3 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 ground fennel seed
15 grape tomatoes, halved
1  2 to 3 inch cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup coconut milk

In a large skillet (with a lid) or a sauce pan (with lid), heat the oil or ghee over medium heat. Add the curry leaves and cook for about two minutes,*** then add the onion, ginger and chilies. Cook until the onion begins to brown. Stir in the cayenne pepper, turmeric, garlic, ground cumin, coriander, paprika, fenugreek, salt, ground fennel, vinegar, cinnamon stick, grape tomatoes, lemon zest and lemon juice. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes, then add the chicken pieces and turn to coat them with the mixture. Cover and cook until the chicken is tender (between 45 to 60 minutes; if using basil leaves, add them at about the 35 minute mark of cooking). Remove lid and put heat on very low. Gradually add and mix in the coconut milk, being careful not to let the mixture boil. Serve with rice. 

* I did a two part series on spices of the Indian subcontinent, so if you're interested, these are the links:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/12/great-spices-and-herbs-of-india.html

http//pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/12/great-spices-and-herbs-of-india_10.html

**  "Clarified butter" (usually called "ghee" on the Indian Subcontinent) is butter with the milk solids removed; thus, the remaining butterfat can be heated to a higher temperature than regular butter without burning.

*** If using lime zest, add it with the onion, chilies and ginger. You can then add the basil leaves near the end of cooking (see instructions).

Served with rice and naan bread ... (Click on photo to enlarge)

WORD HISTORY: 
Poultry-This word, distantly related to "foal," an original English word from Germanic, goes back to Indo European "pawlh," which meant, "young or small animal." This gave Latin "pullus," which meant, "chick, young bird." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "poulet" (young bird, chicken) and this expanded to "pouleterie" (Norman dialect pouletrie?), meaning, "domestic birds raised for their eggs and meat." This was borrowed into English in the second half of the 1300s, and the meaning transferred over to the meat of the birds, as well.