Chicken Salna!

A visit to Madurai is worthless without tasting the delicious and tempting parotta with salna. This being the native place of me, I have tasted this many a times. The true way of having it is with parotta strewn into pieces and generous amount of salna poured over it. Truly heavenly and filling. I remember my uncle bringing it from restaurant atleast once in a week to have it in home. The pack will be emptied by the family members in no time. Everyone’s favorite.

I tried making the salna for the first time and it turned out fabulous. It was very easy too.

Ingredients

200 g chicken cut into cubes

I medium sized potato cut into cubes (optional)

1 medium sized onion

1 medium sized tomato

Few curry leaves

3/4 ts ginger garlic paste

1 ts coriander powder

¾ ts chilli powder

¼ ts turmeric powder

1 bay leaf

¼ ts garam masala (optional)

2 ts oil

1 ts ghee

To dry roast and grind

1 inch cinnamon stick

½ ts peppercorns

1 ts fennel seeds

¾ ts cumin seed

4 ts grated coconut

Preparation 

Place cooker in stove. Add oil and ghee. Once hot add bay leaf. Add onion and fry till they turn slightly golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste and the curry leaf. Add tomato and fry for a while. Add chicken pieces and toss for a while. Add the potato pieces. I loved adding potato with the chicken pieces since I felt good having fleshy bites of chicken together with little crunchy potatoes Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and coriander powder. Give enough whistles so that the chicken pieces get cooked up well.

Meanwhile dry roast and gring the ingredients given above. Add them in the cooker now and give it one more whistle.

Open the cooker and let it simmer till the salna is reduced to the level of your desired consistency. It is generally made as a thin curry. You can make the same as a vegetable salna too.  

Its perfect to be had with parotta and biryani. We had it with veg pulao and it tasted great too.