Shared from a Family Kitchen
Kerala
Ammachi's Chicken Stew
Maria · KuwaitFrom: Ammachi (Grandmother)
KeralaFamily RecipeChristmas Special
About the contributor
Maria Thomas
Salmiya, Kuwait34 yearsSchoolteacher & home cook
Maria grew up in a Malayali household in Kuwait, spending every summer holiday in her grandmother's tiled kitchen in Kerala. She now keeps her Ammachi's recipes alive for her own children, cooking from a worn-out notebook of handwritten measurements in malayalam and English.
Family
Daughter of a Kerala-born nurse, mother of two
Cooking since
Age 12, learning beside Ammachi in Kottayam
Favourite dish
Appam with chicken stew on Christmas morning
Recipe from
Ammachi (Grandmother)
"Ammachi never measured anything. She listened to the pot — and somehow, it always tasted like home."— Maria
The story
"Every Christmas morning, the whole house woke up to the smell of Ammachi's chicken stew bubbling on the stove. She would pour thick coconut milk in slowly, whispering to the pot like it was an old friend. We ate it with soft appam straight off the cast-iron pan, and the kitchen always sounded like laughter."
Prep
15 mins
Cook
40 mins
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy
Ingredients
- •500g chicken, bone-in
- •2 onions, sliced
- •2 potatoes, cubed
- •1 cup thick coconut milk
- •1 cup thin coconut milk
- •1 inch ginger, julienned
- •4 garlic cloves
- •Whole spices: cardamom, clove, cinnamon, peppercorns
- •Curry leaves, salt
Method
- 1Sauté whole spices, ginger, garlic and onion in coconut oil.
- 2Add chicken and potatoes, then pour in thin coconut milk.
- 3Simmer covered until chicken is tender (25–30 min).
- 4Finish with thick coconut milk and curry leaves. Do not boil.
- 5Rest 10 minutes. Serve with appam.
Amma Nana's Note
Always add thick coconut milk at the end and switch off the flame — that's the Kerala way.