Chicken Curry in Slow Cooker

Chicken curry is one of my grandmother's specials. She prepares this curry almost every Sunday for lunch along with rice and chicken fry. I would be longing for this curry when I spent my school and college days at hostel. I prefer this curry with a little over cooked rice. The curry has got an incredible taste and smell which would invite your neighbours without saying. My grandmother used to prepare this curry over the wood fire and simmer it for the whole day just with the hot charcoal left underneath. It tastes amazing the next day of its preparation. I tried this curry in the slow cooker the process similar to that of the simmering with charcoal and got excellent results. Enjoy!

Ingredients
Chicken (with bones) - 500 grams
Shallots - 20
Garlic - 10
Ginger - 1 inch
Tomato (medium) - 2
Curry leaves - 2 twigs
Green chilli - 2
Fresh Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Mustard seeds - 1/4 Tablespoon
Water - 3 cups
Oil - 2 Tablespoon
Salt - to taste


For Dry Roast
Coriander seeds - 2 1/2 Tablespoon
Pepper corns - 5
Red chilli - 2
Cumin seeds - 1/2 Tablespoon
Fennel seeds - 1/2 Tablespoon
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon-  1/2 inch syick
Cardamom - 1
Bay Leaf - 1
Coconut (grated) - 1 cup
Curry Leaves - 3 twigs


Method
1. Dry roast all the items given in the dry roast header one by one without oil and keep aside.
2. Heat a pan and add 1 tablespoon oil. When the oil is hot, fry the shallots, garlic, tomato and ginger. Do not over cook. Just fry them for 5 minutes and allow them to cool.
3. Now grind all the fried ingredients in the step 1 and 2 into a fine paste by adding little water.
4. Meanwhile heat the slow cooker along with the cookpot in high mode for 20 minutes as per the cook book instructions.
5. Heat a pan and add 1/4 tablespoon of oil and cook the chicken until it becomes slightly white in colour. This should not take more than 3 minutes.
6. Heat 3 cups of water until it is luke warm and add it to the ground masala.
7. Now assemble the chicken in the cookpoot along with  the stock that you got while frying the chicken and add the masala water to it and give it a stir.
8. Add salt according to taste. Garnish it with coriander leaves and cover it with the lid. Change the slow cooker settings to low and cook for 6 to 8 hours.
9. After 6 or 8 hours, heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds to it and once it splitter, add curry leaves. Add this seasoning to the cooked curry and garnish with fresh coriander.
         Chicken curry goes well with rice, dosa and idli.


Note
* If you want the curry to be thick you can reduce the water amount.
* If you feel the coriander seeds flavour is less you can add coriander powder.
* Instead of slow cooker you can also use a pressure cooker or a thick bottomed vessel. The procedure remains the same. You need not fry the chicken or warm the water for pressure or vessel cooking. Just add the masala water to the chicken and allow 5 whistles.