I love to cook chicken as it doesn't take much effort to dish out a delicious recipe, the chicken itself makes it easy for the cook.

So I had exhausted all the traditional chicken recipes as well as the tweaked ones a needed something new and easy. The only flavoring I hadn't tried with chicken was that of fennel or mouri. And going by the cooking rule book, mouri is good for mutton gravy as mutton itself has a pretty strong smell to compliment the comparatively mild smelling fennel. But then some of the best dishes evolve out of experiments only. And with chicken everything is a safe experiment. So I decided to try my luck with fennel.

Fennel seeds are a prominent part of  Italian cuisine, but are also much used in Middle Eastern and Asian cooking. A great source of vitamins and minerals - they work particularly well with fish and red meat dishes. The agreeable, warm, aromatic sweet odour, somewhat similar to that of anise pairs well with chicken as well. The licorice taste adds a fun flavour to every dish it's a part of.

This particular chicken recipe has a triple seasoning of fennel: fennel seeds in the sautéed spices, fennel paste in the gravy base and shallow fried and crushed fennel seeds for garnishing and as a flavour enhancer. The fennel infuses its flavour into the succulent chicken pieces, the juices of the chicken in turn mix with the gravy and make it satisfyingly stodgy.


Preparation & Marination Time: 1-2 hrs
Cooking Time: 1 hour

Procedure:

Marinade:

1. Clean the chicken and keep it in a bowl. 
2. Beat the curd to a smooth texture. Add the salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, ground black pepper, cumin and coriander powder into it and mix well.
3. Slather the chicken pieces with the curd and powdered spice mixture. Add 1 tsp lemon juice to the mixture
4. Marinate the chicken for 2 hours

Garnishing:

1. Take a thin bottomed frying pan and heat it
2. Drizzle the pan with oil
3. Add the fennel seeds and let it splutter
4. When you can smell the aroma of fennel, take it out from the heat and let the pan cool. 
5. When the fried seeds have cooled down, crush them into an even mix.

Chicken has a tendency to become dry during cooking. There are two suggestions for this : 1. Use all drumsticks and thighs portion for the gravy; these will combine with the  flavour the fennel brilliantly and remain moist even if you overcook them slightly. 
2.You may remove the breasts early to keep them from drying out and later on when the gravy is fully cooked douse them in the gravy.

This curry pairs pretty much with everything like rice, chapati (indian flat bread),Indian Naan. If you like fusion food you may team it up with mildly spiced pasta as well.

Mouri Chicken

 Lay out a bed of steaming rice or freshly made chapati on one side of the serving plate. Place the chicken pieces at the center of the plate, delicately spoon over some of the gravy over them, garnish with a dash of chopped coriander and a lemon wedge.  That's it, your dinner is ready!

Bon Apetite!