Housebound on a Sunday with constant rain and an almost autumn chill calls for hearty, warm, soul comforting food. Just one minor problem – only thing available is some dressed chicken and a big bunch of green onion. Not exactly a brimming pantry of supplies! Light bulb moment later, kids and I decided to do the onion 3 ways – a puree, some caramalized onions and batter friend onion stalk. We decided to add vinegar to our sauce to elevate the mild flavour of the greens. The end result was truly finger licking good and eaten with herb rice and sourdough bread.

Ingredients

Chicken dressed and curry cut: approx 2 pounds

For the sauce

Green onion leaves: large bunch

Onion bulbs: a dozen or so, cleaned peeled and sliced fine

Cardamom pods: 4

Dry spices: cayenne pepper, black pepper & salt

Vinegar: 1 Tsp

Yoghurt: half a cup

Sunflower or peanut oil: 2 Tbsp

For the stalk

1. Cornflour & all purpose flour
2. Fennel seeds
3. Seasoning: salt & chilli flakes
4. Washed and cleaned onion stalk

Method:

Chicken in sauce:

1. Marinate the washed and drained chicken with half the dry rub and salt for 30 minutes
2. Blitz most of the onion leaves (reserve some for the raw garnish) with the yoghurt
3. In a heavy pan, heat the oil and pop the cardamom
4. Add the sliced onions and stir till caramalized
5. Now add the puree and stir on low flame till the sauce thickens
6. Add the remaining dry spices and saute
7. At this stage, add the marinated chicken to the sauce and mix through
8. Pour in the vinegar
9. Cover the pan and cook the chicken on high flame, stirring through every few minutes till tender and falling apart at the bones

Batter fried Onion stalk:

1. Make a thick batter of all purpose flour, cornflour, fennel seeds, salt and chilli flakes
2. Heat oil in a wide pan or fryer
3. Coat the stalk well in the batter and deep fry till golden brown

Tip the cooked chicken into a serving platter and pour the sauce over and around the pieces. Garnish with finely shopped onion leaves and the crunchy onion stalk.