My mother makes a meat masala at home.It adds all the good flavours to any nonveg curries she makes. Every time one of us visits her, she makes it for us, and it lasts for almost a year. Its like if you have it handy you don't dread cooking chicken or beef....and as soon as you are out of  it, you get a kind of panic attack.

Its like you get appreciated for the yummy chicken fry you made, but its got nothing to do with your cooking skills, its all amma's masala...its like a little secret in your spice stash :)
I stumbled upon this recipe at mariasmenu when I didn't have amma's meat masala on hand, and wanted to make a chicken fry for a Sunday lunch.
Its the fresh pepper that attracted me to this recipe. I like chicken spicy. By spicy i mean, i should get the taste of the gravy first and then the meat. And this recipe did justice to it.

Pepper chicken

By Nikki
Adapted from here

Ingredients

• Chicken: 1 whole chicken, cut into medium sized pieces
• Pepper powder: 1 tsp (for marination)
• Lemon juice: 2tsp
• Salt: as per taste
• Onion: 3 nos, medium sized, thinly sliced
• Ginger garlic paste: 2 tbsp
• Whole black peppercorn: 2tsp
• Green chilli: 4 nos
• Garam masala: 1 tsp
• Meat masala: 1tsp
• Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder(perumjeerakam): 1/2 tsp
• Soya sauce: 2tsp
• Tomato sauce: 2 tsp
• Curry leaves: a few sprigs

Instructions

1. Marinate chicken pieces with pepper powder, lemon juice and salt. Keep it aside for 2 hours
2. Crush the whole pepper using mortar & pestle. Heat a skillet on medium heat.Add oil and sliced onion. Add ginger garlic paste,green chili and saute for 5 min till the onion turns brown and translucent.Add crushed pepper, garam masala, meat masala, turmeric powder and fennel powder.Mix it all together.Add soya sauce and tomato sauce.To this add the marinated chicken pieces. Combine everything together and let the chicken pieces get coated with the masala.
3. Once the chicken starts cooking, add half a cup of water and mix everything together and let it boil. Reduce the flame, cover with the lid and let it cook till the chicken is completely done, stirring in between.Once chicken is cooked, open the lid and dry roast for another 5 min. Serve it hot with white rice or roti