Appam is a popular dish in south India, specifically in Kerala. This recipe is made with rice, fermented using yeast. It’s an easy recipe to prepare and generally served with either vegetable stew, chicken curry or egg curry. To prepare this dish you would need a special Appam pan generally available in Indian stores. I have add a little twist by stuffing the Appam with a chicken filling and giving it a potli shape. For the side, I prepared the slightly sweetened vegetable tomato stew. The taste turned out to be pretty awesome and the potli shape made it look more appetizing. You can also make veg colored Appam using spinach, carrot and beetroot puree.
Ingredients
For appam batter
- 2 cup Raw white rice soaked 5-7 hrs
- 1/2 cup Cooked rice or soaked oats
- 1 cup Coconut milk
- 1 tsp Dry active yeast
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1/2 cup Lukewarm water
- Salt to taste
For Chicken marination
- 500g Boneless thigh chicken
- 2 tsp Ginger & garlic paste each
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp Crushed Black Pepper
- 1/2 lemon juice
- 3 tbsp Curd (yogurt)
- Salt to taste
For curry
- 2 cup Onion fine chopped
- 1 Tomato chopped
- 1 tbsp Garlic paste
- 1 tbsp Ginger paste
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- 4 tbsp Oil
- 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg powder
- 1 tsp Coriander & cumin powder each
- 1 tsp Garam masala powder
- Salt to taste
- Some spring onion cut in to lengthwise
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water with sugar in a bowl. Cover it and keep it in a warm place for about 10 minutes. Grind soaked rice and cooked rice together along with coconut milk and yeast mixture. Make a nice medium consistency batter without adding too much of water. Add salt according to your taste. Cover it and keep it in a warm place for fermentation for about 5-6 hrs or you can leave it overnight for next day serving. Once fermented, add a little bit of water and mix the it nicely bringing it to pour consistency. Add 2 tsp sugar and mix again. Keep it aside.
- Clean chicken and cut it into small pieces. In a mixing bowl, place the cut chicken and add the ingredients for marination. Mix it well, cover it and keep it aside for half an hour.
- Heat oil in a kadhai or pan at medium to high heat. Once hot, bring the heat down to medium. Add bay leaves, cumin seeds and saute it until it turns brown. Add chopped onion, ginger-garlic paste and a little salt. Saute it further for about 10-12 minutes at medium heat until the onion gets golden brown.
- Add marinated chicken, stir it and cook the chicken with the lid on until chicken gets shallow fried (about 20 to 25 minutes at medium heat). Once cooked, the oil will start leaving the chicken. Stir at regular intervals for even cooking.
- Add tomato and saute it till the tomato gets mushy. Add coriander and cumin powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and nutmeg powder. Saute it for 2 more minutes. Add 1/3 cup water and cover it.
- Let it cook for 5-6 minutes till all the water evaporates and chicken gets cooked nicely and is dry. Check if the chicken is cooked well, if not cook, leave it for some more time. Keep stirring to ensure it gets cooked evenly. Once done, turn off the heat.
- Transfer it into a bowl and keep it aside.
- To make appam, you need a appam pan. Heat the appam pan at medium heat.
- Once it is hot, Take one big scoop of batter and pour it in the center of the pan. Wait for 3 seconds, hold both handles and swirl the pan to spread the batter across the whole pan. Doing it twice should be good enough, the center should still be thick with some extra batter. Always swirl in one direction only. Cover it by using the lid and let it cook for about 2 minutes.
- Once it is done, remove from the pan and transfer it onto a plate. Make rest of the Appams following the same process.
- To make chicken potli, place one appam on the rolling board over a kitchen paper towel and place some chicken masala on it.
- Bring all edges towards the center to give it a shape of potli. Press it lightly on edges and tie it using spring onion leaves. Make rest of the appam potli following the same process.
- Chicken appam potli is ready to be served.
- Appam with chicken potli goes well with any curry, veg stew or chicken curry.
- Serve the veg stew in a cup or on the same plate. Serve it in whichever way that appeals to you. Enjoy warm Chicken Appam Potli.
Recipe Notes
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