Sikkimese Chicken Curry

Bone-in chicken in the Sikkimese-Nepali style — onion, garlic, ginger, and tomato fried in oil with turmeric, coriander, cumin, and dried red chilli into a thick masala, the chicken added and slow-cooked until tender. Sichuan pepper is used instead of or alongside black pepper, giving the curry a gentle numbing quality that distinguishes Himalayan chicken curries from their plains counterparts. A pinch of fenugreek seeds in the tempering is the Sikkimese signature. The everyday meat curry of urban Gangtok and the hill communities; eaten at every meal occasion from weekday lunches to Sunday family gatherings.