Chicken Chettinad – one of the spiciest and most aromatic dish in South India with a distinctive culinary style with judicious blend of spices, a very unique quality of #chettinad cooking. This scrumptious chicken curry gets it flavor from three distinctive ingredients… Kalpasi ,Jaathikai and Jaathipoo which is must for this recipe and all fresh ground masala makes this “a out of the world” dish to compliment your meal!
- 1 lb Chicken (1/2 kg approx, cut into small pieces)
- 2 teaspoon Lime juice
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
Ingredients-2
- 7 long chilies Dry red chilli
- 4 tablespoons Corrainder/dhania seeds
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 2 teaspoons Fennel seeds
- 2 teaspoons Black peppercorns
- 3 teaspoon Poppy seeds
- 2 teaspoons Split roasted gram /pottukadalai
- 5 teaspoons Copra /Dry coconut flakes/ desicated / fresh coconut
- 2 small sticks Cinnamon (1/2 inch)
- 3 Cloves
- 3 Cardamom
- 2 Mace/jathipoo (2 petals)
- 1 pinch Nutmeg powder / Jaathikai (or 1/8 the of teaspoon grated nutmeg)
- 1 Star anise (2 petals)
Ingredients – 3
- 2 Bay leaves
- 3 piece Black stone flower / kalpasi
- 2 cups Onion ( finely chopped, preferably baby onions)
- 1 cup Tomatoes
- 1 Green chilli (big)
- 1 tablespoon Ginger Garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon Red Chilli powder
- 3 tablespoon Coriander leaves
- 10 Curry leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt ( crystal salt/ kosher/ kallu uppu)
- 5 tablespoons Oil
- 1/4 cup Water ( or coconut milk)
Dry roast all the ingredients from group 2 for about 3 minutes until they slightly release aroma and oil. (Note: For dry roasting – Each spices has to be dry roasted separately. If time is an issue, then combing altogether and roasting is OK. Either way, if possible try to dry roast coconut separately, as its got this tendency to burn quickly and doesn’t mingle well other spices.)
Grinding very little spice is quite difficult in a mixer, so i have given a little more than what is required… so add about 2 tablespoons of the spice powder and store the rest for future use.
- Marinate chicken with turmeric powder, salt and lime juice for atleast 1/2 hour.
- Grind all the dry masalas to make a coarse powder and keep it aside.
- Heat oil in a pan and add bay leaf and kalpasi. Let it sizzle.
- Add chopped onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Fry until golden brown.
- Add marinated chicken and fry along with the onion mixture until thoroughly cooked and browned.
- Add chopped tomatoes along with red chilli powder, ground masala powder (Just add 3/4 of the masala powder and check the taste, if its not too strong for your taste, then add the rest) and salt. Cover and cook over low flame for 10 minutes to get that chicken cooked well.
- When the masala turns dark brown add water and garnish with coriander & curry leaves. Serve hot with flaky porotta , biryani or any rice dish.
Notes
- 3 to 4 adult servings
- Some spices are very strong, so please use just the measured listed above… just a few petals can go a long way.
- Always cook this with chicken with bones for authentic taste or naatu kozhi.
- Do not skip that kalpasi which is the most important ingredient for this dish.
- Copra thenga makes the dish taste so good, if you cant find then use regular dry coconut.
- You may add extra water to bring it to a semi thick consistency. You may add little coconut milk to adjust to gravy consistency.
- Check out our other
- chettinad recipes…
- Chettinad Mutton Kuzhambu
- Chettinad Eral Masala
- Kaikari Biryani
- Muttai Omelette Kuzhambu
- Chettinad Paneer Masala
Comments are closed.