We had an upcoming outdoor camping trip and I wanted to cooking some chicken dish, something new that I hadn't tried before. I came across this spicy new recipe on Facebook and I wanted to make it.
This is a Chettinad recipe, what you would call as a Manglorean dish, from the southern parts of India. The chettinad masala is something very different from the regular kinds used in north Indian chicken curries.
Original recipe calls for making it with ghee which enhances the flavor of the chicken but I made it with oil and still it was very yummy. It is basically a very dry recipe but you can keep it a bit of gravy like I have done.
All I needed was to get the Kashmiri red chilies and chicken of course.
Ingredients :
- Chicken (with bones) - 2.25 lbs
- Ginger - 2 inch piece
- Garlic - 4 cloves
- Lemon juice - 2 Tbsp
- Turmeric Powder (Haldi) - 1/2 tsp
- Yogurt (Dahi) - 4 Tbsp
- Kashmiri Chilies - 10
- Dry red chilies - 7
- Coriander Seeds (Dhaniya) - 1 Tbsp
- Pepper Corns - 1 Tbsp
- Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 2 tsp
- Fennel Seeds (Saunf) - 1 tsp
- Ghee - 1/4 cup
- Onion - 1 big
- Jaggery (Gud) / Sugar - 1 tsp
- Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
- Salt to taste
Method :
- Clean the chicken. Cut them into medium sized pieces and set aside.
- Next we have to make the chettinad masala so that we can marinade the chicken.
- Dry roast the kashmiri chilies on a wide pan - this should take about 3-5 minutes. Keep them aside and let them cool. Since the kashmiri chilies are so big in size we are roasting these separately.
- Use the same pan and dry roast the red chilies, coriander seeds, pepper corns, cumin seeds, and fennel seeds - this should take about 2-3 minutes as these are smaller in size. Keep them aside and let them cool.
- Wash and peel the ginger, maybe dice it a bit.
- Peel about 4 garlic cloves.
- Grind a thick paste out of all the roasted ingredients, along with the ginger, garlic, and lemon juice. If you find it too difficult to grind, add very little water (about 2 Tbsp) and try to keep it as thick as possible.
- Once the paste is ready, smear it on the chicken.
- Add in the turmeric powder, salt (according to taste) and the yogurt and mix well and coat all the chicken pieces. Set aside for about 1 hour. You can even let it marinade overnight if you have the time.
- Now finely chop a big onion.
- Take a wide open kadhai or pan. Heat the ghee in it.
- Add the chopped onions and saute until translucent.
- Add the marinated chicken pieces and stir well.
- Add a small piece of Jaggery or a tsp of sugar, just to balance the taste of so many chilies. Keep stirring in between and keep heat on low-medium.
- Add the curry leaves for that extar flavour.
- This will take about 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken pieces. Switch off and enjoy!!
Note: Since I added a little more water to my masala while grinding, my curry was not as dry.
Occasion - Dinner for camping trip (3 Sep 2016)
Recipe credit - Classic Masala Hut Recipes
