Chettinad chicken gravy is a delicious and mouthwatering south Indian style chicken recipe made by dry roasting masala ingredients, making a paste and cooking chicken in the masala.
It is a simple and quickly made recipe with a good gravy in the recipe which is suitable to be eaten with any main course meal ranging from roti, naan or rice.
About the recipe
Many might be wondering why this name to the recipe but let me tell you 'Chettinad is a region from South India and is a place from Tamil Nadu region. Delicacies of chicken are quite popular in that particular region and every recipe form of chicken be it a chicken fry or chicken gravy is highly popular from this region.
Today's recipe is based completely on a chicken recipe from Chettinad region which is a chicken curry made in their style and can be served with malabar parotta.
I have tried to share almost a similar and also a delicious gravy for this recipe and I must say it is better than the restaurant bought recipe.
The chicken recipes or any kulambu recipes from Tamil Nadu region mostly make use of a masala which mainly consists or roasted coconut, cumin, coriander, black pepper, whole spices such as cloves, cinnamon etc...
All these ingredients are dry roasted, made into a paste and cooked along with the chicken by making a base of onion and tomato.
It is one of the most sought after dishes from South Indian region. Below I would be mentioning the list of ingredients used for this recipe and what taste each of them brings in the chettinad chicken gravy.
Other south indian non veg recipes include mutton kulambu, chicken fry etc...which can be tried from my blog.
Ingredients
Coconut: I have made use of fresh coconut which is grated but one can even use desiccated coconut if fresh coconut is not available.
Powdered form r grated form or small pieces of fresh coconut can be used to dry roast as this will go into blended and becomes a paste.
Whole spices: I have used cinnamon, cardamom and cloves which give a great aroma to the gravy as well as make the curry completely aromatic and full of fragrance.
Apart from these whole spices I am also using black pepper which gives a spicy touch to the chettinad curry. The quantity of these whole spices can be varied as per the spice flavors are preferred by each individuals.
Also added bay leaf during tempering as it gives strong pleasant flavors to the curry.
Dried red chillies: Any dry red chilli can be used such as kashmiri red chili or normal red chilies as different regions have different form of red chilies but make sure they are in dried form.
This ingredient gives a good spicy flavor to the dish so make sure add as per the spice flavor the chillies contain.
Fennel: This helps with good digestion and is commonly known as saunf. This too is dry roasted and added while making masala paste.
Coriander and cumin seeds: These are full of aromatic spices usually added in every south indian recipe as they give special and mouth watering aroma as well as make a good gravy along with other spices.
No dish is incomplete without adding these two main spices. Always adding these ingredients by dry roasting makes the dish aromatic and it gives out the required fragrance only if slightly roasted before they are powdered.
Onions and Tomatoes: These two are added to give the gravy a base and I have not made any puree of them but added them by sliced and cooking them well before adding the masala paste and thus creates a good base for the curry.
Tomatoes also give a slight tangy touch to the gravy and if skipped it makes the gravy slightly sweeter. It is therefore essential to add tomatoes to the curry.
Chicken: I am using cut chicken pieces with bones as the chicken used along with some bones releases juicy flavors and give much better taste than boneless chicken. Clean the chicken well and if poosible wash with some lemon and turmeric to remove any unpleasant odours from it.
Curry leaves: South Indian gravies do use curry leaves in tempering which give good flavor and taste during the tempering.
Salt: An essential ingredient for any dish.
Oil: I have used edible sunflower oil but one can make use of coconut oil or vegetable oil or for healthy options going for olive oil is much better.
Step by step procedure
Dry roasting the masala ingredients
- Take a pan and heat it. Add cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds. Add fennel seeds, add dried red chillies, saute all these dry ingredients for few seconds.
- Do not roast for long as the ingredients give a burnt smell if roasted long time.
- Take the roasted ingredients out on a plate.
- Add freshly grated coconut and roast until it turns into slight brown colour. Keep stirring and take it out as soon as it gets roasted to avoid burning.
- Allow all these ingredients to cool down a bit to use later.
Making the curry:
- Take a cooking pot, add oil and heat it. Add a bay leaf, cinnamon stick and saute few seconds. Add sliced onions into it and saute for a minute.
- Saute until the onions turn soft and translucent.
- Add slit green chilies, fresh curry leaves and saute well.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute until it gets rid of raw smell.
- Add chopped tomato, mix, add salt as per taste, add turmeric powder. Give a good mix.
- Cook until the tomatoes turn soft and pulpy.
- Add all the roasted ingredients into a blending jar, add ¼ cup of water and make a fine paste of all the roasted ingredients.
- Add the blended paste into the onion tomato masala. Mix well.
- Cook the masala well until oil leaves the sides on low heat while stirring in between.
- Add the chicken pieces into the curry.
- Give a mix .
- Cook the chicken with the masala for 5-10 minutes. Stir and cook the curry until oil appears at the sides.
- Adjust salt as per taste, add half a cup of water and mix everything.
- Cover and cook until the chicken gets tenderized while stirring in between.
- The chicken as well as the masala should cook well and should appear like a good gravy with oil released at the corners.
- Turn off the heat when the gravy is done.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and serve hot with naan, parotta or rice.
Video
Recipe
chettinad chicken curry recipe, chicken chettinad gravy
Ingredients
To make a paste:
- 2 small cinnamon sticks
- 3 cloves
- 2 cardamoms/elaichi
- 1 teaspoon black pepper corns
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 5-6 dried red chilies
- 2 tablespoon freshly grated coconut
To make the chicken curry:
- 3 tablespoon oil (any edible oil)
- 1 bay leaf (tej patta)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 medium size onions, finely sliced
- 2 slit green chilies
- 4-5 fresh curry leaves
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- 1 tomato, finely sliced
- salt to taste
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder/haldi
- 600 gms chicken pieces with bones (cleaned and washed well)
- ½ cup water
- salt to taste
Instructions
Dry roasting the masala ingredients:
- Take a pan and heat it.
- Add cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, black pepper corns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds.
- Add fennel seeds, add dried red chillies, saute all these dry ingredients for few seconds.
- Do not roast for long as the ingredients give a burnt smell if roasted for long time.
- Take the roasted ingredients out on a plate.
- Add freshly grated coconut and roast until it turns into slight brown color.
- Keep stirring and take it out as soon as it gets roasted to avoid burning.
- Allow all these ingredients to cool down a bit to use it later.
Making the curry:
- Take a cook pot, add oil and heat it.
- Add a bay leaf, cinnamon stick and saute few seconds.
- Add sliced onions into it and saute for a minute.
- Add slit green chilies, fresh curry leaves.
- Saute until the onions turn soft and translucent.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute until it gets rid of raw smell.
- Add chopped tomato, mix, add salt as per taste, add turmeric powder.
- Give a good mix.
- Cook until the tomatoes turn soft and pulpy.
- Add all the roasted ingredients into a blending jar, add ¼ cup of water and make a fine paste of all the roasted ingredients.
- Add this blended paste into the onion tomato masala.
- Mix well.
- Cook the masala well until oil leaves the sides on low heat while stirring in between.
- Add the chicken pieces into the curry.
- Give a mix.
- Cook the chicken with the masala for 5-10 minutes.
- Stir and cook the curry until oil appears at the sides.
- Adjust salt as per taste, add half a cup of water and mix everything.
- Cook until the chicken gets tenderized while stirring in between.
- The chicken as well as the masala should cook well and should appear like a good gravy with oil released at the corners.
- Turn off the heat when the gravy is done.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and serve hot with naan, parotta or rice.
Notes
- I have added little water while cooking the gravy as the onions, tomatoes and masala release good gravy and chicken can cook in that gravy itself.
- If the gravy is thickening and getting dry then adding good amount of water is suggested.
- The gravy gets cooked within the masala and all the flavors go into the chicken if cooked on medium to low heat without adding water. If required just add little water.
- Here, I would suggest to slow cook as slow cooking the chicken with the masala gives perfect flavors than pressure cooking the chicken.
- One can go for pressure cooking method, but slow cooking gives best results.
Nutrition
FAQ'S
Because it is a popular dish from the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu. It makes use of various spices commonly used in their recipes such as coriander, cumin, red chilies, coconut, cloves, black pepper, whole spices etc... which are all dry roasted and made into a thick masala paste and added into the curry to make good gravy for the chicken. It is commonly called Chettinad chicken kulambu.
If the whole spices which are mainly black pepper, cloves and dried red chilies are added in more quantity then the curry or gravy is going to be too spicy and these main spicy ingredients can be moderated as per spicy flavors and can reduce the spicy content in the curry.
Yes, the roasted ingredients mentioned in the recipe should just be dry roasted and powdered and then should be added to the chicken and stir fry the chicken. The difference is not to make a paste by adding water. Just blend these ingredients in powdered form and fry the chicken with the powder and it gives an amazing result to the fry recipe.
Kulambu recipes are usually a name for gravy recipes or curry recipes in South Indian region. The gravies can be tamarind based gravies, tomato based gravies or korma recipes.
Here, I have added the chicken directly, but one slight variation that is possible is to marinate the chicken with dry spices and yogurt and then add to the recipe rather than adding plain chicken pieces.
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