Hyderabadi Mirchi Ka Salan Recipe is the most authentic recipe in Hyderabad made with Mirchi that is green chillies and relished along with Biryani. It is a masala paste of coconut, peanuts and cooked together in chillies. A common side dish for many rice recipes.
About the recipe
Mirchi Ka Salan is a hyderabadi spicy chilli curry made with long, thick and big green chillies cooked with some masala paste and it goes really well with Biryani.
In Hyderabad, Biryani is incomplete without Mirchi Ka Salan and Bagara Baingan. They both go hand in hand. The Salan is very spicy, tangy and full of aromatic flavors into the dish.
Mirchi Ka Salan is perfect with below biryani recipes:
Ingredients
- The masala that goes into making curry is a paste of roasted coconut, peanuts, sesame seeds, roasted onions, cumin seeds and coriander seeds.
- This is the basic paste that is used to make most of the gravy side dishes for biryani in Hyderabad and also to make masala gravies using capsicum, brinjal or green chillies.
Modifications:
- It is not really necessary to use all the mentioned masala ingredients as some do not tend to eat heavy masala gravies.
- One can skip adding sesame or onion paste into the gravy. Or we can alter by skipping one or the other mentioned ingredient as per one's choice. Some are allergic to peanuts and they can skip adding roasted ground nut while making the gravy.
- Sesame seeds can be replaced with poppy seeds while roasting the dry ingredients.
Generally, the recipe mentioned here is almost similar to the one made in Hyderabadi weddings or during several occasions or in Hyderabadi restaurants.
How to get the tangy gravy?
The tangy taste to the dish comes out only by adding tamarind pulp to the salan. In biryani gravies, adding of tamarind extract to get the slight sour taste in gravy is a must and without tamarind the gravy gets too heavy to be served.
The salan recipe which I am posting here is the traditional and authentic hyderabadi mirchi ka salan which I am sure would be liked by my readers.
The mirchi ka salan is sometimes eaten along with roti in Hyderabad and it is a common sight to see hyderabadis eating the curry with rotis.
The recipe is made during eid and served with biryani along with desserts such as hyderabadi double ka meetha or sheer khurma during lunch or dinners. When weddings are attended, this is the most common side dish we come across on the muslim wedding platter.
The spicy taste that comes out in the dish is only because of the long thick chillies which are fried and added to the salan. 'Salan' is just a hindi term as 'curry' is in english.
Coming from Hyderabadi background I take pride in showcasing different hyderabadi recipes which are still popular in hyderabad and it is our duty to keep the cuisine alive.
The slight greenish touch to the delicacy comes only by adding green chillies and is a must try dish for biryani. So lets take a look on making Hyderabadi mirchi ka salan recipe for biryani.
Step by step procedure
Dry roasting ingredients and making a paste:
- Firstly, in a heated pan, dry roast each of them that is coconut, peanuts, coriander seeds, cumin seeds.
- Also, dry roast sesame seeds and add them in the end and remove them as quickly as possible.
- Take them out.
- In the same pan, add a teaspoon of oil, add sliced onions and roast for about 3-4 minutes until they turn very slight pink in color. Allow all the ingredients to cool.
- Add all the ingredients in a blender. Add some salt, half a teaspoon of turmeric powder, half a cup of water and blend into a fine smooth paste.
- keep this paste aside for later use.
Cooking the salan:
- In a cooking utensil, add oil and heat it.
- Add the big green chillies.
- cover the lid and cook for about five minutes.
- Lift up the lid, stir and cook for another five minutes or until the skin color of chili changes.
- Be careful while roasting as the chilies may split up on face or cover the lid while roasting. Once fried, take the chilies out which should be added in the later part.
- In the same oil, add kalonji seeds/onion seeds, fenugreek seeds/methi seeds, mustard seeds and let them crackle or pop up.
- Add fresh curry leaves, ginger garlic paste and saute well for few seconds.
- Add the roasted masala paste which was blended.
- Give a good mix.
- Cover the lid and cook the masala for about 5-10 minutes.
- Remove the lid, stir well and cook again until oil releases from the sides.
- Add the tamarind extracted pulp, stir well.
- Add half a cup of water. Add red chili powder and salt according to the taste. Stir well and add one tomato cut into two halves. Also add Add the fried green chillies into the curry, give a mix.
- Cover and cook the curry for about 10-15 minutes on medium heat. Stir in between and and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes or until the gravy thickens slightly.
- Keep stirring once or twice and make sure heat is medium to low so that the masala does not burn as it is thickening. The curry should cook well with oil appearing at the sides.
- Turn off the heat.
- Serve in a bowl.
- Serve it with biryani or roti.
Video
Recipe
Hyderabadi Mirchi Ka Salan Recipe
Ingredients
- ¼ cup oil
- 5-6 long and thick green chillies (any kind of big chilies)
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)
- ½ teaspoon kalonji seeds (onion seeds)
- 7-8 fresh curry leaves
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- 1 cup tamarind extracted pulp (lemon sized tamarind soaked and pulp extracted)
- ½ cup water
- salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
- 1 tomato, cut into two halves
For the masala:
- 1 tablespoon dry coconut slices
- 1 tablespoon peanuts (groundnuts)
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
- 1 large onion, sliced
Instructions
Dry roasting ingredients and making a paste:
- Firstly, in a heated pan, dry roast each of them that is coconut, peanuts, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, sesame seeds.
- Take them out.
- In the same pan, add a teaspoon of oil, add sliced onions and roast for about 3-4 minutes until they turn very slight pink in color.
- Allow all the ingredients to cool.
- Add all the ingredients in a blender.
- Add some salt, half a teaspoon of turmeric powder, half a cup of water and blend into a fine smooth paste.
- Keep the paste aside for later use.
Cooking the salan:
- In a cooking utensil, add oil and heat it.
- Add the big green chillies, cover the lid and cook for about five minutes .
- Lift up the lid, stir and cook for another five minutes or until the skin color of chili changes.
- Be careful while roasting as the chilies may split up on face or cover the lid while roasting.
- Once fried, take the chilies out which should be added in the later part.
- In the same oil, add kalonji seeds/onion seeds, fenugreek seeds/methi seeds, mustard seeds and let them crackle or pop up,
- Add fresh curry leaves, ginger garlic paste .
- Saute for a minute.
- Add the roasted masala paste which was blended.
- Give a good mix.
- Cover the lid and cook the masala for about 5-10 minutes.
- Remove the lid, stir well and cook again until oil releases from the sides.
- Add the tamarind extracted pulp, stir well.
- Add half a cup of water.
- Add red chili powder and salt according to the taste.
- Stir well.
- Add one tomato cut into two halves.
- Add the fried green chillies into the curry, give a mix.
- Cover and cook the curry for about 10-15 minutes on medium heat.
- Stir in between and and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes or until the gravy thickens slightly.
- The curry should cook well with oil appearing at the sides.
- Turn off the heat.
- Serve in a bowl.
- Serve it with biryani or roti.
Notes
- When masala is cooking make sure it does not stick to the bottom or keep stirring as the masala is getting cooked.
- The green chillies can also be shallow fried separately in oil and added while cooking the gravy.
- Red chili powder is optional and can be skipped if green chilies are giving the right flavor.
- Always be careful while roasting chillies as they can burst up and splash on face.
- Adding of tomato too is optional and can be skipped if the gravy is already tangy.
- If the gravy is less tangy then add 1 cut tomato while cooking.
Nutrition
FAQ'S
The green chilies I used here are long and thick available here but each region has different chili peppers such as bell peppers, Serrano peppers and various other green chilies.
It is advisable to not use too spicy green chilies as the curry might turn out too spicy and not edible.
Use green chilies which are moderately spicy and should be long and thick.
No, the tempering can be altered using cumin seeds, mustard seeds, dried red chilies, curry leaves and yet get a good flavor in the curry.
In traditional Hyderabadi version, mirchi ka salan uses kalonji seeds which gives the required aroma and these seeds are healthy too.
The oil that I have used is normal sunflower oil and it can be replaced with vegetable oil or olive oil and oil in this recipe plays an important role.
One should be generous in using oil as the masala releases the all the flavors if good amount of oil is used. Therefore, it is suggested to use a healthy oil.
If these big chilies are not handy then use small green chilies in place of big one's and continue making the curry as directed and still we get the best taste out of it.
shilpi says
Flavorful and Delicious ! Very nice recipe.Thanks for sharing.
asiya says
Thank u so much shilpi....
swathi says
Mirch ka salan looks delicious.
asiya says
thank u swathi....
shilpi says
salan look so rich. Nice recipe 🙂
asiya says
Thanks Shilpi for your wonderful feedback...
sana juveria says
Assalaamualaikum asiya
.. Thanks a lot for such a tasty and yummy recipe.. I made this for the first time after seeing this and people commented saying it's very tasty as if made by a professional.. Thanks a ton..
asiya says
Walaikumassalam,
Thanks very much sana juverai..your appreciable feedback means a lot to me...hope you try out our other recipes too and keep receiving appreciation from your loved one's for your good cooking...
Abitha Barveen says
Assalamu alaikkum......recipes are so delicious ......thank u so much....
asiya says
Thanks Abitha...