Seldom do I get inspired by something I eat at a restaurant. And if I do, I can't resist trying it back home. But this recipe took 3 years to reach my kitchen. I was in Chennai visiting Bangalore once in a month when I first tasted ghee chicken. Our dear friends and future neighbours, Monisha and Delin suggested a Mangalorean restaurant called 'Kanua' while we were returning from Sarjapur, inspecting the construction of our houses. They ordered a couple of traditional Mangalorean dishes like kori roti, neer dosa and some other stuff that I can't recall. But the only dish that impressed me was the ghee chicken. My hubby later told me that he did not enjoy any of the dishes ( which was typical of him in those days- to be uninspired by any recipe that wasn't spicy and tangy as Kerala food). So I never thought of trying out Ghee chicken at home. But recently I was left with some ghee and since we don't use ghee in our daily cooking I was worried it would lie unused like many other ingredients of mine. And that's precisely when my brother -in- law was visiting us. He is my favourite guinea pig :). He eats anything and everything served to him and is not critical about food like my hubby. So using him as an excuse I convinced my hubby that we should try Ghee chicken. Maybe my hubby was more concerned about using up the ghee too so he readily agreed. But once we had this curry, my hubby was clean bowled. He is what I call a 'fresh convert' he took this curry to his office for 2 days and had it all by himself without sharing it with his gang. Which roughly means he loved it. I found this curry quite refreshing because it was very different from our typical chicken curry. We had it with appam though, I would have loved to have it with neer dosa. Maybe next time I will have it with neer dosa. I found this recipe at Ruchik Randhap a Mangalorean blog managed by Shireen Sequeira. She has made me fall in love with Mangalorean food. I tried out Dukra maas and Sannas from her blog and we recently tried out her recipe on Rice wine and its been a week since we made this wine. It's due in three weeks. Which reminds me I should definitely share my post on grape wine- (this wine is 2 years old now and is overdue here). I have already skipped two xmas's and easters hoping to publish it here. I only have 8 bottles left (out of the 15 we bottled in 2011) so I promise to put this up in a few days so that some of you can manage to make some grape wine by Christmas or maybe Easter ;) well you really don't need a reason to make wine do you? Till then try some ghee chicken :)
Ingredients of Ghee Chicken ( Courtesy: Ruchik Randhap)
Chicken- 1 kg
Ghee- 1/2 cup
Sugar- 2 tsp
Curry leaves- 1 sprig
For the Marinade
Lime- 1
Yogurt- 1/2 cup
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Salt- to taste
For the Masala
Kashmiri Chillies- 1
Pepper corns- 12
Coriander seeds- 1 tbsp ( I used the powder)
Cumin- 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds- 1/4 tsp
Garlic -12 flakes with skin
Tamarind paste- 1/2 tsp
Directions
Wash the chicken and pat them dry. Marinate them with the ingredients mentioned under the marinade for 4 hrs ( the author of the blog I found this recipe from said she marinated it for an hour, I did it for 2 hours). In a frying pan dry roast the kashmiri chillies, pepper corns, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and cumin. Grind the roasted spices along with garlic and tamarind paste using a little water. Heat 1/4 cup ghee in a pot and cook the marinated chicken over an open flame. When the chicken is cooked separate the chicken from the gravy and heat the same pot again. Add the remaining ghee to the pot and saute the ground masala for 5-6 minutes till the raw smell of the masala disappears and oil leaves the sides of the pot. Now add the cooked chicken and the gravy that was set aside and let the curry simmer till the gravy dries up. I did not want a dry curry so I retained some gravy but ideally ghee chicken served in restaurants are dry. Garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves ( I did not garnish this curry). Serve with rice or neer dosa. We had it with appam.
For the Masala
Kashmiri Chillies- 1
Pepper corns- 12
Coriander seeds- 1 tbsp ( I used the powder)
Cumin- 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds- 1/4 tsp
Garlic -12 flakes with skin
Tamarind paste- 1/2 tsp
Directions
Wash the chicken and pat them dry. Marinate them with the ingredients mentioned under the marinade for 4 hrs ( the author of the blog I found this recipe from said she marinated it for an hour, I did it for 2 hours). In a frying pan dry roast the kashmiri chillies, pepper corns, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and cumin. Grind the roasted spices along with garlic and tamarind paste using a little water. Heat 1/4 cup ghee in a pot and cook the marinated chicken over an open flame. When the chicken is cooked separate the chicken from the gravy and heat the same pot again. Add the remaining ghee to the pot and saute the ground masala for 5-6 minutes till the raw smell of the masala disappears and oil leaves the sides of the pot. Now add the cooked chicken and the gravy that was set aside and let the curry simmer till the gravy dries up. I did not want a dry curry so I retained some gravy but ideally ghee chicken served in restaurants are dry. Garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves ( I did not garnish this curry). Serve with rice or neer dosa. We had it with appam.
And here's Don our cat after he sniffed some ghee chicken :) Ain't he a darling ?
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