I first heard about Chicken Ghee Roast over an innocuous lunch conversation with Rahul Balyan, Mahesh Shetty and Hitesh Sharma. We were doing one of our ‘fish lunches’ at Jai Hind near the office.
Rahul and Mahesh had that look on their face when they spoke of this Mangalore speciality that is apparently a hit at a Bangalore eatery called Coast To Coast. I was mildly surprised that I had never heard of either the restaurant or the dish. But. Having seen the look on those faces, this became a worthwhile effort.
Some research later – yesterday – gave this a shot, with some really good result. Not sure if this is close to the original taste, but I liked what I saw and loved the final taste. Will get Mahesh/Rahul to do a comparative one of these days.
Start with this
1/2 a cup of Ghee (I have never ever used ghee in a recipe before!)
12 curry leaves, and some chopped coriander,
1 kg Chicken – I used only drumsticks; but I think much better to use small curry pieces.
Marinade the chicken in
1/2 a cup thick curd
1 tsp turmeric
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp Salt (adjust as you like)
And Dry Roast the following
15-20 dry red chillies
Soaked tamarind – 2 big chunks | Reserve the water that you use for soaking
1 tbsp coriander seed or powder
1 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp methi seeds (that’s fenugreek)
12 peppercorns
When you are done dry roasting these; add the roast spices and 6 cloves of garlic into a blender – add sufficient quantities of the tamarind water, and grind the spice mix into a smooth puree. Add more (plain) water if you need – no need to worry about the consistency of this, as long as you’ve managed to puree it well.
Heat 1/2 the ghee in a large kadai or pan, and put all your chicken & marinade in.
Make sure to toss the chicken every few minutes; and let cook for about 8-10 minutes. The chicken will look cooked through at this time. Remove the chicken into a bowl, and the rest of the (now cooked) marinade into another bowl. In the same kadai, heat the rest of the ghee and fry the ground masalas in this oil.
About 3-4 minutes, and the oil will separate to the sides of the pan and you can now make out that the masala is cooked through. Add the cooked marinade and the chicken back into the kadai now and cook on low heat for 8-10 minutes more. What will yield is wonderfully cooked chicken in a (very) rich and thick curry. Throw in the curry leaves and cook for another minute – and finish by garnishing with coriander.
Here’s a snap of the final stage chicken!
Cooks & Runs 