Chicken Ghee Roast

This is an authentic chicken dish of the Konkan coast. It was started in Shetty Lunch Home, Kundapur and has been adapted by the people of coastal Karnataka. This is also one of my favourite dishes ever and one of the dishes that I am famous among my friends for. I have tried various versions of this recipe over the years and this is what I have come up with. I will add step by step pictures of the recipe soon.

My recipe is a simplified tried and tested version of all the complex recipes out there and can be put together in a jiffy and it is sure to woo your guests. It is an excellent starter and has a lot of ghee (clarified butter) and is not the ideal recipe if you are on a diet.

Ingredients:

• Ghee... Loads and loads of it, the more the tastier
• Chicken
• Curry leaves
• Cashew nuts, sliced in halves

• For the marinade:
• Yoghurt
• Red Chilli powder
• Turmeric powder
• Ginger-garlic paste
• Salt

• For the ground paste:
• Long red chillies - Guntur and Kashmiri
• Tamarind
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Peppercorns
• Methi seeds : for the distinct Coastal Karnataka cuisine flavour
• Cumin seeds
• Coriander seeds
• Fennel seeds
• Cinnamon
• Cloves

Preparation:

Marinade the chicken using all the ingredients listed. If you are using leg pieces, I would advise you to put some gashes for better flavour.

For the ground paste:

Soak the tamarind in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes.

In a non-sticky pan, dry roast the cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, methi seeds and peppercorns for a few minutes until you can smell the aroma of the spices. Then add the ginger and garlic and roast it. Then add the red chillies and roast it. Add some boiling hot water to this mixture just enough to cover the chillies. This will help in softening the chillies and making a very smooth paste. Let this mixture cook for a while until the chillies soften. Cool this mixture.

Alternative: If you do not have all the dry spices, skip the part and dry roast the rest. You can add a tablespoon of garam masala when the masala is being cooked. This gives similar results but the flavour of ground spices is something else.

Once this mixture is cooled, grind this paste with tamarind.

In a thick bottomed pan, add the marinated chicken and some water and cook the chicken until it is 3/4th done. The water will help in retaining the moisture of the chicken and will make it very soft.

In another heated pan, add loads of ghee and add the ground paste to it. Once the masala is cooked, the oil will start to separate and the distinct aroma of ghee will start wading through your kitchen. Add salt to taste. You can add tamarind pulp according to your taste as well. The authentic ghee roast taste is when the masala is cooked well and the ghee starts to separate. It becomes slightly dry after some water evaporates. Do not add chicken before this. Now add the chicken and mix well so that the chicken is well coated with the ghee roast masala.

For the garnish, heat ghee in a pan and fry some cashews until they are light brown and add the curry leaves. Add this to the ghee roast dish once done.

Once the chicken is well cooked and the ghee is separated from the masala, your dish is ready to serve. 

You can serve it on its own or it is great to be eaten with neer dosa, roti etc.