Chicken Ghee Roast

Here is a recipe popular from coastal Karnataka - Chicken Ghee Roast. One more recipe inspired by 'Coastal curried by Chef Vikas Khanna' . Apparently this recipe originated from a small restaurant at Udupi. Chef visits the restaurant for the taste and the recipe owner serves chicken ghee roast in the TV episode. But unfortunately they did not share the recipe for ghee roast since its their family secret. But it looked so delicious and I was desperate to taste it. I started hunting for recipes. Had been through almost 20 recipes online in google search and did not find one such recipe that looked like authentic ghee roast.

Got help from one of the FB groups and a sweet person helped me with a link to ghee roast instantly. And here I am, with my chicken ghee roast. If you haven't tried ghee roast even once, go ahead and try it... I am definitely recommending this to all chicken lovers out there. It is the most flavour chicken preparation you will ever have. It is the aroma of ghee and the roasted spices that gives this dish a unique taste. Oh, yes ..this recipe has tamarind also. First time ever I used tamarind in chicken recipe and believe it is super good !

Recipe Source : http://www.ruchikrandhap.com/2011/11/chicken-ghee-roast-blog-hop-wednesdays.html

Thank you Shireen Sequeira for a wonderful recipe. My family loved this chicken dish. My kids don't eat spicy food at all and today they had second servings of this chicken. It was too delicious ! Thank you !

Ingredients

• 1/4 Cup Ghee
• One sprig of Curry leaf
• Chopped cilantro leaves for Garnish
• Salt to taste

For dry roasting

• 4 Kashmiri chillies
• 4 Bedgi chillies ( I used the normal dry red chilli, but use bedgi chillies for authentic taste )
• 1/2 Teaspoon whole black pepper corns
• 1/2 Tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1/4 Teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/4 Teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 4 Garlic Cloves
• a big pinch of tamarind / about 1/2 teaspoon of tamarind

For marinating chicken - Marinate for 4 hours in the refrigerator

• 500 Grams Chicken pieces without skin ( do not use breast since it will be too dry with this preparation)
• 1/4 cup Curd / plain yogurt
• 1/ 4 Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
• Salt to taste
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Directions

1. Add cleaned chicken pieces with all the ingredients listed under marinate. Mix everything together so that chicken is coated with yogurt and turmeric. Set aside in refrigerator for 4 hours
2. In a frying pan, add coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, black pepper corns and dry roast until you smell the nice aroma of the spices. Finally add red chillies (both Kashmiri and bedgi) and roast for few seconds. Switch off the flame and cool them completely
3. In a spice grinder add all the ingredients we dry roasted from step number 2 along with 4 garlic cloves, tamarind and 1 or 2 tablespoon of water into fine paste
4. In a pan, heat of the quantity of ghee (half portion of 1/4 cup ghee ). When the ghee is hot, add curry leaves. When they splutter, add marinated chicken pieces give it a nice stir
5. Cook the marinated chicken pieces in ghee until they are almost cooked. Remove the chicken pieces and set aside in a bowl
6. In the same pan, heat remaining ghee we have. When the ghee is hot, add the ground paste we prepared at step number 3 and roast the masala well in ghee and keep the flame low
7. When the masala is nicely roasted, add chicken pieces we previously cooked at step number 5
8. Check salt and add more if required
9. Now cook the chicken until all the water evaporates and the masala is coated evenly on the chicken
10. Switch off flame. Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and serve hot with steamed rice. I had it with rasam , steamed rice. It was a heavenly combo !!!