Chicken Ghee Roast

Hailing from Mangalore, Ghee Roast is one of their prized delicacies. Cooked in pure ghee and aromatic spices, chicken ghee roast not only oozes ghee but also flavour and taste. I first heard of this curry from the wife of a colleague of my husband who belonged to Mangalore. She made this sticky dry curry in a party and oh....I fell in love with it. You can make ghee roast with chicken, mutton or prawns...and they are equally tasty with all of them.

Chicken Ghee Roast

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken on bone

1 large onion – chopped

½ cup of thick yogurt – whisked

1 tbsp tamarind pulp

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp red chilli powder

15 dry red chillies

10 black peppercorns

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 small cinnamon stick

2 cloves

10-12 curry leaves

8 fat cloves of garlic

Juice of 1 lime

Salt

¼ cup of ghee

Method:

Dry roast the dry red chillies for a minute on low flame and keep aside.

Dry roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, cinnamon stick, cloves and black peppercorns in the same pan.

Put the dry roasted dry red chillies and whole spices in a grinder and grind to a fine powder.

To the grind spices, add the garlic cloves, tamarind pulp and a splash of water and make a smooth paste of it.

Scrape the paste to a clean bowl and keep aside.

Heat the ghee in a kadai and add the chopped onions to it.

Sprinkle some salt over the onions and cook the onions until their edges start to become golden.

Add the prepared masala paste to the onions and start stirring.

Add the turmeric powder and red chilli powder to it.

Stir and cook until the oil separates and add the chicken pieces to it.

Stir to coat the chicken pieces nicely with the masala paste and sear the chicken pieces until they change their colour.

Add salt to season the chicken.

Add the whisked yogurt and stir to mix.

Cover the cooking pot and switch the flame to low.

Cook on low until the chicken pieces become nice and tender from the inside. Do scrape the bottom and the sides of the kadai from time to time, to prevent any kind of burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan.

If you feel the curry has become very dry, add a splash of water to continue the cooking.

When the chicken pieces are nicely cooked, open the lid and simmer until all the water evaporates and the oil separates.

Add the lime juice and the curry leaves.

Give a good mix.

Switch off the flame and serve hot with layered paratha or simple plain rice.