Chicken Roast How To Roast A Chicken Indian Style

Who doesn’t love a good roast? This chicken ghee roast dish can be served as a side dish with steamed rice, served with Indian bread like naan, roti, chapatis, or even Indian dosas. To make a good Indian-style roast, you need a few aromatic spices like coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, ginger, tamarind, and two varieties of chilies byadagi (or Kashmiri dry red chile) and Guntur chilies for color and spiciness, respectively.

This roast chicken is not the same as the popular ghee roast from Mangalore/Kundapura. Here are a few differences in the recipe. First of all, the amount of ghee used in the recipe is significantly less compared to the chicken ghee roast. Ingredients like saunf (fennel seeds), onion, and ginger are not added to the traditional Mangalorean ghee roast - instead, mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds (or methi) are added. The amount of other common spices also varies between the two recipes.

Always adjust the spiciness to taste. This dish is a combination of tanginess and spiciness. Balance out accordingly. Do not overcook the chicken than needed. It will make it hard and rubbery.

Ingredients for CHICKEN ROAST | HOW TO ROAST A CHICKEN INDIAN STYLE?

400 g Chicken thighs ½ cup Curds or Yogurt ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder 1 teaspoon Salt 10 to 12 Kashmiri red chilies or Byadagi or Paprika (for color) 6 Guntur chilies or Cayenne (for spiciness) 2 teaspoon Coriander seeds ½ teaspoon Black peppercorns 1 teaspoon Fennel seeds or Saunf 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds or Jeera 6 to 8 Garlic cloves 1 Ginger, sliced 1 tablespoon Tamarind ½ cup Water 2 tablespoon Butter or Ghee 2 Onions, finely chopped 3 Green chilies, slit 10 to 15 Curry leaves 1 tablespoon Jaggery 2 tablespoon Coriander leaves or Cilantro, chopped, for garnish

How to prepare CHICKEN ROAST | HOW TO ROAST A CHICKEN INDIAN STYLE

In a bowl, add chicken thighs, curd, turmeric powder, salt, and mix well. Keep this aside for 15 to 10 minutes.

In a pan, dry roast Kashmiri red chiles, Guntur chiles, coriander seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, and cumin seeds, and roast until aromatic on medium to medium-low flame. Check out the video here. In a mixer or blender, add the roasted ingredients along with garlic, ginger, tamarind, and water, and grind it to a thick, smooth paste. In a pan, add butter or ghee. Once hot, add the onions, green chilies, curry leaves, and saute until the onion becomes translucent. To this, add the marinated chicken, ground masala, jaggery, and mix. Cover the pan with a lid. Cook on medium to medium-low flame for 5 minutes. Now open the lid and cook uncovered for another 5 minutes. Adjust salt if needed. Add coriander leaves and cook for another 3 minutes or until the it thickens to desired consistency.

If you cannot find tamarind, add tomatoes or lemon juice to introduce tanginess and balance the spiciness. Jaggery can be substituted with sugar or brown sugar. Reduce the amount of chilies to taste. If you do not have both varieties of chilies available, simply substitute them with regular red chile powder in the recipe. If you want the dish to be rich, increase the amount of butter or ghee. Marination is done so that the chicken remains juicy and tender. Having said that, you can skip the marination time if you are in a hurry.