My brother used to bring this dish from restaurant during my india visit. It is definitely a delicious dish. Chicken ghee roast is a Mangalore (a city in southern India) delicacy. It is a popular dish among Tulu community as well as in the restaurants. Few years back during my visit, my SIL prepared this and I loved her preparation. This recipe was given to me by my SIL, Deepa Baliga. I have made few changes to suit my taste.

 

Ingredients

2lb boneless Chicken

2tablespoons coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

10-15 peppercorns

¼ teaspoon fenugreek( methi) seeds

8 garlic cloves

3 cloves

10 byadgi dried red chillies (or 2 teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder)

3 dried red chillies

1 teaspoon tamarind pulp extracted

1 medium sized red onion

Ghee 7-8 tablespoons

Salt to taste

For marination

½ Lemon

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ cup thick yoghurt

1teaspoon kashmiri red chilli powder

½ tsp salt

 

Method

Cut chicken into small cubes about an inch size. Marinate it with curds, lemon juice, and Kashmiri red chilli powder for about 2 hours or overnight.

Roast the spices in a teaspoon of oil, coriander, cumin, peppercorns, fenugreek, cloves, red chillies. Set aside.

Chop garlic and onion into small pieces. Fry garlic first golden brown, set aside. Pan fry the onions till golden brown. Grind the roasted spices, onion, garlic into a smooth paste.

Take 2 tablespoons of ghee in a pan and cook the marinated chicken till ¾ done. Don’t add any water while cooking. The chicken gives out water while cooking and yoghurt also becomes watery. Remove the liquid and put it in a container. Add the remaining 5-6 tablespoons of ghee and the masala that was ground to the chicken, add salt and start roasting the chicken for about 10-15 minutes. When it thickens and aromatic add the liquid that you had kept aside. Cook for another 10 minutes or so until the masala covers the chicken pieces well. Check the taste. Add salt or spice if required. Garnish with either curry leaves or coriander leaves. It can be served with ghee rice, or zeera rice, or chapati etc.

Notes: if the yoghurt is sour, skip tamarind or reduce the quantity. You can use small pieces of chicken with bones too for this dish.