Chicken Ghee Roast | Classic Chicken Dish from Coastal Karnataka

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Chicken Ghee Roast is a classic spicy-tangy delicacy from my native. It was first invented in Shetty Lunch Home in a small coastal town of Kundapur in South India, but it became popular in Mangalorean restaurants. We get to relish this dish in all places now including some restaurants in Bangalore which specialize in coastal food. Now there are many versions of this dish, I make it in two ways - one with my very handy spice mix  - Kundapur Masala Powder and the other with freshly roasted spices depending on the time I have to cook.  Either way it can not go wrong as there are two great things in this dish "Indian spices" and lots of "ghee" (clarified butter).  

One kg chicken needs about a cup of ghee, please do not skimp on the ghee as it brings out the special flavor of this dish. It's originally a spicy dish but you can reduce the amount of chillies to suit your taste. Please read on for the recipe.

 

Ingredients: 
Chicken: 1 kg
Turmeric: 1 tsp
Lemon juice:2 tbsp
Curd: 1/2 cup Salt to taste
Ghee(clarified Butter): 1 cup
Curry Leaves: 1-2 sprigs
Sugar: 1 tsp 

For the spice paste:
Dry red chillies (mild variety): 25-30
Garlic: 6-8 cloves 
Coriander seeds : 2 tbsp
Cumin Seeds:  1 tsp
Blackpepper: 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds:1/4 tsp
Tamarind paste: 1 tbsp 

Method:

1. Clean chicken and cut into medium size pieces (make gashes on the bigger pieces/drumsticks). Marinate the chicken with curd, lemon and salt, keep aside for 2-3 hours. 

2.  Heat a tsp of coconut oil and roast dry red chillies, Pepper corn, coriander, cumin and  fenugreek seeds. Grind it with tamarind paste and garlic to a thick paste, add a little water as needed. 

 or

  Take a cup of thick tamarind extract, add 4-5 tbsp of kundapur masala powder and make a thick paste. 

3. Heat 1/2 cup of ghee in a wok, add marinated chicken and saute for 10-15 mins or until the chicken is almost done. 

4. In the meantime heat the remaining ghee in a small pan add curry leaves and let it crisp up a bit, add the spice paste, sugar,a pinch of salt and fry until the spice paste is roasted nicely and ghee separates. 

5. Now add the roasted spice paste to half cooked chicken in the wok and cook the chicken. Keep sauteing until all the masala sticks to the chicken and dries out. 

6. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve as a starter or as a side dish with Dose/Appams.  

 
 

  

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Hesarubele panchakajjaya / Split green gram panchakajjaya

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Panchakajjaya is a sweet dish popular from coastal Karnataka made mostly during Ganesha Festival as offering (Naivedya). There are five main ingredients in this, green gram, jaggery, coconut, Ghee and Cashews.  It's believed that panchakajjaya is Lord Ganesha's favorite food. Here is my mother's recipe that I follow.

Ingredients:

Hesaru bele / Split green gram: 1/2 cup
Grated Coconut: 1/2 cup
Jaggery: 1/4 cup
Cashew: 10
Clarified Butter/Ghee: 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder: 1 pinch

Method:

1. Dry Roast green gram in a pan until they are golden in color and keep aside.

2. Heat ghee in the same pan and fry cashews and transfer into a plate and keep aside.

3. In the same pan mix freshly grated coconut, jaggery and cardamom and cook for 2-3 mins. Jaggery will melt and combine with coconut.

4. To this mixture add roasted green gram and cashews and mix.

5. Alternatively you can grind the roasted green gram into a coarse powder and mix with coconut and jaggery.

5. Serve as an offering to lord Ganesha.

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Gari Gari Shankarpali | Sweet Crispy Fritters

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Shankarpali is a great tea time snack. A little sweetish with a wee bit of salt makes this a perfect sweet cum savory to munch on anytime of the day. It can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. You can pack it for picnics or munch on while watching movies. Here is the simple and easy recipe to make these crispy shankarpalis.

Ingredients:

Maida/All Purpose Flour: 4 cups
Clarified Butter/Ghee: 3/4 cup
Sugar: 1 cup
Water: 1 cup
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda: 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Heat Sugar, ghee and water in a pan until the sugar melts completely. Turn off the flame and let it cool down completely.

2. Mix in flour, salt and baking soda and add the cooled water part by part and start kneading the flour. Make a thick dough. Adjust the quantity of flour if the dough is soft. Cover the dough and keep it for one hour.

3. Roll a lemon sized dough into 1/2 cm thick sheet and cut it into diamond shaped pieces. Deep fry in hot oil on medium flame until golden brown color.

4. Remove on absorbent paper towel and store in the airtight jar. You can store it for 15 days at room temperature. I wonder who's going to leave them for 15 days ;-)

Notes:
1.Keep the flame on medium always to evenly fry the shankarpali.

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Ghee Rice

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Clarified butter or ghee rice is a very popular one pot rice dish. Rice grains roasted in ghee along with whole spices, cashew and raisins gives it a very unique taste. In coastal Karnataka it's usually served with spicy meat curries like chicken ghee roast, mutton korma or any other chicken curry. It also goes well with potato or any veg curry.

Ingredients:

Long grained rice: 2 cups

Ghee (clarified butter): 1/2 cup

Onion: 1 medium

Green chilli:1 (optional)

Green Cardamom: 3-4

Cloves : 3

Cinnamon : 1 inch sticks 2

Cashews : 10-12

Raisins : 2 tbsp

Lemon juice : 1/2 lemon

Salt to taste

Water: 4 cups

Method:

1. Wash and soak the rice in enough water for 30 mins. Drain water and keep aside until needed.

2. Slice onion and slit green chilli and keep aside.

3. In a nonstick pan heat ghee and fry cashew and raisins for 30 seconds.

4. Add cardamoms, cinnamon and clove and sauté until the ghee becomes aromatic.

5. Add sliced onion and green chilli and sauté until the onions turn golden brown.

6. Add soaked rice and fry until all the rice grains are covered with ghee and get roasted, it takes about 2-3 mins.

7. Add 4 cups of hot water, salt and lemon juice and mix well. Lemon juice helps to keep the grains separate.

8. Cover with lid and cook until the rice is done.

9. Serve hot with spicy curry of your choice.

Notes:

1. You can cook it directly in pressure cooker, in that case add 3.5 cups water and turn off after 2 whistles.

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