Chettinadu Chicken Curry

My first non-vegetarian dish on my blog...

Chettinad cuisine is the cuisine of the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu state in South India. Chettinad is one of the driest regions of south India. The Chettiar community, who are a majority in this region are a very successful trading community. Chettinad cuisine is one of the spiciest and the most aromatic in India.

Chettinad cuisine is famous for its use of a variety of spices used in preparing mainly non-vegetarian food. The dishes are hot and pungent with fresh ground masalas, and topped with a boiled egg that is usually considered essential part of a meal. They also use a variety of sun dried meats and salted vegetables, reflecting the dry environment of the region. The meat is restricted to fish, prawn, lobster, crab, chicken and mutton.






Chettinad is known for its culinary delicacies. Most of the dishes are eaten with rice and rice based accompaniments such as dosais, appams, idiyappams, adais and idlis.Chettinad food, now is one of the many reasons why people get to know Chettinad. Chettinad food is essentially spicy, with a standard full meal consisting of cooked dhal, eggplant (brinjal) curry, drumstick sambar, ghee for flavouring rice, and sweet meats like payasam and paal paniyaram. "Kara kozhambu" is a highly regarded south Indian sambar.






Though i am not from the chettinad region i am in love with this regions spicy dishes..esp the non-veg dishes.Usually during weekends its this kind of stuff which is spicy that i generally prefer eating once in a while esp when its a rainy day.

So here is my tale it was a rainy sunday....a day where there is compulsary non-veg dish on the menu in my house...i bought cut up chicken the previuos day n was wondering what to cook with it other than the regular chicken briyani,or chicken fry...etc....N i was going through the non-veg section in various blogs....My face lit up with a smile as i found one beautiful recipe with a beautiful pic in sailusfood.com ...there it was chettinad chicken curry....i thought of giving it a try....Happy to say it turned out perfect...dont be afraid of the amount of oil u see in the pic because its from the coconut milk as well...

Chettinad Chicken Curry:
1 kg chicken cut into pcs

Roast n Make a Powder : On medium heat add a 1/2 a tsp of oil to a pan to this add the following in the order listed below...be sure not to burn them

1" cinammon
4 cardamon
4 cloves
1/2 tsp peppercorns
1/2 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp fennel/saunf
1 1/2 tbsp corainder seeds
5 curry leafs
6 dry red chillies

Make a paste of the following :

4 garlic cloves
1" ginger
2 green chillies (small)

Ingredients for curry
1 medium onion chopped
4 curry leaves
1/2 of big tomato
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 cup coconut milk

Heat a pressure pan/cooker with 5 tbsp oil,then add finely chopped onions and curry leaves.

Add the ground paste(ginger,garlic n green chillies)

Then add the turmeric,salt,red chillie powder n 1/2 cup water(so that the spices r not burnt)

Then add the chicken n combine well so that it gets coated well with the masala's.

Add the chopped tomato n mix n let it cook in it for 4-5min's.

Now add the 1 cup of coconut milk,mix and cover with lid,put the whistle and let it cook for 1 whistle(not more than 1 whistle).

Once the pressure comes down removw lid,put it on the stove again n let it come to a boil,now add the ground masala powder according to ur spice level.

Check for salt n spice level n cook it for 4 mins .

Remove n garnish with chopped cilantro n serve with rice or roti .

Note: U can prepare this dish with mutton(lamb)as well,but instead of 1 whistle u need to get atleast 5 whistles.