Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Chicken Roast (Kerala Style)

Autumn is here and I love it! Finally we have some awaited cool weather. I hope you are enjoying good weather where ever you are as much I am. This morning, enjoying the cool breeze blowing in through my patio, bright sunlight finding its way through the lattice work and with some joyous music playing on my CD, I cooked. Have you tried cooking with music? It’s wonderful, rather therapeutic I should say.
So, what did I cook? I made naadan (Kerala style) chicken roast, chocolate chip muffins and healthy bran muffins. No, they are all not for today but it will take us through the rest of the week.
Now, having given you a glimpse of my day let me get down to business. The 'naadan' (country style) chicken roast recipe I am sharing comes from my mom which she got from her mother so we are talking some authentic Kerala cooking today. I spoke to both my mom and her sister so I guess I need to give them both the credit. They are like most of our parents; if you ask them how to make something they will rattle along, oh that, simple! Take a little of this and a little more of that put them all in together give it a good stir and voila! The dish is ready. It took me a couple of conversations with both my mom and aunt to get to the bottom of how much a little bit of this and a little bit more of that means. Either ways, I must tell you after a couple of experiments I have quite mastered the ROAST! Every time I make this dish we lap it up like we have been starving for days. So go ahead and try this and enjoy it with some rice or chapatti!

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Ingredients:

Chicken - 4 lbs approximately 2 Kg
Whole red chili - 30 nos seeded
Shallots - 1 lb 450 gms
Ginger - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 1/4 cup
Vinegar - 2 tbspn
Salt - to taste
Garam Masala - 1 tbspn
Turmeric - 1/2 tspn
Coconut Oil or any oil of preference - 4 tbspn
Curry Leaves - 4 sprigs
Potato - 1 thinly sliced rounds
Friend onions for garnishing

Method:

1. Marinate chicken in 1 tbspn vinegar, 1/2 tspn turmeric and a little salt for 1 hour
2. Soak red chillies in 1 tbspn vinegar mixed with 1 tbspn of water after taking out the seed and leave it for a while to soak. (split chili in half and tap it to get the seeds off).  Add a little water to the vinegar
3. Crush the ginger, garlic, shallots and the soaked red chillies and add the mixture to the chicken and cook for 20 min on medium fire
5. Heat oil in a pan and on medium fire shallow fry the chicken and set aside
6. Once all the chicken pieces are fried (read golden brown on both sides) pour the gravy into the pan and cook till oil clears the pan
7. Pour the gravy on top of the fried chicken
8. Decorate with fried potatoes, onions and cashew nuts

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Contributor: Sunitha

18 comments:

  1. That looks so yummy. Will def try this when I make chicken next time.Great pics too...:-) Way to go !!!

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  2. mmmhhh...Tempting. Suni,I am coming there..I just have to taste that.

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  3. Wow kidilam pics...iyoooo ravile kothipikananooooo.....

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  4. Thanks alot for visiting my blog da.Chicken roast super!!!!yummmm..

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  5. Hey..
    Thanx a lot for visiting Vazhayila and leading me to ur lovely space...
    ENtamme....chicken adipoli...
    and wat a coincidence...chicken roast ayirunnu innale enikkum...
    but dfntly better than mine...hahhaha
    Keep rocking Girl

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  6. Thank u for stopping by and leaving a lovely comment.chicken roast looks tempting!!!adipoli aayirikkunnutooo!!!keep in touch...:)

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  7. First time here ...Wonderful space and the chicken roast looks awesome.. Keep going. Will be back often and I am following you from now.

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  8. thank u for dropping by my blog and leaving ur lovely comments.....ur chicken roast looks yummmy........

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  9. That looks so yummy & spicy...would love to have this one...

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  10. Thank you all for stopping by and leaving your notes. Please let me know in case you need any help following the recipe

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  11. looks lipsmacking....

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  12. Wow !!!. Mouthwatering recipe & pics.. Pandu Nattakom shappil poyathu orma varunnu..

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  13. Goodness, that's some tasty looking chicken! Nice recipe :)

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  14. This Roast is looking out of this world! next time when i am having some dull dishes will open this page and eat what i have

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  15. hi..it looks so yummy..mouthwatering...:) But I have a few doubts, where I wasn't able to understand it completely..
    i) When it says, 'Soak red chillies', it means to soak them in water, right?
    ii) Crush the ginger, garlic and other ingredients, should I add any water and should I have to crush them to a paste or just a coarse mix?
    iii) I would also like to know if you need to add any water while cooking the chicken? And in the list, it says 2 tbsp vinegar, but the recipe uses only 1 tbsp..Could u pls clear that also?

    It would be great if you could please let me know these things...
    Thank you..

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  16. I tried this today and it came out awesome :D BTW I was so lazy to soak the chillies, so I used chilli powder ;-) Thanks a ton dear...

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  17. Thank you Devarenjini for your question and quite valid.

    1. You do not have to add any water while grinding however, if your mixer does not allow it go ahead but make sure its very little
    2. Corrected vinegar.. 1 tbspn to marinage chicken and another tbspn to soak the chillies.. I have corrected recipe to add a little water so there is enough liquid to soak
    3. Do not add water while cooking chicken especially if you are adding water to grind etc. Originally, we never add any water whatsoever because the chicken gives off water while cooking and this is quite a dry to semi wet gravy..

    I hope the explanations are clear

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  18. hey sunitha...i tried this recipe for christmas....it came out so well...i have never made fresh chili paste before had always used chili powder...the color of the paste was just so rich n fresh...:)...just wanted to check one thing with you...you haven't mentioned when we need to add the garam masala that is thr in the ingredients...i added it in step number 3...just thgt i will let u know incase u had missed it...once again thank u for this recipe...its dfntly a keeper...:)

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