Chicken Ghee Roast

Chicken Ghee Roast

This one is definitely not for the faint hearted (read: delicate stomach). Only those with a ‘brawny-tummy’ should go for this. People used to Kolhapuri and Goan food will freak out on this, for the rest of you, here’s a disclaimer… make it at your own risk ;-)

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken (cut to medium pieces)

Juice of 1 lemon

100 grams curds/yogurt

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

Salt to taste

30 long red chilies (Kashmiri)

8 small red dry chilies or dry red Gavran chilies

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

¾ teaspoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoons peppercorns

½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds

15 large garlic flakes

A small one inch ball tamarind

1 cup ghee

5½ teaspoons sugar 

Few curry leaves

2 tablespoons coriander leaves, chopped

Pic taken with flash 'on'

Method:

1. Marinate chicken in yogurt/curds, salt, turmeric powder and lemon juice. Refrigerate for 4 hours or more. 
2. Soak the tamarind in 3 tablespoons hot water.
3. Roast long and small red chilies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorn and fenugreek seeds and grind along with tamarind and garlic to thick and fine paste.
4. Place a large pan on medium high flame and add 1/4 cup ghee, when ghee is hot add all the marinated chicken and cook till almost done. Transfer the chicken to a vessel. Reserve the liquid released by the chicken in the separate bowl. Keep this aside.
5. To the same pan add remaining ghee and add the masala paste, fry for 5 to 7 minutes till the raw smell disappears and oil leaves the side of the masala.
6. Now add the fried chicken, check for seasoning balance, and half cup of reserved liquid. Fry for 5 to 7 minutes till the masala dries up.
7. Now add sugar, curry leaves and coriander leaves. Take off flame and serve.

Chef’s Notes:

1. This is an extremely hot (spicy) dish so if you are planning to use the amount of chilies mentioned you're going to need a fire brigade to douse the fire within. If you aren't used to spicy stuff I would advise you to reduce the quantity of chilies.
2. As in regard to marinating the chicken for 4 hours or more, I concentrated on the word ‘more’ and marinated it overnight, in the fridge. I would definitely advise that because I believe when marinated overnight the flavors infuse better.
3. The amount of sugar mentioned is five and half teaspoons. Even after having added that the chicken was spicy as hell but the flavors were perfectly balanced.
4. This recipe is courtesy Cherie's Stolen Recipes.
5. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.