Karaikudi Chicken Fry
Also called as Karaikudi Chicken Varuval, is a spicy semi-dry recipe that is very tasty and the best side dish for chapathi, rice or any rice crepes. It is a wonderful combination of all the spices, and the fried coconut and the chicken. For the Karaikudi chicken varuval, the chicken is marinated and kept aside, while the spices and coconut are dry roasted and ground into a fine paste, which is then added to the sauteed onion and tomatoes and mixed with the marinated chicken and cooked until done. When adding the spices, ALWAYS REMEMBER TO ADD THE SPICES AS PER YOUR SPICE LEVEL. You would need to adjust the spices accordingly.
Ingredients
Marinating chicken
- 600 gms Boneless Chicken cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 tsp Chili powder
- 1 tsp Black Pepper Powder
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- Salt to taste
Dry roasting
- 3 or 4 Dried Red Chilies
- ½ tbsp Coriander seeds
- ½ tbsp Peppercorns
- 3 Cloves
- ½ inch Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Cumin seeds
- ½ tsp Fennel seeds
- 1 tsp Ginger
- 1 tsp Garlic
- Curry leaves
- ¼ cup Shredded coconut
For the gravy
- 1½ tbsp Coconut oil
- 1 big Onion chopped
- 2 tsp Chili powder
- 2 tsp Coriander powder
- 1 medium Tomato chopped
- 3/4 cup Water
- 2 Green Chilies (optional) cut into halves
- 1/4 cup Cilantro chopped
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Marinating the chicken
- Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients given under the "marinating " section
- Then keep it aside for 30mins
Dry roasting and grinding
- Into a dry pan kept on medium flame, dry roast all the ingredients under the "dry roasting section" until the coconut turns brown (not dark brown)
- Once roasted, keep it aside to cook down and the move into a grinder
- Add 2 or 3 tbsp of water and grind into a fine or smooth paste
- Keep the paste aside
Preparing the gravy and the fry
- Into a skillet, pour coconut oil and let it get heated up
- To it add the chopped onions and stir until sauteed
- Once sauteed, add the chili powder and coriander powder and mix well until the raw smell of the powders fade and the onions turn glossy
- After that add the chopped tomato and stir until the tomatoes turn mushy
- To it add the ground paste, wash off all the masalas in the grinder jar by adding 1/4 cup water and pour that into the pan
- Mix well to the sauteed onions and tomatoes
- Let the gravy boil
- As the gravy starts boiling add the marinated chicken and mix well
- Add salt to taste and curry leaves and mix well
- Add 1/4 cup of water to the chicken and mix
- Close and cook for 25 mins, stirring intermittently
- After that keep stirring until the water is reduced
- Then finally add the green chilies(optional) and the coriander leaves or cilantro and mix well
- Serve hot with rice or roti.
Video
Notes
This is almost similar to the chettinadu chicken curry but this Karaikudi chicken varuval is more semi-dry.
As a traditional recipe, we cannot make many changes to the recipe. But still we could add the spices according to your spice level. I have added ginger and garlic while dry roasting and hence, i did not add while making the gravy. Dry roasting the ginger and garlic would give it a kind of smoky flavor that would add extra flavor to the fry.
Do not add too much water to the gravy, as it would make it into a curry form. So add alternatively and keep checking if the water is enough to prevent the chicken from getting burnt while getting cooked.
Unlike other fry recipes, it is not that kind of fry where pieces stay apart but this one has a little gravy which is extremely tasty.
Try this out and I’m sure you also would love it just as we did.
Lots of Love,
TheLemonGinger
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