This Kerala Chicken Roast Recipe is a family favourite which Amma’s friend makes and sends over whenever us kids visit Kottayam. It is a semi-gravy chicken recipe so there’s enough to mop up with your appam and the gravy also has tons of onions. The fiery red colour and the delicious gravy of the chicken curry is sure to impress you as well.
Visits to Kottayam always involve a lot of great food. Like I was telling TH the other day, I have come to realise that my family expresses affection through food – and lots of it!
Amma goes into overdrive preparing for our visits days before we actually get there and as soon as we do, the extended family starts calling with plans of days and meals and meet ups.
Amma has a good friend who always sends food over when we get there. This Kerala Chicken Roast is one of her specialties and we love it! Once I asked her for her recipe, especially the secret of the deep lovely colour of her special Kerala Chicken Roast but she’s not one to divulge her secret recipes so I am not sure how she achieves that. Red food colour maybe or adding some water that beetroot was cooked in? I do have her basic recipe though which tastes fabulous, so here goes – Spicy Kerala Chicken Roast for you and your family to enjoy.
You may also like: Dry Indian Chilli Chicken Recipe, Chettinad Chicken Masala, Kerala Chicken Curry, and Chicken 65 Recipe.
Kerala chicken roast recipe
Ingredients
- 500 gm of chicken with bones cut into medium-sized pieces
- 4 large onions sliced long
- 4 green chillies slit lengthwise
- 1 to mato chopped
- 4 tbsp of curd
- 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
- 2 tsp of red chilli powder
- 3 tbsp of oil
- 1 tsp of cloves + cinnamon + peeled cardamom crushed together
- A pinch of red food colour optional
- 1 tsp of chicken masala
- 1 strand of curry leaves
- 1/4 tsp of fennel seeds
- 2 tsp of coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
- 3 tsp of freshly crushed garlic
- 1 tsp of freshly crushed ginger
Instructions
- Marinate the chicken pieces in curd, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, and salt for 30 mins. If you need to leave it longer, refrigerate it.
- Heat oil and add the mustard seeds and fennel seeds. When they pop and sizzle, add the sliced onions and green chillies. Reduce flame to medium-low and fry the onions until they turn golden brown. The amount of oil at this stage should be on the higher side so add sufficient amount to fry the onions
- Next, add the coriander powder and the freshly crushed spices (cloves, cardamom, cinnamon) and fry for 10 seconds. Top off with the ginger garlic paste and sautè for another 30 seconds until the mixture turns fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes, food colour (if using) and curry leaves and mix well. Cook until the tomatoes turn soft - about 3 mins.
- Dunk the marinated chicken pieces into this mixture and increase the flame to medium-high. Cook stirring frequently until the chicken pieces begin to roast. You don't have to add any water, the meat will let out water as it cooks. Adjust salt and keep roasting until the chicken is cooked soft. This will take about 20-25 mins. If you feel the chicken is not cooking well, cook closed to speed up the process. The curry will be watery in this case so once the chicken is cooked, cook on an open flame until your desired consistency is reached.
- When the chicken has roasted and most of the water has been cooked off, add the chicken masala and mix well. Cook for another minute and remove from fire.
Serve the spicy Kerala chicken roast with Kerala appam or steamed white rice.
looks delicious Nags, I will try this method at home, hope it will be tasty.
Hi Nags,
Thanks a ton for this recipe. My wife was in quarantine so I was manning the kitchen. This recipe turned out to be ….aaaawsommme… Now the kids and wife want me to make chicken recipes in future… :).
Thank you again.
Praveen
so good to hear 🙂
loved it! its not to dry, neither a gravy. yes, the water from the chicken was enough. i blended the onions, tomatoes, ginger & garlic.. so i have a smooth paste to eat with the rotis, and so that my LO can eat without complaint!
its fast and easy!
Thank you Shuba!
Loved this recipe. Quick, easy tasty. Not too dry. Made it last week and cant get enough. Made it again today so my son can taste it when he gets back home
thank you so much!
Hi,
This question is from a pure vegetarian wife who loves to cook for her chicken-loving husband, so please excuse my ignorance. What do you mean by chicken pieces? Which part of the chicken is this? Here in North American stores, chicken is packaged as drumsticks, thighs, breasts, etc.
Thank you!!!
Deepthi
hi deepthi, kudos for cooking meat for your husband 🙂 you can use chicken breast cubes for this recipe.
Tried the chicken roast recipe. Taste very nice. Tq for the post
In some recipes they use coconut milk instead of curd. Whats the difference between the two? Which one is actually more authentic? Could you suggest me? Im confused.
Both are fine. Every region and family make it differently.
Different tastes for sure. However, curd has the property of tenderizing the meat and coconut milk does not. Using curd will have the effect of using lime juice or vinegar in your marinade. Adding coconut milk will completely change the flavour profile of this dish. But, IMHO, it will taste great with coconut milk as well.
I tried the recipe… but the below crushed combination some how made the gravy sweet and different taste which we didnt like… it would be good if you can tell home many cloves and others to be used.
1 tsp of cloves + cinnamon + peeled cardamom, crushed together
You can increase the amount of chilli powder
Do you mean crush together whole cloves , sticks of cinnamon?
no the cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom. I have updated the recipe to be clear 🙂
Hi…thanks for the recipe…I tried it at home…everyone loved the taste…didn’t use the colour though…also I had added few cashew nuts…wish I could send u the picture…but there is no option here…Please post such type of recipes again…would love to try more of it recipes…thankyou
i will surely try to post more such recipes. thanks for trying 🙂