What is that one thing you really like to cook often? Like on a weekday? I will have to say chicken as I simply love experimenting with this meat. Chicken tastes good no matter what cuisine you want to experiment with. Infact, it tastes good to me even if it has just been boiled with a little salt. I remember stealing tiny pieces of freshly boiled chicken that my mum used to prepare for some dish.
When we were in Mumbai I used to have a designated day for chicken – Wednesday. I would plan our meals for the week in such a way that on Wednesdays we would have chicken in any form – on the bone, boneless or minced/ground. Sometimes I would roast a whole chicken
and serve it with simple steamed or stir fried veggies. Most times we liked to have the chicken, semi gravy type with rice in the afternoons and then with chapathis in the evening.
I have tried to continue the same tradition here and so I generally bookmark chicken recipes and pin up the recipes on my kitchen pin board. I came across this recipe in J.B. Lobo’s Home Encyclopedia, the Konkani version and although I was skeptical at first about the outcome, was rather pleased with it. The recipe called for a lot of shallow frying and although you can see the pieces coated with a little masala in the pictures, by evening the chicken had absorbed all of it and what remained were beautifully dry pieces of chicken. Yummy!
Unfortunately I couldn’t get the best shots of this dish as we were ravenously hungry and just wanted to gobble it up. Chicken Pepper Dry is something you can try on a boring weekday when you want to make something easy and not elaborate. This dish goes very well with chapathis or piping hot rice and tomato saar (watery tomato & pepper soup) or any kind of dal (check the recipes here – daliso saar, dalitove, panchmel dal)
For more chicken recipes (dry dishes, without gravy) – check the links at the bottom of this post
If you have tried and liked any of my recipes please do click a picture of it and email it to me at ruchikrandhap@gmail.com. I will post the picture on my Facebook page in the tried & tested section called ‘I Made This!’ It not only encourages me a lot but also helps new readers and beginners to confidently try new recipes from Ruchik Randhap. Thank you in advance!
https://youtu.be/b_9niLtF8Z4
Chicken Pepper Dry
Prep time: 15 mins | Cook time: 20 mins | Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 kg chicken
- 1 small onion finely sliced
- 2 tablespoons ghee or oil
- Juice of 1/2 a lime (approx 1 tablespoon), divided
- Salt to taste
For the masala:
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns (adjust to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 fat cloves of garlic
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 big onion
Method:
1. Cut the chicken into medium sized pieces, wash and allow to drain on a colander for 5-10 mins. Transfer into a large bowl and marinate it with salt to taste and 1 teaspoon lime juice. Keep aside till required.
2. Grind the coriander, peppercorns, cumin, tumeric to a fine powder and then add the ginger, garlic, onion to make a very fine paste. Add water only if required. Remove the masala into a bowl and retain the masala water from the grinder.
3. In a heavy based pan heat the ghee/oil and fry the sliced onions till golden brown. Add the ground masala and fry on a medium-low heat till the raw smell of the onions vanishes and the masala leaves the sides of the pan.
4. Add the chicken, mix well so that all the masala coats the pieces evenly. Add the reserved masala water (approx 1/2 cup) and extra salt if required. Cover the pan and cook on a low heat till the chicken is tender and the masala has thickened up – If you need it with a little masala, remove from heat now – or else continue to fry for some more time till the masala reduces – take care to see that the pieces don’t get scorched up!
5. When the chicken has cooked, sprinkle lime juice, gently mix and remove from the heat. Serve hot with rice or chapathis.Have you tried these?
Chicken Ghee Roast
Chicken Molagu Masala
Peshawar Style Chicken Curry
Palak Methi Murgh
Chicken Pepper Masala
Kori Aajadina (Bunt Style Chicken Sukka)
Kombi Sukhi (Catholic Style Chicken Sukka)
Palak Chicken
Chicken Chops (Semi Dry Chicken)
5. When the chicken has cooked, sprinkle lime juice, gently mix and remove from the heat. Serve hot with rice or chapathis.Have you tried these?
Chicken Ghee Roast
Chicken Molagu Masala
Peshawar Style Chicken Curry
Palak Methi Murgh
Chicken Pepper Masala
Kori Aajadina (Bunt Style Chicken Sukka)
Kombi Sukhi (Catholic Style Chicken Sukka)
Palak Chicken
Chicken Chops (Semi Dry Chicken)
Looks delicious and chicken dry curry makes me hungry..
luks so delicious, my mouth is watering//..
Tried this last night for dinner… Instant hit with the family…
@ Blossom: Thanks for your feedback! Happy to hear that 🙂
Hi. It turned out tasty. But used this masala propotions for approx 500gms chicken. And my dad was still asking if there is more Masala!!!
@ Trinette: Glad to hear that 🙂 Thanks for your feedback!
Hi Shireen
Tried this it was fantastic. Tweaked it a bit and added one teaspoon of fennel seeds and a handful of chopped coriander leaves. The flavour was amazing. Reminded me of Mom’s cooking.
Hi Shireen
I tried this yesterday. It was so delicious. Reminded me of the chicken Mum used to make when I was a child.Thanks for the recipe. I added a teaspoon of fennel seeds and 3 tbs of coriander leaves. The taste was still great.
Thanks so much Jane! So glad you liked it 🙂
Flop receipe. The photo shown definitely does not belong here.
Sorry to hear that the recipe flopped for you. If you followed it to a tee you cannot go wrong.
For the record, I don’t use random pictures to represent my recipes. What pictures you see is what I have tried. I can assure you that much. If you told me what went wrong I could have helped you.
Sorry Shireeen what I expected was a blackish stuff as it mentioned pepper but it turned out to be yellowish. Not what I was expecting to make . But no doubt it tasted good the next day. Thanks.
Nelsin,
For me it is hard to tell if you used a little extra turmeric or did not fry the onions properly because these two are major factors in giving the dish the colour it should get.
When you leave a negative comment and call my recipe a flop just because the colour did not turn out exactly like the picture it really affects my reputation and pulls me down even momentarily. People like my recipes because they consider them to be fool proof (you can check the comments below this recipe also – it is a tried & tested recipe)
In the end your dish will be a hit or flop depending on how well you have understood and executed a recipe, isn’t it? That should have nothing to do with my photos.
Excellent dish. My family just loved it. Have tried quite a few of your dishes and they have always taste so good. Thank you for sharing such great recipes.
Thank you so much for the great feedback Sheila!! Happy to hear that!