Intro:

If you’ve ever lived/visited Mangalore, you NEVER leave without trying the legendary ghee roast masala, made using either chicken, seafood or paneer. It’s spicy, juicy and incredibly tasty! This has been my most popular video on my IGTV so far, and I thought I should share a text-only version of it also for those who hate following videos as they cook (aka my sister :P) Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

Chicken:

• 1 kg chicken
• 6 cups water
• 6 tbsp salt 
• 1 tsp turmeric powder

Masala Paste:

• 20 Byadagi chillies
• 6 tbsp ghee
• 3 tbsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp jeera 
• 1 tsp saunf 
• 1/2 methi
• 2 tsp pepper 
• 12 cloves of garlic 
• 1 marble-sized tamarind pulp
• 1 tsp jaggery
• 1 tsp salt
• 10-12 cashews
• 2 sprigs Curry leaves 

How to:

Prepping the Chicken:

1. First we brine the chicken, which has been marinated in some turmeric powder. The brining technique helps meat remain juicy even when cooked for long periods of time. 
2. Add water until it covers the chicken and for every cup of water added, add 1 tbsp of salt and set aside for 1 hour.
3. Drain the water and wash to remove excess salt
4. Melt 1 tbsp ghee in a deep pan and add chicken, fry until ¾ cooked and set aside. 

Masala Paste:

1. Soak Byadagi chillies in warm water for 15 minutes. 
2. In a flat pan, add coriander seeds, jeera seeds, saunf seeds, methi seeds, and some peppercorns and roast them. 
3. Once that cools, add it to a grinder along with the soaked chillies, garlic and tamarind.
4. Blend it, and add water to make it a fine, smooth paste.
5. In a deep bottomed pan, melt 1-2 tbsp of ghee and add the masala paste. 
6. Fry it, adding more ghee if it dries out too much.
7. Fry until the oil starts to separate and it looks textured
8. Add the cooked chicken and mix well, make sure the masala coats every piece. 
9. Add curry leaves, jaggery, salt and cashews (optional)
10. Serve atop a banana leaf, garnish with curry leaves and lime.

Notes:

1. If you don’t have byadagi chilli, you can substitute it with Kashmiri chilli – but use half the amount of Kashmiri chillis.
2. Make sure the masala is well fried and cooked through – the caramelisation of the spices gives it another layer of complexity (yes I have been watching a lot of Masterchef)
3. Serve with a light side dish – it is traditionally eaten with neer dosa which is almost crepe-like made with rice flour, but I love eating it with idli, dosa, rice etc – basically anything mild/bland to counter the flavour explosion that this is