Chettinad chicken curry/ how to make chicken chettinad in pressure cooker

Chettinad chicken curry, a flavourful, spicy curry loaded with fresh homemade masala, is delicious curry from the Chettinad region of South India. This chicken curry is a popular dish in India and the most sought chicken curry in restaurants.

The specialty of this chicken curry is the spices used. You can alter the spices according to your palate’s preferences. In this chicken Chettinad, I used simple ingredients readily available in every pantry. The specialty of this dish is that you make it as a curry or a dry chicken Chettinad. It is purely optional.

What makes Chettinad chicken curry special?

Firstly, the masalas are the key in all Chettinad cuisine. Yes, strictly no store-bought masalas are used. Secondly, frying the spices is very important. It beautifully imparts the flavour of the spices. And lastly, the choice of chicken pieces. The bone-in chicken gives flavour and juicy texture to the dish, which takes the Chettinad chicken to the next level.

What is Chicken Chettinad curry?

Chettinad chicken is a spicy hot chicken curry with an irresistible flavour of freshly ground masalas. Traditionally it is made of spicy red chilies, kalpasi (stone flower), and shallots. Here in this recipe, I slightly changed a few spices according to my tastes. No Chettinad chicken is the same! Always a few changes are negligible in all Chettinad recipes.

Ingredients need to make this recipe

The measurements are given below in the recipe card. There are two tabs. One is the US cup, and the other is Metric measurements. Do click the tab according to your preference.

Chicken – Use chicken with bones to make this curry as the bones add lots of juicy flavours.

For grinding the masalas –

• fresh peppercorns – I love peppercorns for non-veg recipes. In this recipe, I did not use red chilies and used peppercorns.
• cumin seeds
• fennel seeds
• cinnamon
• cloves
• onion
• ginger
• garlic

How is Chettinad chicken curry made?

This recipe is easy and quick to make in a pressure cooker. Get ready with all the ingredients. In a frying pan, add little oil and roast the spices to perfection. As I mentioned, roasting the spices to perfection is the key to the flavourful Chettinad chicken curry. Roast the spices on a low medium flame. Keep the roasted spices aside.

In the same pan, add chopped shallots, onions, ginger, and garlic and saute for a few minutes until the onions and shallots turn translucent. Let it cool completely. Now grind the spices and onions together, adding little water to a paste consistency. It is the base masala paste for the Chettinad chicken curry.

In a pressure cooker, add oil on medium heat. Add the ground masala paste and turmeric powder and saute until the oil separates. Then add the cleaned chicken legs and salt to taste. Saute well until the masalas coat the chicken. Then add a cup of water to the chicken and pressure cook for only three minutes. Switch off the flame and wait till the steam settles.

Open the lid and let it boil for five minutes. Delicious, flavourful, spicy Chettinad chicken curry is ready. Garnish it with curry leaves and serve it with piping hot rice, rotis, or any flavoured rice.

Chicken recipes you may like to try

Let’s see how to prepare step-by-step preparation of Chettinad chicken curry?

Get ready with all the spices, which are the main ingredients for this recipe.

In a wide pan or Kadai, add half a teaspoon of oil on low, medium heat. Add all the spices and roast until the robust flavour imparts from the whole spices.

For this recipe, I used half the quantity of shallots and half the quantity of big onions, six garlic cloves, and an inch of ginger.

Add little oil to the same pan and saute the onion, ginger, and garlic until the onions turn translucent.

Grind to a coarse and slight smooth paste, as shown in the picture. The aromatic spice paste is ready for the Chettinad chicken curry.

In a pressure cooker, add three tablespoons of oil on medium heat. To it, add the ground masala paste and saute for a minute.

Add the cleaned chicken drumstick, turmeric powder, and salt to taste.

Gently mix the chicken pieces into the masala paste until the masalas coat well.

Finally, add a cup of water and pressure cook for three minutes on a high flame.

After three minutes, switch off the flame and wait until the pressure subsides completely. Open the lid and check the consistency of the curry. According to your preference for the curry, add water. Mine was perfect for the rice.

Let the curry boil for a minute. Garnish with curry leaves and switch off the flame.

Serving suggestions

Chettinad chicken/ Chicken Chettinad is served with hot piping steamed rice, roti, idlis, dosas, or any Indian breakfast and flavoured rice.

Variations

This recipe is the basic curry recipe for all Non-Veg and Veg lovers. You can follow the same method to make Mutton Chettinad, Fish Chettinad, and Prawn Chettinad. Vegetarian lovers, you can use mixed vegetables, paneer, soya chunks, and Tofu for Vegan. Make sure to add paneer and Tofu at the end of the cooking process.

If you make this recipe, please let me know what you think! I would so appreciate you leaving a star rating and/ or comment below, which means a lot to me. Happy Cooking!

Notes

• Use bone-in chicken to achieve flavourful chicken.
• Roast whole spices to perfection until you get the robust flavour.
• You can use only shallots for this recipe or 50:50 of shallots and onions.
• Do not use store-bought ginger garlic paste. Use fresh ginger and garlic cloves for this masala.
• You can use any oil for this recipe. The best I RECCOMEND is sesame oil ( gingelly oil ).