Madurai Chicken Roast | Chicken Thokku Fry | Restaurant Style Chicken Masala

Madurai Chicken Roast

Madurai being the third largest city in Tamil Nadu is famous for many historical places and for their unique culinary style. Few of their famous recipes include Paruthi paal, jigarthanda, panangkarkandu paal and chettinadu varieties like appam, kuzhi paniyaram, etc. Tasty, lip smacking food with a sure droolworthy eyecatching platters are not for the faint hearted. You will find many aromatic recipes that are sure to tickle your tastebuds. Today I am sharing one such recipe that will keep your tastebuds asking for more- a spicy Madurai Chicken Roast/ Chicken Thokku Fry. A simple dish but filled with tons of flavours, the secret is in the method of cooking and using small onion/ shallots & gingelly oil. Now lets move on to the recipe.

Chicken Thokku Masala

MADURAI CHICKEN ROAST | CHICKEN THOKKU FRY

Recipe Source - Own
Serves - 4 people generously
Prep time - 5 mins
Cook time - 20-25 mins
Serving Suggestion - Sambar, Rasam, Curd, white rice

Ingredients

To Marinate

Chicken thigh - 500 gms
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste

To Grind 

Bay leaf - 1
Cinnamon - 1" stick
Cloves - 4 nos
Cardamom - 4 nos
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Jeera/ Cumin - 1 tsp

For Thokku 

Gingely oil - 2 tbsp
Small onions / shallots - 15 nos, chopped
Onion (medium) - 1 no, chopped fine
Curry leaves - 1 spring, 10 leaves
Tomato - 1 large, chopped fine
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Kashmiri red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Corrainder powder - 3 tsp
Water - 1 cup
Salt - to taste

Method

1. Wash chicken in cold running water 3 times and drain away all excess water. In a bowl add chicken pieces, salt and turmeric keep covered to be used later.
2. In a mixer grind all the ingredients mentioned under to grind into a slightly coarse powder, set aside.
3. Take a wide pan add oil once its hot, add the coarsely ground powder let it sizzle to release flavours. Now add the small onions/ shallots and saute for 3 minutes until golden. 
4. Add curry leaves, regular onions saute for 2 minutes with little salt to caramelize the onions. 
5. Add chopped tomato, ginger garlic paste and cook further for 3 minutes until mushy. 
6. Now add the marinated chicken and saute well for 5 minutes until the chicken changes colour. 
7. Add the spice powders - red chilli powder, coriander powder, kashmiri red chilli powder and saute well for 2 minutes until well combined.
8. Now add 1 cup water bring it to a boil and in high flame use a lid to cover let the curry cook for 5-7 minutes until nice and thick.
9. Remove the lid give it a stir and cook in medium flame for 7 minutes until the masala/ thokku oozes out oil and becomes thick. Check for salt and spices.
10. Switch off serve hot along with your favourite curry.

South Indian Chicken Masala

Cooks Wisdom

Step 1 

1. Adding gingelly oil and shallot in this chicken dish adds amazing taste, so do not miss adding these ingredients.

Step 2

2. This chicken thokku is mildly spicy you can increase or decrease the amount of red chilli powder in the recipe.

Step 3

3. Marinating the chicken pieces in turmeric and salt adds flavour and also softens the chicken.

Step 4

4. The flavours develop when the curry is slowly getting cooks so don't be in a hurry to run through the steps.

Step 5

5. You can reduce amount of red chilli and add pepper to make the same dish as a pepper chicken thokku masala.

SOME MORE RECIPES TO TRY

NETHILI FISH FRY
CHICKEN LOLLIPOP
CHETTINAD CHICKEN MASALABOILED EGG CURRY
CHICKEN GHEE ROAST
FRIED CHICKEN CURRY
MUTTON PEPPER FRY