Chicken Saaru is an amazing Gowda style spicy chicken curry which tastes amazing with some traditional Jowar Roti! A perfect lunch option!
And its Saturday again and with Saturday, comes Kitchen Divas. This time I bring to you Jowar Roti and Chicken Saaru. My house help (the live in as well as the one that comes for what we call as top work) are becoming my go-to resource for the Karnataka recipes. It is so much fun discussing techniques, food, habits with them.
This chicken saaru recipe is directly from the village of the house help. They call it the Gowda Style Chicken Saaru and typically eat it with either jowar rotis or Ragi mudde. The thick gravy is spicy with an undertone of coriander and the tang from tomato, I think it is perfect for the hand rolled jowar rotis.
At this point of time, I have to add a little note on the chicken I buy. For the past few years, I have been fast running away from chicken. I find it tasteless and I would often see myself reaching out for veg food if the choice is limited to chicken and veg. Also, the thought of injected antibiotics and hormones have been looming in your head. I had almost stopped eating chicken, till I discovered free range organic range and now we are back to eating chicken regularly at home. In fact, I have moved completely to organic when it comes to milk, chicken and eggs. Somehow, I can’t get myself to eat non organic versions of this. For notes of where I buy this.
Milk – Aksayakalpa
Eggs – Kansal or Happy Hens
Chicken – Lumiere (they also have a lot of other organic stuff which I love)
What I loved about the whole process of making this dish was making of the jowar rotis. Kneaded with warm water, rolled thin with hands. It reminded me of my granny and the way she used to roll makki ki rotis in winter. Nostalgia, big time 🙂
Jowar Roti and Chicken Saaru (Gowda style spicy chicken curry)
Ingredients
For the Jowar Roti
- 1 cup Jowar Atta
- pinch salt
- water warm water to knead the atta
For Chicken Saaru
- 1/2 kg chicken cut in medium sized pieces
- 2 onion finely chopped
- 2 tsps oil
- Handful curry leaves
- to taste salt
For the masala paste
- 1/4 cup coconut
- 4 tomatoes ripe
- 1/2 cup coriander leaves fresh
- 2 green chillies
- 2 chillies dry red
- 1/2 inch ginger
- 3 to 4 pods garlic
- 2 tsps poppy seeds
- 1 tbsp dal roasted channa
- 1 tbsp sambhar powder
Instructions
- The Jowar Roti
- Knead jowar atta and warm water to make a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 6-8 minutes till it is really soft.
- Now distribute in 10 portions, roll out each portion using chakla and dusted hands into a really thin roti. This is the trickiest part. My househelp showed me a couple of them and then I was able to roll. Initially you might not be able to roll it very thin, its ok make it as thin as possible.
- Cook this on a really hot tawa. Now as soon as you put the roti on the tava using a tissue paper or a brush, wet the side on the top with water. This helps keeping the roti soft.
- Flip and cook the other side.
- For the Chicken Saaru.
- Dry roast poppy seeds till they start turning brown. Grind these with the rest of the masala ingredients into a smooth paste. Adding as little water as possible.
- Now in a heavy bottom pan, heat 2 tsp oil. Add curry leaves and onions. Fry till onions are translucent.
- To this add the masala paste and 1 tsp oil and cook for 8-10 minutes till the masala is fully cooked. You will have to keep stirring this often since it can get stuck at the bottom.
- Now add the chicken pieces and fry for 5 minutes till they are coated with the masala.
- Add about 2 cups of hot water to this and continue cooking till the chicken is cooked and you have a thick brownish gravy. Serve hot with jowar rotis or ragi mudde or rice.
this is really a great article… the receipe is amazing