Varutharacha chicken curry is a spicy Kerala-style chicken curry in roasted coconut sauce. A Malabari delicacy that pairs well with neypathal, porotta, any Kerala rice, chapati, ari dosha and the likes.
Though it sounds fancy, this chicken curry with roasted coconut sauce is a staple in every Malabari Moplah home. Yes, there may be slight variations here and there but that's solely a family's affair. No two homes in my own family have the same tasting varutharacha Malabar chicken curry. Therefore, you are forgiven even if you make a few modifications but the essence of the curry is roasting the coconut and the regional garam masala.
I had tackled my mom's garam masala with the right proportions during the early days in Yanbu. Only today I take the effort to document it for the blog and therefore for you. Yes, now you can also make a small jar of my family garam masala and bring the true Moplah aroma into your home.
This is not Kerala-style chicken curry with coconut milk which is easier to make but differs in the roasted flavour. I had prepared a varatharache chicken curry, from Ummi Abdullah's book, A Kitchen Full of Stories and shared it on Instagram stories. Many of you tried it and loved it but honestly, it did not please either of us. I felt it had too much coconut for our taste and was not punching the flavours that I grew up knowing. I went back to my mom and asked her to share her recipe (I made her do it on two occasions so that I get something that she missed the first time and is not even aware of it😁)
Of course, I had to decipher the measurements for any mom's recipes. If there is one recipe that I cooked back to back several times so that I can record the best measurements for you and us, then it is this Varutharacha Malabar Kozhi Curry!
Ingredients Used
- Chicken: skinless whole chicken cut into 12 to 16 pieces
- Spice powders: coriander powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder
- garam masala powder: only Malabar garam masala
- ginger garlic paste: homemade or readymade
- green chillies: add more or less
- red onion: Slice very thinly so that it cooks down and thickens the gravy
- curry leaves: indispensable
- coconut oil: indispensable again!
- fennel seeds: indispensable
- shallots: You may replace with red onion
- freshly grated coconut: you may replace it with desiccated coconut
- tomatoes: Ripe and juicy
- dried red chillies: optional but recommended
- Salt: to taste
How to make Varutharacha Malabar Chicken Gravy
- Marinate the chicken
- Roast the coconut along with other listed ingredients
- Make the coconut tomato paste
- Cook the chicken
- Add the roasted paste
- Prepare and pour the tempering
- Serve!
- You may marinate the chicken in the same pot you plan to make the curry.
- You may roast the coconut and other stuff and then use the same pot to cook the chicken
- You may do both cooking the chicken and roasting the coconut side by side in two pans to save time!
The roasted cococnut and tomato mixture is cooled and added to mixie to make a paste.
Process the mixture to fine paste. You may add water, if required.
Meanwhile, cook the marinated chicken with a little water until cooked through.
Stir in the prepared coconut paste and bring the gravy to a simmer.
Prepare the tempering and pour and stir into the gravy. Switch off and keep covered for couple minutes before serving with rice or malabar crepes, etc.
📖 Recipe Card
Varutharacha Malabar Chicken Curry | Chicken Curry with Roasted Coconut Sauce
Ingredients
Marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight
- 800 grams skinless whole chicken, curry cut, washed and pat dried
- salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons coriander powder
- 1 tablespoon red chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon Malabar garam masala
- 2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
- 6 to 8 green chillies, slit
- 1 medium-sized red onion, sliced
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- hot water , while preparing the curry
Roast and grind to smooth paste
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 2 curry leaves
- 4 mini shallots
- ½ cup grated coconut
- 2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
- salt to taste
Tempering
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 4 mini shallots
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 2 dried red chillies
Instructions
Marination
- Add the chicken and all the marination ingredients to a large bowl and mix thoroughly.800 grams skinless whole chickensalt to taste2 tablespoons coriander powder1 tablespoon red chilli powder1 teaspoon turmeric powder½ teaspoon Malabar garam masala2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste6 to 8 green chillies1 medium-sized red onion1 tablespoon coconut oil1 sprig curry leaves
- Keep covered for 30 minutes or overnight.
Make the Coconut Sauce
- Heat coconut oil in a shallow pan.1 tablespoon coconut oil
- Add the fennel seeds and curry leaves and let them fry releasing an aroma.1 teaspoon fennel seeds2 curry leaves
- Add the shallots and grated coconut and fry until the coconut is almost browned.4 mini shallots½ cup grated coconut
- Add the chopped tomatoes and cook down until oil releases.2 medium-sized tomatoessalt to taste
- Transfer the content into a mini blender and grind to a smooth paste stopping to scrape the sides each time. The more you take time and blend, the tomato will get better colour.
Make the Chicken Curry
- Add the marinated chicken into your curry pot and cook on medium to high flame until the chicken turns white and the onions are cooked (you don't have to add water here as the chicken will release moisture).
- Add enough hot water so that the chicken pieces are barely covered and bring to a boil. Taste and adjust the salt and spices.hot water
- Cover and cook on low to medium flame until chicken is cooked.
- Reduce the flame to low and add the prepared coconut sauce and bring to a boil.
- Simmer until desired consistency while you prepare the tempering.
Make the Tempering
- Heat coconut oil in a small tadka pan.1 tablespoon coconut oil
- Fry some shallots, curry leaves and dried red chillies.4 mini shallots1 sprig curry leaves2 dried red chillies
- Pour this over the curry and switch it off.
Serve
- Stir and serve with neypathal, appams, doshas, chapatis or even rice! Refrigerate any excess gravy in an airtight container. Reheat on low after bringing to room temperature.
Sharon Subbarao says
Hello 🙂
Just to check, under where it says 'marinate for 30 mins...', at the top of the list of ingredients, do you mean that all of those are to be included in marination including chillies and curry leaves? I'm new to cooking with curry leaves and I thought that- certainly when used fresh- that they needed to be sautéed first. Thanks!
Famidha Ashraf says
Yes, they all need to be added and mixed with the chicken. Curry leaves need not be sauteed. They are usually part of the tadka (tempering) and in most of our curries, we add fresh curry leaves in the end too. Hope this helps and happy cooking!
Anna Thomas says
I made this preparation for Easter and was very happy with the result. Usually, I make stew with appam and I have a problem with leftovers because stew doesn’t really pair up with anything other than appam or bread. On the other hand, this preparation tasted awesome with appam on Easter and leftover curry stayed fresh in the fridge to be served as a welcome addition to the normal meals on subsequent days as it goes well with rotis or rice. Thanks for sharing this useful recipe. In our home we can’t get enough variety of chicken recipes