Chicken is generally cooked during the week at my place. While curries are mostly made and served with rice, I also use a lot of boneless chicken in other preparations like pasta or chapathi rolls. When it comes to curries I am always on the lookout for new recipes and this time I reached out to my favourite cookbook that was gifted by my friend last year. ‘Kerala Cookery’ by Mrs. K. M Mathew is a nice compilation of traditional Kerala recipes which suit the novice cook too. I do adapt recipes a lot though and did so with this recipe too, but minimally. The Chicken Peralan recipe caught my attention and although it was easy to follow I was apprehensive about whether it would turn out too simple. It didn’t disappoint me at all. The chicken had this heady aroma of cardamoms even after I had reduced the quantity. This I guess was the USP of the dish – the flavour and aroma that the cardamoms bring in, in a non-over powering way made the dish all the more wonderful. I served it with simple white rice and it tasted fabulous! I will be putting this recipe on my personal list of festive & celebratory dishes to make while it will definitely double up as an everyday dish too!
If you are looking for more chicken recipes to sparkle your menu do scross down to the bottom of this post to check a list of my favourite ones that go very well with chapathis, plain parathas or rice. Enjoy!
Chicken Peralan ~ Kerala Style Chicken Masala Roast
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken cut into medium sized pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 medium sized onion finely chopped
- oil for frying
- salt to taste
For the masala
- 2 teaspoons red chilli powder adjust to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper powder
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon aniseeds
- 1 " stick of cinnamon or cassia bark
- 2-3 cardamom pods
- 1 " ginger finely chopped
- 3-4 fat cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 6-7 big pearl onions
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into medium sized pieces, wash and drain.
- Except the ginger, garlic, pearl onions & curry leaves grind all the ingredients mentioned under 'For the masala' using 3-4 tablespoons of water. Keep the masala paste aside and rinse the mixer jar with 1/2 a cup of water and reserve it.
- Mix the ground masala, the pearl onions, curry leaves, garlic & ginger with the chicken and transfer to a pan/kadai. Add salt to taste, the reserved water from the mixer jar and cook till the chicken is tender. Remove from heat.
- Heat oil in a wide based kadai/pan/frying pan with tall edges and toss in the mustard seeds. When they stop spluttering add the sliced onions and fry them till golden brown
- Add only the chicken pieces and fry them for approx 2-3 minutes. Add the gravy too a little at a time. Mix well and take off the heat
- Serve hot with rice, chapathis or appams
Disclaimer
The nutritional values are only indicative.
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Peralan is more of South Kerala style cooking. It is fun to know that, right? 🙂 Half up the Malabar side is more Muslim influenced cooking but as you go through Thrissur and down, it is more of Hindu and Christian influenced cooking… I never knew this till I started blogging and digging into our food. Like our side we use more of fennel, while south side would use more of cumin, etc… Hehe… Coming to the peralan, I love this dish mainly because of its simplicity. Comes together in no time and tastes amazing even with khuboos!
Hi SS…I made your chicken recipe today for lunch and my family loved it. Thanks.
Thank you so much for the feedback Cyn! So glad that your family enjoyed it!