This curry is high on flavor and prepared with freshly ground spices. Taste great with parotta or plain rice. This is a famous south Indian recipe. Madurai is a major city in Tamilnadu, India. I have to mention it is totally famous for chicken curry and spicy food.
I used to live in Madurai with my parents from 3rd grade to 6th grade. Nostalgic! Those were one of the happy days of my life. I had zero worries about anything. I guess the biggest worry I had for the week is that I should get my favorite sambar vadai from a restaurant that we used to go every Saturday.haha! My dad used to take us to the temple (famous meenakshi Amman temple) and then to restaurant every Saturday. I used to dream about what to eat when I go to restaurant 😀 when I was in temple most times rather than praying! I was a kid 😀 😉 blaming on my age 😀 hahhaa! It’s a beautiful city in Tamilnadu, everyone should visit it atleast once.
I made this chicken curry on a Sunday afternoon and my whole house smelled with flavors. You can use chicken with bone or boneless too. It’s always good when the meat dishes are spicy. You will start liking it that way if you start having it that way. However if you are making it for the first time, try to taste as you make to adjust to your spice level. I would say do not skip any ingredient in this, each of it gives unique taste to this. I usually don’t insist so because I usually advise to cook with whatever we have at our house. But pepper, cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds and curry leaves are star ingredients in this. So, if you skip any one of it, it will make a great difference.
Taste great with just plain rice or Indian breads like paratha , parotta or roti.
- • Chicken - 500gm
- • Onion - 1 cup, 1 finely chopped
- • Tomato - 1 cup, 1 finely chopped
- • Ginger garlic paste – ½ tbsp
- • Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
- • Oil - 3 tbsp
- • Salt - as needed
- • Curry leaves – 10
To Roast and grind: - • Pepper - 1 tsp
- • Cinnamon – 1’’ stick
- • Cloves – 3
- • Fennel seeds – 2 tsp
- • Coriander seeds – 2 tsp
- • Dry red chillies - 6
- • Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
- • Raw rice – 1 tbsp
- • Roasted gram dal/ pottukadalai – 1 tsp
- • Coconut – 2 tsp
- • Dry roast the ingredient under "to roast & grind" each one of it Grind them together and keep it aside.
- • In a pan, heat oil, add onion, curry leaves little salt and sauté till golden brown. And then add ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute.
- • Now add tomato and fry till its mushy and raw smell leaves. Add the turmeric, and sauté well.
- • Now add chicken, blended spices and stir well till the chicken is well blended with the spices. Add salt as per your taste.
- • Don’t add water. Keep it in medium and close the lid. It will take around ten minutes for it to cook well. Don’t add more water, it may make it rubbery. Chicken will ooze some water already.
- • Open, taste and adjust salt and spice level. (Check spice level as you add it, your spice level may differ)
- • Keep it closed in medium - low heat for another 6-8 minutes.
- • Add chopped coriander leaves and switch it off.
Hi, u repeated fennel and pepper as 2 times in roast and grind. Pls check on it. Thanks. I always love your recipe.
Thank you so much 🙂 corrected it! 🙂
I love Indian cuisine, it’s one of my favorite! This dish is simply divine! and totally understand you… praying can be quite boring for kiddos… I would have dreamed about the food too;)
Haha 🙂 Thank you
HI Suki! I love your 30 m chicken curry and want to try this one. CAN I dry roast and grind The required spices a day or more ahead to save time?
Thank you!
Sorry for late reply. Yes, You can roast and refrigerate for 2 days. If you want to keep it more longer, add grated coconut later to it. Coconut has chances to get spoiled easily.
Oh that makes sense about adding the coconut later. Thank you!
That will make it easier for me to prepare it ahead of time 🙂
Rosemary
🙂 hope you tried and you liked it 🙂
Sorry about my late reply Suki!
Yes we loved it! Thank you for this recipe. I’m sure I’ll make it again!
Rosemary
Need to add a comment to get notifications in my email 🙂
Hi, this gravy came out so good. I’m from Madurai so I can tell u it’s authentic. Thanks.
Thank you so much 🙂 ! felt so good to see this!
Blooming excellent. Simple and easy to cook and tastes wonderful. I love trying out different cuisines and recipes from around the world and this is an excellent to my long list of saved recipes and I will try out some of your other ideas on this site too. Many thanks.
Thank you Bren 🙂
Entire my home is filled with aroma
I just love it.
Thanks Suki
The recipe turned out really good and yummm.
Yummy ..Best choice for Sunday brunch..Feeling nostalgic as am from Madurai😋😍
I stumbled upon this Madurai Chicken Curry/Kuzhambu recipe, and I must say, it’s a delightful read! The step-by-step instructions and vivid descriptions made it easy to follow along. The use of traditional Madurai flavors really brought the dish to life. I can almost smell the aromatic spices through the screen