Alright folks, it’s time for some serious food talk today. Let’s go Authentic, something straight from my home town…Treat yourself with the aromatics from the Indian spices and curry powders on a slow dry roasted chicken – an authentic Kerala Style Spicy Dry Roasted Chicken / Naadan Chicken Ularthiyathu…!!!
I would like to unwind my memories of the first time I tasted this dish. The recipe credits go to my mother-in-law who prepared this yummy dish for me after she came to know of my cravings for chicken. It was the first time I ate such a deadly delicious chicken dish with so tempting flavours… A perfect balance of spices and curry powders blended with chicken, and dry roasted, soo delicious that you can still remember the smell and taste as you lick the last bit of it from your fingers. I’ve tried cooking this dish many times and pretty much ended up calling my husband to finish the preparation, of course he knows to replicate the exact taste of his mother’s recipe.
The word “Ularthiyathu” is a Malayalam word, which means slow cooked and then dry roasted. Ularthiyathu style recipes are quite common in Kerala with pork, beef, chicken, and clam meat dishes.
The key pointers while preparing this recipe are, the initial dry cooking of the chicken so that the water from it oozes out and it cooks within, and the last step of dry roasting by turning down the heat to low and sautéing in between until it turns brown entirely.
Enjoy this lip smacking dish… Happy Cooking..!!!
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- 2 lb chicken
- 3 big onions (thinly sliced)
- 3 green chilies (slit)
- 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 tomato (chopped)
- ¼ tbsp turmeric powder
- 3 tbsp red chili powder
- 2 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tbsp pepper powder
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 3+1 sprigs of curry leaves
- cilantro leaves (chopped)
- a pinch of mustard seeds
- salt (as required)
- oil - I prefer to use coconut oil (as required)
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Clean and cut chicken into medium size pieces.
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Prepare the marinade by mixing chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, salt and 2 tbsp water.
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Marinade the chicken properly with the above mix and keep aside for 20 – 30 minutes.
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In a pan, cook the chicken on a medium flame with its lid on. It will help the water to drain out from the chicken and cook in it. Keep aside after cooking.
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Meanwhile in another pan, heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add curry leaves, sliced onions, green chilies and a little salt. Saute until onions become translucent and golden brown.
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Add the ginger garlic paste to the onions and saute for 2 minutes until its raw smell subsides.
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Add chopped tomatoes, pepper powder, and cook until the tomatoes turn mushy.
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Now transfer the cooked chicken to the pan, add a few sprigs of fresh curry leaves, saute well to mix the chicken and the onions properly, and cook for another 2 minutes with the lid on.
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Lower the flame, remove the lid, and dry roast the chicken for another 15 minutes until it completely dries out and start browning.
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1Garnish with coriander leaves and allow it to rest for a few minutes.
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Goes well with rice, malabar paratha, or roti.
- You can vary the amount of chili and pepper powders to suit your spice level.
- The garam masala I have used in my recipe has been bought from an Indian store (Sakthi garam masala). You can also use a homemade masala which is preferable.
- Using of coconut oil is the best for all authentic Kerala recipes.
Hai dear…d chckn s very tempting…. I will try dis recepie for sure….:)
Hi akhila….nice recepie….surely i will try it…….
Oh my god.This is mouth watering stuff Akhila.You turned on my chicken cravings 😝.Definitely gonna try this very soon.keep up the good work
Yet again, we had the “vayarubhaagyam” (;)) to feast on this mouth-watering delicacy. Awesomeness indeed!!! :B
Hey Akhila,
This is one simple and yet a very tasty recipe. I am vegetarian and I cook non veg for my husband as he craves for it. This chicken roast turned out very well and my stomach was full looking at my husband lick his fingers over his plate of chicken. Keep posting, keep cooking until everybody drools and falls in love with your recipes and blog.
Wooow…! Thank You dear for trying this out and your lovely feedback :-* You made my day 🙂
Hi, we should add the chicken with its water in the gravy? Then how will it dry out? And should we fully cook the chicken cook because more 15mins roast it will get over cooked?
No you need to let the water to dry out in the pan itself before adding it to the sautéed onion mix. The last step of slow roasting in low flame wont make the chicken over cooked, it will help to give the roasted look and that’s the tasty part of this recipe.
OMG This truly is my new favorite Dry Roasted Chicken, This recipe was simple and delicious! Full chicken taste, beautiful gold colour, perfect salt,this was really good. Thanks.Jast one ques How nice easy and tasty This chicken recipe was too yummy?
Thank You 🙂
Hello Akhila,
Thank you for sharing this recipe, I had a question on the line below In a pan, “cook the chicken on a medium flame with its lid on. It will help the water to drain out from the chicken and cook in it. Keep aside after cooking.”
When you cook the chicken in this fashion, do you just fry it in oil ? or do you just sautee it with little to no oil ?
Hi Felix, I do not add any oil or water while cooking the chicken. The chicken retains enough water and it oozes out and boils within which it get’s cooked. You may want to toss it in-between to cook evenly, but otherwise you may add a little water if it sticks to the bottom.
Hi, Akhila. I tried this recipe n it was simply wow..the whole family loved n now it turned out to be our favorite chicken recipe..thanks n love you 😘
Fantastic! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe, Thanks so much Wasudha for making it!
Tried the recipe yesterday It was just mind-blowing. It was finger licking yummy.. 👍👍👍😄😄😄
Thats great! Thank you Laxmi for trying out this recipe, glad you enjoyed:-)
Excellent recipe!! Tried it and it turned out superb!!
Thank You so much Bridget for trying out my recipe and posting feedback. So glad you liked it 🙂
Loved it☺️
Thank You Karthika 🙂
Hi Akhila,
Loved this recipe….My whole family enjoyed it, even my little one who is a pickiest eater….Thank you very much for sharing your recipe…
That’s Awesome..I am so happy to know that your little one also enjoyed, Thank You Maria for trying out my recipe and for posting this wonderful feedback <3
This turned out really well for us. I marinated it overnight and made it for lunch. The whole family loved it and it reminded us of home back in Kerala. Thank you so much.
So happy to hear such a great feedback. Thank You so much Aby for trying it out 🙂
Superb, finger licking good, my family throughly enjoyed it. Thankyou so much 🙏🥰
Awesome….Thank You so much Rajila for trying out my recipe 🙂 So glad you liked it!
My favourite recipe for dry roast chicken. The flavour is amazing.
Thank you so much Neha! so glad you loved this recipe!
Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.
Yaay, Thank You Ramesh for trying out my recipe and for the wonderful feedback.
Fixed this tonight with fried rice, broccolini, cottage cheese and pineapple. Diliciouse!
Thank you Olimpia