Chicken in a dark, fiery masala of freshly roasted spices — pepper, dried chilli, fennel, star anise — with coconut and curry leaves.
What makes it chettinad chicken
A masala roasted and ground fresh — coriander, dried chilli, black pepper, fennel, star anise.
Coconut in the paste, for body.
Sesame oil and curry leaves.
Real heat, from pepper as much as chilli.
Where it comes from
The Chettiars were a merchant and banking community whose trade reached Burma, Ceylon and Malaya, and their big mansioned villages in the dry south of Tamil Nadu are known for a rich, meat-loving cooking. Spices like star anise and kalpasi, a lichen, are often said to have come home with the trade.
Chettinad chicken as restaurants know it is a gentler, standardised version of a family of home dishes, but the principle is the same: roast the spices, grind them fresh, and don't hold back on pepper.
How it varies
Pepper chicken
Chettinad kozhi varuval: cooked dry until the masala clings.