One more addition to the theme of this month, which is Regional chicken cuisine. I posted Karnataka and Tamilnadu regional chicken recipes, Kori rotti and Chinthamani chicken, respectively. This week’s post is from our spicy Andhra cuisine. When I thought of Andhra, what immediately struck me was Gongura, which they proudly call Andhra matha (mother of Andhra in Telugu). Gongura is prevalently used throughout Andhra in many of their recipes like Gongura pachadi, Gongura pickle, Gongura pappu, Gongura mamsam or royyalu. Gongura is a kind of staple food for them and is highly packed with nutrients like iron, calcium, vitamins, and antioxidants like any other Indian desi greens.
The recipe for this week is Gongura chicken, authentically gongura is combined with mutton or prawn, but since chicken has become the favourites of this generation, gongura mamsam (with goat meat) has now transformed to gongura chicken. The tartness from the gongura leaves, spiciness from the masalas and chillies, imparts a unique burst of flavours to the chicken. There are 2 varieties of gongura leaves- red-stemmed and green stemmed. The difference between these 2 leaves is the intensity of the sourness. Red stemmed is tangier than green stemmed. Also, there are different versions of this recipe based on the regions like Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra like Vizhag. Either you can chop the leaves and add them to the chicken base or make a paste with the leaves and add it to the chicken base. I followed the second one as the greens combine with the gravy and forms a coating on the chicken and the flavour will be intense as well. It’ll be somehow similar to Palak chicken but tangier.
I tried this recipe with both greens. Red stemmed and green stemmed had their own flavours you can distinguish the taste between them. Red was tangier compared to green. The gravy was subtle with green whereas the red one was quite sour. If you like tanginess, then go ahead with the quantity of leaves I used, if you don’t prefer your gravy too sour, then you reduce the quantity of leaves used here. Manipulate the leaves according to your taste buds.
I would like to give credits to my UAE friends Srilakshmi, Jaya, and Giri bro who gave their regional touch with the nuances of this recipe. I took their valuable inputs to get a proper insight into this dish. Finally, I landed with my co-sister, Rajalakshmi cousin’s recipe. She had 2 versions of this recipe, there wasn’t much difference between the two. In the other version you can include whole red chilli in place of green chilli along with a tbsp of coriander seeds while sautéing garlic and shallots for gongura paste.
Click here to jump to recipe card!
Take ½ kg medium-sized chicken pieces with bone, clean it, and marinate with chilli powder, turmeric powder, and salt.
Let it marinate for 30 minutes to 2 hours maximum.
In a thick pan, add a tbsp of gingelly oil, add roughly diced garlic, sauté till it turns brown, then add chopped green chillies, after 2 minutes sautéing, add shallots.
Sauté till they turn soft and golden brown.
Once cooled down, transfer them into a mixer jar.
Pluck the leaves only from the greens, discard the stalk and stem. It should measure roughly 2-3 cups of leaves when tightly packed.
Wash it and sauté in 1 tbsp Gingelly oil in medium flame.
Till it gets wilted completely (3-4 minutes).
Transfer into the same mixer jar after it cools down. Grind them into a smooth fine paste with little water.
In a deep kadai, add refined oil, once heated, add chopped onions with a little salt. Fry them till it turns soft. Then add ginger garlic paste and sauté well till the raw smell goes off.
Immediately add chopped tomatoes, with a pinch of turmeric powder, close, and cook for few minutes till it turns mushy.
Then add Kashmiri chilli powder, Coriander powder, salt, mix well.
Now add marinated chicken and combine well with the masala.
Close and cook in low-medium flame for 25 minutes, in its juice itself.
Later open and cook for 5 minutes for the liquid to evaporate if any.
Then add the ground gongura paste with salt.
And 2-3 tbsp gingelly oil, combine well with chicken masala and cook it for 15-20 minutes in low-medium flame.
Taste the curry, if you feel it’s too tangy, you can add 1 tsp pepper powder according to your requirements of spice level. This step is purely optional depending on the quality of the greens.
Sauté few more minutes, Tangy Gongura chicken is ready.
You can serve with steamed rice, rasam or with north indian rotis,naan, parathas, pooris.
Recipe card
Preparation time: 5-7 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Curries
Serves: 6
Author: Manimala
Ingredients:
For Marination:
Chicken – ½ kg
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Kashmiri chilli powder – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste
For gongura paste:
Gingelly/sesame oil – 2 tbsp
Gongura leaves (red stemmed) –2-3 cups (tightly packed)
Diced garlic – 1 ½ tbsp
Chopped green chilli – 10
Shallots – ½ cup (heaped)
For Chicken base:
Refined oil – 4 tbsp
Chopped onion – 1 cup
Chopped tomato – 1 cup
Ginger, garlic paste – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – a pinch
Kashmiri chilli powder – 1 tbsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Marinated chicken – ½ kg
Ground gongura paste
Gingelly/sesame oil – 2-3 tbsp
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp (optional)
Salt – to taste
Instructions:
- Take ½ kg medium-sized chicken pieces with bone, clean it, and marinate with chilli powder, turmeric powder, and salt. Let it marinate for 30 minutes to 2 hours maximum.
- In a thick pan, add a tbsp of gingelly oil, add roughly diced garlic, sauté till it turns brown, then add chopped green chillies, after 2 minutes sautéing, add shallots, sauté till they turn soft and golden brown.
- Once cooled down, transfer them into a mixer jar.
- Pluck the leaves only from the greens, discard the stalk and stem. It should measure roughly 2-3 cups of leaves when tightly packed.
- Wash it and sauté in 1 tbsp Gingelly oil in medium flame till it gets wilted completely (3-4 minutes). Transfer into the same mixer jar after it cools down. Grind them into a smooth fine paste with little water.
- In a deep kadai, add refined oil, once heated, add chopped onions with a little salt. Fry them till it turns soft. Then add ginger garlic paste and sauté well till the raw smell goes off.
- Immediately add chopped tomatoes, with a pinch of turmeric powder, close, and cook for few minutes till it turns mushy.
- Then add Kashmiri chilli powder, Coriander powder, salt, mix well, now add marinated chicken and combine well with the masala.
- Close and cook in low-medium flame for 25 minutes, in its juice itself.
- Later open and cook for 5 minutes for the liquid to evaporate if any.
- Then add the ground gongura paste with salt and 2-3 tbsp gingelly oil, combine well with chicken masala and cook it for 15-20 minutes in low-medium flame.
- Taste the curry, if you feel it’s too tangy, you can add 1 tsp pepper powder according to your requirements of spice level. This step is purely optional depending on the quality of the greens.
- Sauté few more minutes, Tangy Gongura chicken is ready to serve with jeera rice, steamed rice, rasam or with north indian rotis, naan, parathas, pooris.
Notes:
- You can do this dish with both green-stemmed and red-stemmed Gongura leaves. Both have their own unique flavour.
- I have shown how to pluck the leaves, follow the video for details.
- Spice powders can be adjusted according to your spice level requirements.
- Again, mentioning about the sourness of the greens, it all depends on the freshness and origin of the greens.
- If you do not know the sourness of the gongura leaves, you better gradually add the gongura paste. According to your taste, you can adjust the quantity of the paste to be added.
- I added pepper powder as optional to reduce the tanginess, you can skip it if you have the exact quantity of gongura paste and your gravy tastes perfect.
- I used Kashmiri chilli powder, to get the intensity in colour, if you use normal chilli powder reduce the quantity if it’s too spicy.
- Using gingelly oil adds nativity to the recipe, it imparts a unique aroma to the dish, don’t miss it.
- As I mentioned early, You, can either chop the leaves or grind them as a paste, taste, and texture differ.