Chicken Ghee Roast in Chettinad Masala

I like my cooking simple and low on spices. Because I am a reluctant cook but a food lover, I like making things which are easy and quick to make but good to taste.. 

Chettinad Chicken is something I have avoided making in the fear of the excessive spice usage and high heat content.

However, my browsing the net, I came across this video of Chicken Ghee Roast in Chettinad Masala and found it simple and easy and the video of the dry roasting of the masalas triggered my olfactory senses and I almost hallucinated the wafting aroma of roasted Indian spices..incidentally a full bird had been bought and was ready for marination. So without much ado, I followed the recipe to the T (except the chili quantity part) and ended up making delicious, flavourful Chicken Ghee Roast for Sunday lunch.

Ingredients: 
Step 1 - 1 kg chicken
- juice of 1 lemon
- half bowl of yogurt
- ½ tsp of turmeric powder

Step 2 - 10-15 dry red chillies (I used 8 dry red chilies and deseeded them to reduce/minimise the heat factor)
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 7-8 cloves of garlic
- tamarind water 

Step 3 - ¼th cup of Ghee (I used 2- 2 1/2 tbsp of Ghee)
-Salt
- 1 tsp jaggery
- Curry leaves
Procedure :

- Marinate chicken with lemon juice, yogurt mix it well then add turmeric powder and keep aside for an hour. (I kept overnight)
- In a thick bottom pan, roast the spices – dry red chillies, black pepper, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cloves,fenugreek seeds and mix it well and switch off the flame and let it cool down.
- Grind the roasted spices and while grinding also add cloves of garlic and tamarind water.
- In a pan add ghee and place the marinated chicken and let it cook up to 70%. Keep aside.
- Add the remaining yogurt mix in the pan and mix it well in the ghee on medium heat and keep it aside in a bowl.
- In the same pan add the ground masala and let it cook on low flame and add ghee 1/2 tsp of ghee to it 
-Add the ghee fried yogurt mix, salt, jaggery and add the cooked chicken. keep coating the chicken with masala on medium to high heat.
-Cover anf Keep on low flame for 5-10 minutes
- Add some curry leaves and the Chicken Ghee Roast is ready to be served!