Fragrant Goan Chicken Xacuti

Classic Chicken Xacuti Recipe

Goan Chicken Xacuti. A delicious, aromatic Goan chicken curry and one of the most popular chicken curries. You could say it’s a kind of chicken coconut curry because roasted coconut is the main ingredient. It’s made all across Goa with a few variations in the recipe. But what’s common is the fragrant curry whose base is roasted fresh coconut and local spices.

This is a quicker and easier recipe for cooking this lip-smacking, tasty chicken curry.

Ingredients

(For 900g Chicken Curry Cuts)

16 cloves garlic

4″ piece of ginger

(Make a paste with these two ingredients)

½ cup grated coconut

1 medium size onion (sliced)

2 medium size onions (chopped finely)

3 Kashmiri chillies

2 bay leaves

4 green cardamom pods

10 pepper corns

2 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tsp cumin

8 cloves

4 sticks of cinnamon, each 1″ long

1 star anise

Approx. 1 – 2 tsp chilli powder

3 tbsp tamarind extract

(from a small sour lime-size ball of tamarind)

1 ¼ cup coconut milk

(from ½ cup grated coconut or 5 tbsp coconut milk powder)

½ tsp grated nutmeg

Salt to taste

½ tsp + 4 tbsp oil

Chopped coriander (for garnishing the curry)

For the marinade

½ of the ginger-garlic paste

1 tsp salt

¾ tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp lime juice

Procedure

1. Wash the chicken pieces and drain them. Mix them with the marinade ingredients. Cover the chicken and set it aside for 30 minutes.
2. Drizzle a little oil on a pan and roast the chillies, bay leaves, cardamom pods, pepper corns, coriander seeds, cumin and half of the cloves and cinnamon sticks for around 3-4 minutes on medium heat till you can smell the aroma of the roasted spices. Remove the roasted spices to a plate.
3. Now add less than ½ tsp of oil to the pan, and roast the sliced onion till it starts browning (around 4 – 5 minutes). Remove the roasted onion to the earlier plate.
4. In the same pan, dry roast the grated coconut for around 3 – 4 minutes till it is lightly browned. Add this to the other roasted ingredients. After all of these cool a little, grind them with a little water (approx. ¾ cup) to a smooth paste.
5. To a pressure pan, add around 4 tbsp oil. Heat it and then throw in the remaining cloves and cinnamon sticks, and the star anise. Sauté these for a few seconds, and then add the chopped onions to the oil. Fry these till they turn light brown. Add the remaining ginger-garlic paste and continue frying everything for a few seconds.
6. Add the marinated chicken pieces and cook these on medium-high heat for around 10 minutes, turning them every minute or so. After that, add the xacuti masala. Mix everything well. Cover the pressure pan with the lid (without the vent weight/whistle on it), reduce the heat to medium and let the chicken pieces cook for around 8 to 10 minutes in the juices they release. Take off the lid, add the rinsings of the grinder jar in which the masala had been ground and ¼ cup of water. Check the taste of the gravy and add some more salt to taste and also the chilli powder.
7. Add another ¼ cup of water to the chicken, fix the lid on the pressure pan, and cook the chicken under pressure for 5 minutes. (After the first whistle goes off, lower the heat to medium and turn off the heat after 5 minutes.)
8. As soon as the pressure in the pressure pan reduces (this should take around 6 – 7 minutes), take off the lid. Turn the heat on again. Add the tamarind extract and pour in the coconut milk. Stir the curry and taste it again, adjusting the taste, if necessary, with more salt, chilli powder, or tamarind extract. Add more water if you need to adjust the thickness of the curry.
9. Finally, add the grated nutmeg. Let the curry come to a boil, garnish it with chopped coriander, and take the pan off the heat.

Like most meat curries, the Goan chicken xacuti too tastes even better the next day.

Enjoy!