Mangalorean Chicken Curry / Kori Gasshi / Chicken in Coconut Gravy – Mangalore Style

My recent visit to Mysore made me to explore some popular dishes from Karnataka and its coastal region. When I read articles on Mangalorean cuisine, I stumbled upon this Chicken Curry – Kori Gasshi.

Kori – Chicken and Gasshi – Spicy gravy based on thick coconut. When I read this recipe in an online site, I quickly recollected a similar dish from the cookbook – 50 great curries of India which was lying quietly in my shelf for sometime .

This chicken gravy / curry is a bit unusual as it makes use of very hot red chillies, tamarind and few of rare spices which are not normally used in other chicken dishes. Overall, the dish was rich, hot and tasty.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes

Serves: 4 

Ingredients:

For gravy:

Chicken – 1/2 kg, with bone or without bone, cut into bite-size pieces

Oil – 3 tablespoons

Red onion – 1 cup, finely chopped

Fresh coconut – 3/4 cup, grated

Water – 3 to 4 cups (including to extract milk)

Salt – to taste

Curry leaves – 2 springs, for garnishing

For Masala:

Oil – 2 teaspoons

Fresh coconut – 1/2 cup, grated and tightly packed

Dry red chillies – 6-10 nos., (See notes)

Coriander seeds – 2 teaspoons, heaped

Cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoons

Mustard seeds – 1/4 teaspoons

Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 teaspoons

Cinnamon Stick – 2 inch length piece

Black pepper – 1/4 teaspoon

Coves – 3 nos

Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Tamarind – a gooseberry size

Ginger – 1 inch length piece

Garlic – 5 cloves

Red onion – 1/2 cup, finely chopped

Method:

For extracting coconut milk:

1)  Soak 3/4 cup of coconut in 3/4 cup of warm water for 30 minutes and after 30 minutes, blend, extract the first milk from it. Add 2 cups of water and blend again. Then extract the coconut milk once more.

2) Keep both coconut milk aside (separately) till you prepare the gravy.

For the masala:

1) Add 1 teaspoon of oil in a pan. Add grated coconut and roast till it becomes to nice brown colour.  It will take about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a plate once done.

2) To the same pan, add another teaspoon of oil. Roast coriander seeds and dry red chilli. When both are almost roasted, add rest of the ingredients(cumin seeds, Mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, cinnamon stick, black pepper and cloves) one by one and roast it again. Stir continuously to avoid burning.

3) When all the ingredients are roasted well, turn off the heat and add turmeric powder. Mix it well. The heat in the pan is sufficient for the turmeric powder.

4) Transfer to a plate and allow the ingredients to cool to room temperature.

5) Meanwhile, soak tamarind in 1/4 cup of water.

6) Chop onion, ginger and garlic.

7) By now, the roasted ingredients would have cooled well.

8) Add everything to a mixie jar or blender and make a paste out of it. Add 1/4-1/2 cup of the coconut milk (extracted second time) to help in grinding process. It will take 5 minutes approx. to get the desired consistency.

9) Keep this paste aside.

For the gravy:

1) Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan. 

2) Add finely chopped onion and saute till it becomes soft and translucent. It will take 5-7 minutes.

3) Add the ground paste. Mix well. Use little quantity of water to rinse the mixie jar and pour it to the pan. Saute and let it cook for 3 minutes.

4) Add the chicken pieces. Saute for 2 minutes and pour the remaining coconut milk and salt to taste. Add 1/2 cup of water and mix again. Allow the dish to cook in low flame till the chicken is almost done.

5) When the chicken is almost down, add the coconut milk (first extracted milk) and a spring of curry leaves.

6) Just boil it for 1 minute and turn the flame off. I garnished it with the a spring of fried curry leaves.

7) Serve hot with rice or roti.

NOTES:

1) I used 5 small but very spicy variety of chilli for making this gravy. Original and authentic recipe uses Bedgi chilles which look like kashmiri chillies that provide bright red colour and also taste very hot and spicy. Since I don’t have them at stock, I used normal chillies. So, adjust the red chilli quantity as per your taste.

2) The colour of the gravy depends upon the red chilli you use.

Related Recipes

Chicken 65 / Indian Style Chicken Fry

Seppankizhangu Kulambu / Arbi Gravy / South Indian Style Taro Root Gravy Coconut Sevai / Coconut Idiyappam Chicken Gravy for Idly and Dosa / Kozhi Kulambu for Idly and Dosa