Kolhapuri Chicken is a Maharashtrian chicken curry that is full of the rich, varied, spicy kolhapuri flavors – a more involved chicken curry to make, but the pay off is so worth it, that you’ll consider every minute very well spent.
In- fact even the aromas released during making this curry / roasting the spices will make you drool!
So if you have never tried making chicken kolhapuri at home, definitely give this a go! Trust me, once you try it, you’ll want to make it for every special occasion, or just the weekend. 🙂
I remember when I was first figuring out to make this curry, just looking at the number of ingredients that went in making the kolhapuri masala was daunting.
But once I figured out the right proportions, the taste was DIVINE! And I was hooked for life!
Since then I have figured out a few tricks and hacks to make cooking this chicken curry a little easier and quicker, and today I’ll share those tips with you to make the BEST kolhapuri chicken curry EVER!
What is Kolhapuri Chicken?
Kolhapuri Chicken is a kolhapuri style chicken curry, that is infused with the bold & flavorful spices of the kolhapur region, which is known for its vibrant and spicy cuisine.
How to Make the BEST Chicken Kolhapuri
You can make chicken kolhapuri with ready-made kolhapuri masala from the store, but nothing replicates the flavors, when kolhapuri chicken curry is made at home from scratch. And yes, while it is a little more of an involved recipe, it’s not complicated at all.
Think of it this way – you would need to brown onions, and cook down tomatoes like you would for any chicken curry. In this case, in addition to that, you would just need to roast some whole spices too, which takes only a few additional minutes. It’s actually the browning of onion that takes the most amount of time. But you can use a wide bottomed pan to cut down on the time it takes.
This Kolhapuri Chicken Curry is
- hot, spicy and delicious
- full of bold, vibrant flavors
- made from scratch
- perfect for parties
Ingredients You Need
For chicken marination
- Chicken leg quarters – 3 pounds
You can use drumsticks too - Ginger garlic paste – 5 tablespoons
- Red chilli powder – 1 tablespoon
- Garam masala powder – 1 tablespoon
- Coriander powder – 1 tablespoon
- Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
- Haldi powder – 1/4 teaspoon
- Salt – 1 teaspoon
- Kasoori methi powder – 1 tablespoon
- Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon
- Water / oil – 1-2 tablespoons
Whole spices for curry
- Jeera / cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Whole red chillies – 2
- Bay leaf – 1
- Cinnamon stick – 1 inch
- Black cardamom – 1
- Green cardamom – 5
- Cloves – 7
- Black peppercorn – 7
- Mace – 1
- Dhania / coriander seeds – 2 tablespoons
- Til / white sesame seeds – 4 tablespoons
- Khaskhas / white poppy seeds – 2 tablespoons
Other ingredients for curry
- Cooking oil – 1/2 cup for curry, and 3 tablespoons for tarri
- Garlic cloves – 8, chopped
- Chopped onions – 2 cups
- Chopped tomatoes – 3/4 cup
- Salt – 3 teaspoons, divided
- Red chilli powder – 2 teaspoons, divided
- Kashmiri chilli powder – 1 tablespoon
- Dry coconut powder – 1/2 cup
- Water – 2 cups for making paste, 4 cups for curry
- Chopped coriander leaves – 1/2 cup
Step by Step Recipe
- Like shown above, start with marinating the chicken. I usually do this the night before, and refrigerate the marinated chicken overnight for 8-12 hours, so that the chicken really absorbs the spices. But 4-6 hours of marination time will suffice.
- To start making the curry – in a wide bottomed pan, heat up 1/2 cup oil, and add in cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds start crackling, add chopped garlic, and saute for 1-2 minutes, till the garlic starts turning light red.
- Next add the whole chillies, and let it roast for a minute or so.
After the whole chillies have been roasted, roast these whole spices in this order – for them to cook evenly and well
- Whole garam spices (bay leaf, cinnamon stick, black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, black peppercorn, and mace) – roast for 1-2 minutes, till it starts giving off a light aroma
- Dhania seeds – roast for 2-3 minutes, till it starts changing light color
- Sesame seeds – roast for 2-3 minutes, till it starts changing light color
- Poppy seeds – roast for 2-3 minutes, till it starts changing light color
- Once the whole spices have been roasted well, add in the chopped onions, and a teaspoon of salt to brown the onions faster, and saute till the onions turn light golden brown in color. This is the most time consuming step of them all, but you can cut down the time it takes drastically by using a wide bottomed pan to roast the spices and onions etc.
- Next add in the chopped tomatoes, and a teaspoon of red chilli powder. Mix well, and saute for 5 minutes or so till the tomatoes cook down a bit, and then turn off the flame.
- While you are roasting the onions and tomatoes, in another small pan on the side, dry roast the coconut powder till it turns light red in color. It will only take a couple of minutes to roast the coconut powder.
- Then add the roasted coconut powder to the main roast, once the tomatoes have cooked down, and mix well. No need to switch the flame back on, just mix in the roasted coconut powder, and let the roast cool down.
- Once the roast has cooled down to about room temperature, transfer it all to a mixie, and grind it with 2 cups of water to make a smooth paste.
- Then in a large heavy bottomed pan, lightly heat up 3 tbsp oil, to it add 1 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder, and mix it in. Let the chilli powder roast for 30 seconds or so on medium low flame. Ensure that the oil is not too hot and the flame is not too high, else the chilli powder will burn.
- Once the kashimiri chilli powder is lightly roasted, then add in the roasted curry paste from the mixer, and a teaspoon of red chilli powder, and saute for a couple of minutes.
- Next add in the marinated chicken, 1.5-2 tsp salt, and 4 cups of water, and mix well.
- Cover and cook for 30-40 minutes on medium high flame, stirring intermittently, till the chicken is completely cooked.
For adding extra tarri
- In a small tadka pan, lightly heat up 2 tbsp oil, and lightly roast 1 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder in it. Tarri is ready!
- Add this tarri to the cooked chicken curry, and serve HOT.
Note: If you like only a very little tarri to be floating on the top of your curry, then you don’t need to make and add the extra tarri. It will be taken care of by the kashmiri chilli powder roasted in oil in the pot before adding the paste from the mixie, and the chicken etc to make the curry.
Pro Tips
- Use a wide bottomed pan for roasting the spices and onion etc, because it will significantly cut down on the time it takes for roasting the spices and browning the onion.
- I have suggested the order of roasting whole spices based on the size. For instance relatively bigger dhania seeds will take longer to roast than the fine poppy seeds, so if we add dhania seeds first, and give it a headstart, before we roast sesame and poppy seeds, then they’ll all get a relatively even roast.
Serving Suggestion
SERVE HOT with Roti, Naan, or Rice.
More Indian Chicken Recipes:
Whole Chicken Tandoori
Chicken Keema Masala
Crispy Chicken 65
Chicken Fried Rice
Pepper Chicken – Dry
As always, I hope you found this recipe useful. If you did, please let me know your rating ⭐️ and feedback 📲 in the comments below, or simply rate the recipe right on the recipe card. I’d really appreciate it. ❤️
Kolhapuri Chicken Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For chicken marination
- 3 lb chicken leg quarters
- 5 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 tbsp red chilli powder
- 1 tbsp garam masala powder
- 1 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1/4 tsp haldi / turmeric powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp kasoori methi powder
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1-2 tbsp water or oil
Whole spices for curry
- 1 tsp jeera / cumin
- 2 whole red chillies
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 1 black cardamom
- 5 green cardamom
- 7 cloves
- 7 black peppercorn
- 1 mace
- 2 tbsp dhania / coriander seeds
- 4 tbsp til / white sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp khaskhas / white poppy seeds
Other ingredients for curry
- 11 tbsp vegetable oil divided
- 8 cloves garlic chopped
- 2 cup chopped onion
- 3 tsp salt divided
- 3/4 cup chopped tomato
- 2 tsp red chilli powder divided
- 1/2 cup dry coconut powder
- 1 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder
- 6 cup water divided, for making paste & curry
- 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
For making kolhapuri tarri
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder
Instructions
For marinating chicken
- Clean the chicken well, and remove all the excess water from it.
- In a large bowl, mix together the ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, haldi powder, salt, kasoori methi powder, and lemon juice. Add a few spoons of water or oil if required to make a smooth paste for marinating chicken.
- Add the chicken pieces to this bowl, and ensure to coat all the chicken pieces very well with this marinade.
- Cover this bowl, and let the chicken marinate along with the spices for 4-6 hours.
For making the main roast
- In a wide bottomed pan, heat up 1/2 cup oil, and add in cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds start crackling, add chopped garlic, and saute for 1-2 minutes, till the garlic starts turning light red.
- Then add the whole chillies broken in two pieces each, and let it roast for a minute or so. It's now time to add in and roast the whole spices.
Roast whole spices in this order
- Once the chillies are lightly roasted, first add whole garam spices to the pan – bay leaf, cinnamon stick, black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, black peppercorn, and mace. Roast for 1-2 minutes, till it starts giving off a light aroma.
- Then add the whole dhania seeds, and let it roast for 1-2 minutes, till there is a slight change in color.
- Next add sesame seeds, and roast it for 1-2 minutes before adding poppy seeds, and roasting it for 1-2 minutes till it starts changing light color.
Roasting onions and tomatoes
- Once the whole spices have been roasted well, add in the chopped onions, and a teaspoon of salt to brown the onions faster, and saute till the onions turn light golden brown in color.
- Then add in the chopped tomatoes, and a teaspoon of red chilli powder. Mix well, and saute for 5 minutes or so till the tomatoes cook down a bit, and then turn off the flame.
- Also, while you are roasting the onions and tomatoes, in another small pan on the side, dry roast the coconut powder till it turns light red in color. It will only take a couple of minutes to roast the coconut powder.
- Then add the roasted coconut powder to the main roast, once the tomatoes have cooked down, and mix well. No need to switch the flame back on, just mix in the roasted coconut powder, and let the roast cool down.
- Once the roast has cooled down to about room temperature, transfer it all to a mixie, and grind it with 2 cups of water to make a smooth paste.
For making the kolhapuri chicken curry
- In a large heavy bottomed pan, lightly heat up 3 tbsp oil, to it add 1 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder, and mix it in. Let the chilli powder roast for 30 seconds or so on medium low flame. Ensure that the oil is not too hot and the flame is not too high, else the chilli powder will burn.
- Once the kashimiri chilli powder is lightly roasted, then add in the roasted curry paste from the mixer, and a teaspoon of red chilli powder, and saute for a couple of minutes.
- Next add in the marinated chicken, 1.5-2 tsp salt, and 4 cups of water, and mix well.
- Cover and cook for 30-40 minutes on medium high flame, stirring intermittently, till the chicken is completely cooked.
For adding extra tarri
- In a small tadka pan, lightly heat up 2 tbsp oil, and lightly roast 1 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder in it. Tarri is ready!
- Add this tarri to the cooked chicken curry, and serve HOT.
Notes
Nutrition
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Oh my this looks delicious. I have recently started loving khaskhas. My mil taught me how to add it and it makes curries so good. I recently made veg kolhapuri but not too spicy. I can understand that the ingredients list is daunting. Love this recipe. Will try it someday.
Yeah, I remember I started using khaskhas back when I first started making kolhapuri dishes. And I’ve never looked back since then. 🙂
I love making Kolhapuri chicken. It is spicy and hot, just the way I like it though I don’t like the floating oil. I can imagine how delicious this must be.
Yeah, the floating oil is not the healthiest, and is very indulgent. But I usually add it for my hubby who loves it!
I didn’t know what tarri was until today! It looks and sounds delicious and would so much flavor to the curry!
I’m going to be making this this weekend. The steps are a bit much with the paste and all, but I know it will be worth it.
Tarri is definitely for someone with higher spice tolerance, as kolhapuri dishes are already spicy. But it makes such a difference!!
And yeah, it is a more involved curry, but you’ll love it! 🙂
Love the recipe. Will try it sometime.
Thank you so much. I hope you love it!
When it comes to chicken curry, I love this one the most. I have tested this recipe many times and it is great!
Thank you!