Oven Roasted Mangalore Chicken Ghee Roast

Roast chicken is something I make really often. It's easy to do and the variations are unlimited so one never gets bored. So once again I had a full chicken waiting to be roasted and I was casting around for inspiration. And I chanced upon Shriya Shetty's Mangalore Chicken Ghee Roast done roast chicken style.

Shriya (@chiashetts on Instagram) runs a restaurant and a bakery in Mangalore and does pop ups wherever she gets a chance. She also makes Mangalore Ghee Roast Masala for sale, in small batches (which gets sold out super fast!). This is just the kind of inspiration I was looking for and much to my delight, I also had packets of her utterly delicious home made ghee roast masala in the fridge.

Oven Roasted Mangalore Chicken Ghee Roast

1 whole chicken, skin on
4 onions
1 packet Mangalore Ghee Roast Masala
Salt
Ghee


Wash the chicken inside and out and pat it dry.

Slice two onions and halve the other two

Make gashes in the fleshy parts of the chicken to allow salt and the masala to penetrate properly. First sprinkle salt all over the bird and inside the cavity too. Now apply the ghee roast masala all over the chicken not forgetting the cavity. Tuck in masala under the skin wherever possible. Work gently so you don't tear the skin.

Refrigerate the chicken covered and let it marinate for a few hours or even overnight.

When you're ready to roast, remove the chicken from the fridge and bring it up to room temperature.
Preheat the oven at 150C.

Place the sliced onions in a layer in a baking dish spread just enough for the chicken to sit on. Tuck in the halved onions into the cavity of the bird and then place the bird in the baking dish. Drizzle ghee all over the chicken. Cover the dish as tightly as possible with aluminium foil.

Put the baking dish on an oven tray and set it to roast for an hour at 150C. Let the bird cook long and slow for juicy and tender results. If the chicken is large, cook for longer.

You can check for doneness in between - just be careful while handling the hot and heavy baking dish. To check, pierce a fleshy portion near the bone like the thigh with a sharp knife. If the juices run clear you chicken is cooked. Baste with melted ghee when you open to check.

Remove the foil and roast the chicken for another 15 to 20 minutes to finish the cooking (sometimes the meat around the cavity stays a little under done) and to crisp the outside. Remove the onions from the cavity at this point and place them in the baking dish to caramelise a little while the chicken cooks.

I served this oven roasted ghee roast with neer dosas I ordered from a local restaurant.

There is a certain joy in sitting at the table with a dish of  roast chicken redolent of ghee and masala and a pile of neer dosas picking out bits of succulent roast and crisp skin while mopping up that incredible ghee, onions, and masala 'gravy' with soft neer dosas. Aaah!

Kori Gassi - Chicken curry from Mangalore

I'm a fundamentally lazy cook. The very thought of a long laborious process to getting food on the table is enough to dissuade me from cooking the more complicated or just elaborate or time consuming sort of dishes. However, there are those rare moments when a recipe simply calls out to me and my inherent laziness evaporates and I am filled with enthusiasm and energy.

I saw this recipe for Kori Gassi on Ruchik Randhap, one of the first blogs that made me literally drool all over my keyboard - the gorgeous photos, the beautifully documented recipes and the little vignettes about Mangalore, the food, the customs, and the author herself, all had me hooked. Though I have always planned to try out a recipe from here somehow my laziness always won. However today I felt energised enough to make the effort and cook something a little more involved.

I stationed the hubby at the dining table with the laptop and the browser open to the correct page. He read out the ingredients and I put them together on a large platter as I checked to see that I had everything I would need. Luck was on my side and I had everything. Well, nearly. With a few adjustments and replacements I was on my way to making Kori Gassi as described by Shireen on her wonderful blog.

Kori Gassi 

For the masala

2 medium onions sliced
12 dried kashmiri chillies (I used only these)
2 cups grated fresh coconut
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tsp cumin
12-14 pepper corns
1/2 tsp fenugreek
5 -6 cloves garlic
1 tbsp coriander powder (in place of whole coriander)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp agal (in place of tamarind)
1 inch cassia bark
3-4 cloves
1 tbsp ghee

Heat the ghee in a thick kadai and fry the onions, cassia, cloves and poppy seeds. Let the onions turn a nice golden colour and throw in the grated coconut. I used a tray of grated fresh coconut that I bought from the supermarket. Roast the mixture well and once it gets nice and fragrant add the turmeric and continue to roast for another 5 to 8 minutes. The coconut needs to be nicely toasted.

Now add the remaining ingredients for the masala and let the entire mixture roast well. Keep an eye on the heat and don't let anything burn. Just stir around for a couple of minutes and then switch off. Remove to a large platter and spread it out so it cools faster.

Once cooled grind the masala to as smooth a paste as you can. Use water as required, of course.

Now that the masala is done, the rest of the procedure is fairly simple.

Cooking the Gassi

1 large onion, chopped fine
2 medium tomatoes, chopped fine
ghee
1 chicken, cut into pieces
2 cups coconut milk
salt
1 onion, sliced

Heat more ghee in a thick bottomed vessel and fry the chopped onion. Once the onion has turned golden add the tomatoes. Fry well and mash the tomatoes in. Let it cook for a few minutes till it all smells good and you see the ghee emerging again. Add the chicken pieces now. Stir well to coat and add a quarter of the masala paste too. Add salt. Stir well and cover the pan. Let the chicken cook for around 10 to 15 minutes till it's nearly done.

Now add the coconut milk and the rest of the masala paste. Mix it well and add half a cup of water too. Add more if you feel the gassi is too thick. Add salt if required. Bring it to a boil and then simmer till the chicken is cooked through.

On the side in a small pan or vessel heat a tablespoon of ghee. Fry the sliced onion till it is pale golden and then add it to the gassi. Mix it in and the gassi is ready.

I served the Kori Gassi with plain boiled rice. It was wonderful!