Chicken Chettinad made in Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker. Chicken pieces cooked in aromatic chettinad spiced gravy, so delicious and exotic. You will not want to stop eating!
Chicken Chettinad is one of the most flavorful chicken dishes from South Indian cuisine. It is also one if the most ordered curry in a south Indian restaurant. After trying it many times, I can say it is the best south Indian meat dish.
Chettinad cuisine is the cuisine from the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu state in South India. Chettinad cuisine is perhaps the most renowned fare in the Tamil Nadu repertoire. It uses a variety of spices and the dishes are made with fresh ground masalas. The fresh ground spices are what give an exceptional taste to chettinad dishes.
Chettinad Chicken is traditionally eaten with rice, dosa or appam. But I enjoyed it with naan or roti as well.
How to make Chettinad Chicken in Pressure Cooker?
Let's start with getting the ingredients ready. Don't be intimidated by the long list. The list is mainly of whole spices that are dry roasted and ground. All the other steps are pretty similar to any other chicken curry.
I started with adding all the spices that are to be dry roasted together on a plate. And separately the ginger, garlic and grated coconut to be added to the dry spices.
One thing to point out. I used dry red kashmiri chili in this curry. This was cheating, where I included a northern indian chili to this dish. This chili has the specialty to impart great natural red color, while not adding too much heat. If you like lesser spicy curries, remove the seeds from the chilies. You can use other types of whole red chilies, but please don't forget to adjust the quantity based on your taste.
Dry roast all the above spices in the pressure cooker, then grind them to a powder or paste. It is okay to add some water while grinding.
Now to the process to make the curry. This is very similar to other chicken curry recipes. Start with sauteing bay and curry leaves. Then saute the onions. Then tomato. Here is where we add the chettinad magic. Add in the ground paste. Add the chicken and saute with the spices for a few minutes. This will infuse the spices in the chicken.
Then add the water and pressure cook for 5 minutes.
A quick release and chicken chettinad is ready. Ah...look at the wonderful color. Isn't it amazing? I served this curry to some friends for dinner and they were blown away! The vegetarians were craving chettinad paneer 🙂 I have to try that for my vegetarian husband!
Enjoy it with rice or naan. And don't forget to let me know how you liked it. Leave a comment, share it on our facebook page or instagram with #pipingpotcurry.
If you like this recipe, you might like the below chicken recipes made in a pressure cooker:
📖 Recipe
Chettinad Chicken - Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken thighs boneless, cut into pieces
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or Oil
- 1 Bay leaf (Tej Patta)
- 5 Curry Leaves (Kadi Patta)
- 1" inch Ginger
- 5 cloves Garlic
- ¼ cup Grated Coconut fresh or dry
- 1 Onion large, diced
- 2 Tomato medium, diced
- 1 teaspoon Salt adjust to taste
- ½ cup Water for cooking
- Cilantro to garnish
Whole Spices
- 4 Dried Red Chili Whole Kashmiri or another variety
- 1 teaspoon Black Peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 2 teaspoon Coriander seeds
- 5 Green Cardamom (Elaichi)
- 1 stick Cinnamon (Dalchini)
- 4 Cloves (Laung)
- 1 tablespoon Poppy Seeds (Khus khus)
- 1 teaspoon Fennel Seeds (Saunf)
Instructions
Preparing Chettinad Spice blend:
- Heat the pressure cooker in SAUTE mode. Add all the whole spices to be dry roasted. Roast them for about 30 seconds until they impart their aroma. Add ginger, garlic and grated coconut and saute for another 30 seconds.
- Press CANCEL to turn off the pressure cooker. Transfer all the ingredients in the pressure cooker to a blender. Grind to a powder or if needed add some water to make a paste.
Preparing Chettinad Chicken Curry
- Start the pressure cooker in SAUTE mode and heat oil in it. Add the bay leaf and curry leaves. Saute for 30 seconds.
- Add the diced onion and saute for about 3 minutes.
- Then add the diced tomatoes, ground spices and salt. Saute for 2 mins.
- Add chicken pieces and saute for 3 mins. This is an important step which infuses the spices in the chicken.
- Add water for cooking. Press CANCEL and close the pressure cooker lid with vent in sealing position.
- Change the setting to MANUAL or pressure cook mode on high pressure for 5 minutes.
- When the pressure cooker beeps, do a quick pressure release.
- Garnish with cilantro and Chicken Chettinad is ready to be served.
Notes
- I used Kashmiri red chili in this curry. You can use what you have in store, but do adjust the quanity to your taste.
- Cut the chicken pieces small, about 1-1.5 inch. If using larger pieces, increase the pressure cooking time by 2-3 minutes.
- I used chicken thighs for this curry, you can use chicken breasts too. If using bone-in chicken, increase the cooking time to 10 minutes.
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
Markus says
I rate it medium. Take care, it's rather hot. Make sure your grind the whole spices very well otherwise it won't dissolve later.
Meeta Arora says
Hi Markus - Thanks for sharing your feedback!
Tom says
For larger amounts if chicken, like 5-6 lbs, would you like 5x all the ingredients? For example, 5” ginger, 25 cloves garlic, 5 large onion, 20 dried chilis?
Meeta Arora says
Hi Tom - I typically do just use the same ratio. However as we are cooking in the instant pot, and you can add less liquid when making 5x for the chicken curry, you can adjust down the spices to 3-4x if you prefer. Hope you enjoy the curry!