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:
★ DID YOU TRY THIS RECIPE? Don’t forget to give a ★ rating. Just click on the stars in the Recipe Card to rate!
Chicken pieces cooked in freshly ground spices, to make a flavorful and aromatic chettinad curry.
- 1 lb Chicken thighs boneless, cut into pieces
- 1 tbsp Ghee or Oil
- 1 Bay leaf (Tej Patta)
- 5 Curry Leaves (Kadi Patta)
- 1" inch Ginger
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 1/4 cup Grated Coconut fresh or dry
- 1 Onion large, diced
- 2 Tomato medium, diced
- 1 tsp Salt adjust to taste
- 1/2 cup Water for cooking
- Cilantro to garnish
- 4 Dried Red Chili Whole Kashmiri or another variety
- 1 tsp Black Peppercorns
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 2 tsp Coriander seeds
- 5 Green Cardamom (Elaichi)
- 1 stick Cinnamon (Dalchini)
- 4 Cloves (Laung)
- 1 tbsp Poppy Seeds (Khus khus)
- 1 tsp Fennel Seeds (Saunf)
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.
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.
- 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.
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Do you have a vegetarian Chettinad recipe? Thank you
Hey Divya – I don’t have any vegetarian Chettinad recipes yet. My husband is a vegetarian and is asking for one too. It is definitely on my list!
Very nice recipe. I’ve tried it a few times and it’s been amazing every time. And the house smells great with all those spices 😉
So glad to hear that you enjoyed the chicken Chettinad. I love the freshly ground spices in this dish as well. Thank you for sharing back your review!
Can we use coconut milk instead of fresh cocount
Hey Shubhdha – Coconut milk would be a good addition, however the flavor profile will be very different. I get frozen shredded coconut or dry coconut from the indian grocery store, which works well in this recipe too. Hope you enjoy it!
If we use chicken tenderloin how long do you think we would need to cook it for? TIA!
Hey Neha – For chicken tenderloins, I believe just 3 minutes under pressure might be enough. Hope you enjoy the curry!
The recipe states to sauté the bay leaf and curry leaves but there are no curry leaves in the ingredient list.
Please help.
Thank you.
Hey Terry – I used 5 curry leaves, they are mentioned in ingredients just below bay leaves. I hope you enjoy the curry 🙂
This was amazing ! I used a can of tomatoes instead of fresh, and I used 6 thighs on the bone. For anyone wondering I cooked it on high pressure for 12 minutes and everything was cooked perfectly!
Thank you for sharing this recipe
Hey Koty – So happy you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing the cooking time for bone-in thighs!
I just tried your recipe and it was absolutely delicious! Since I used larger pieces and bone-in, I cooked it a bit longer on the poultry setting. It came out great! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Hey Rekha…glad you liked the recipe. Thanks for sharing back!
Awesome Chettinad chicken recipe with incredible flavors. I just made this for the first time and love it (also my first time cooking with curry leaves, Kashmiri chiles, and grated coconut).
The next time I make it (oh, yes, I will make this again), I’ll saute and grind the whole spices separately from the ginger/garlic/coconut. Neither my blender nor food processor were up to grinding everything together to a fine enough level, and I think grinding the spices separately in a spice grinder will break things down even better. While my first attempt of this dish resulted in a slightly more chunky consistency (esp. the cinnamon bark), it’s still super delicious.
Thank you!
Thanks Mark. So glad you enjoyed this chettinad curry. We were blown away with the flavors too. Great idea to grind dry and wet ingredients separately to get a smoother consistency.
I noticed there is no turmeric in the recipe. Was it an oversight or intentional?
Hey Ravi – Great question. In this chettinad chicken, I only added the freshly ground spices and salt. I did not add any turmeric and we certainly did not miss it. However it will not change the taste much even if you add turmeric. Hope you enjoy it!
Great recipe, will try this today. One question though, Is that fennel seeds I see on the plate in the picture? I don’t see fennel seeds under “whole spices” though.
Hey Rachel – You are right, I missed adding fennel seeds in the recipe card. Thanks for catching it. I updated the recipe now.