This Chicken Ambut is an authentic South Indian Style Recipe.
Chicken Ambut – South Indian Style Recipe
Today’s the big day that we return again to my Mom’s cookbook. This Chicken Ambut (Ahm-but) is a South Indian style recipe, which comes with a great, oniony sauce that is just BEGGING for some naan to go with.
Background
As with most recipes, I’m sure lots of people have some variant of this, but this Chicken Ambut recipe comes passed down from my grandmother. It’s easier than it appears! The one key to it is frying the spices.
Frying up these spices will fill your kitchen with a great aroma.
YES! That’s right. Many Indian recipes do this in order to elicit many wonderful qualities that come from frying spices in a little oil. When you’re able to pan-fry our 2 main stars here – cumin and coriander seeds – they bring a different fragrance and richness to the dish, as well as develop the signature dark color of the masala (sauce). The picture above is purposefully unedited so you can see what a good fry color looks like. Our ground masala is below! Masala is the brown sauce that is key to our Chicken Ambut – South Indian Chicken Recipe.
This Masala is crucial for the Chicken Ambut recipe.
The Process – Chicken Ambut (South Indian Style Recipe)
As I mentioned, frying spices in oil are key here. Also important, will be gathering the whole spice versions of both the coriander seeds and cumin seeds. Whole spices fry better than the powder version and will be easier to work with for this recipe. Unfortunately, I have only found these spices at Indian stores or on Amazon. If you don’t have an Indian store or these spices are just plain ole’ hard to find, the ‘recipe notes’ do show how to make this Chicken Ambut recipe with the powder versions of the spices. You’ll get the right flavor but a lighter color sauce as it’s hard to fry the powders to darken it up. Once you have your masala together, the hard work is all done! You’ll just fry up the chicken with the sauce and allow it to simmer down with water so we can get that nice, thick sauce texture.
Chicken Ambut pairs perfectly with some fresh naan.
Pair it with some naan or any type of rice you feel like for an authentic South Indian meal!
If you’re looking for a vegetarian recipe then you should try my Authentic Vegetarian Ratshouka!
I encourage you to learn more about popular South Indian food. You can start learning here.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pictures of your creations on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok! Hashtag them #thehappyhaandi. And tag me @thehappyhaandi.
Chicken Ambut - South Indian Style Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Spice Blender ( or Coffee Blender)
- 1 Skillet
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Chicken Thighs (cut into pieces)
- 2.5 cups Onion (Diced) I like purple (don't tell my grandma!), yellow is more traditional
- 2 cloves Garlic (Diced)
- 1/2 tsp Powder Mustard
- 1 tbsp Coriander seed (or 2 tsp powder)
- 1 tbsp Cumin Seeds (or 2 tsp powder)
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 3 pieces Cloves (or 1/2 tsp of powder)
- 3-4 Dried Red Chilies
- 1 tsp Salt (divided in half)
- 2 tbsp Canola Oil (for frying seeds)
- 2 Cups Water
- 1 inch Piece of Ginger
Instructions
For the Masala:
- Pour the canola oil into a pan and begin heating the pan at High heat. Add the coriander seeds, chili and cumin, black pepper, cloves, garlic, muster powder, and ginger together into a bowl. (When the pan/oil is hot, pour the spice mixture from the bowl into your hot pan. *The seeds tend to burn pretty easily!*
- Take your spices and grind them up! Feel free to add just a dash or 2 of water to get the mixture going.
For the Chicken:
- Separately, fry the onions in a medium pan until they start to turn brown in the pan.
- Add the masala and mix well. Fry the masala with the onions (about 2 minutes).
- Remove the onion mixture to a plate. Next, add the chicken to the pan. Fry the chicken until brown on both sides. (About 10 minutes or 5 minutes on each side)
- Add the onion mixture back in with the chicken and mix well.
- Final step, add 2 cups of water to the chicken mixture and simmer. Allow it to simmer for about 30 minutes *stirring occasionally.*
Notes
- * After 30 minutes of simmering, if the sauce hasn't reached that heavy texture, feel free to leave the lid off at this point and allow the water to boil down to your desired consistency.
I’ve made this recipe twice now and it never disappoints me! I would highly recommend this to someone interested in trying to cook Indian food.