Chicken Varuval

As in all varuvals, this dry spicy dish is quite tricky to make. It's all about marination and temperature control. You can't use extra liquid in the cooking process, otherwise you will end up with chicken crumbles.

You need a 2kg chicken cut into 24 pieces. Marinade chicken in blended mixture of 12 small onions, 10 cloves garlic, half inch ginger, salt and pepper for two hours the least in the fridge. Once ready, in a wok, heat up 2 tbs ghee or butter, toss in a 5 inch cinnamon stick, 3 star anise, 5 cardamons, 10 cloves, a tsp each of these seeds-mustard, cumin, fennel , coriander and 10 dried chillies rough crushed. Turn up the heat and quickly seal in the chicken pieces. When lightly browned on the sides, turn down the heat to minimal and cover the wok and let the chicken juices to flow out and start cooking the meat. This should take around 25-30 mins on low heat. You could test by cutting through a fat piece or if you are new to this, you could take a bite ;). Salt as you like.

When you are satisfied the meat is cooked, turn up the heat to high and let the remaining liquid dry up. Keep turning the chicken pieces every now and then to keep them from burning. The whole process should take another 10 or so minutes and ideally you get a roasty aroma.



Now sprinkle 1 tbs good quality chilly powder and more pepper if you need the kick. Allow to caramelise. Squeeze in juice of a fresh lime (or lemon or tamarind juice- you just need a tanginess to it) and add two squashed tomatoes (err.. i like to squash tomatoes with my fingers rather than using the knife.. it is therapeutic, try it sometimes). Finally add chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves (if you can find them). The dish is ready.


I prefer to munch mine with lettuce on the side or salad. You really dont need anything else. But you could opt for bread or rice or noodles or even a pasta if you really need that extra energy. If.

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