I grew up with a lot of Tulu-speaking family friends and appreciate their cuisine esp. their non veg recipes. The chicken sukka is one of my favorites and it goes perfectly with Neer Dosa. This is a very elaborate dish with lots of steps but is so good that I don’t mind spending the extra time in kitchen to cook it.

I have also tried cooking this same dish with boiled kabuli chana and potatoes for vegetarian meals and it has turned out well.

Here is my mom’s recipe for chicken sukka – tulu style – I think it comes quite close to the authentic recipe.

Ingredients
1 kg chicken pieces with bones

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 1/2 tsp jeera seeds

5/6 sprigs of curry leaves1 finely chopped onion2 tomatoes – cut into big cubes

1 tsp coriander seeds

7-8 dried red chillies

10 pepper corns

10-12 garlic cloves

1 inch cinnamon

4-5 cloves

1/2 tsp khus khus(poppy seeds)

1/2 a coconut or around 1 cup of Grated coconut

Turmeric

Oil

Salt

Method

1. Clean and cut the chicken into cube sized pieces along with the bone and keep aside.
2. Dry roast 1 tsp coriander seeds, dried red chillies,  pepper corns, garlic , cinnamon, 1/2 tsp jeera, cloves, khus khus(poppy seeds) with 2 tsp of onion and 2 tsp of grated coconut till the aroma of the spices fills up your kitchen. Take care not to char the spices. Let this cook for some time and then grind it to a coarse paste in the grinder.
3. In a pressure cooker, take 2 tbsp oil and heat. When hot, add mustard seeds,  jeera seeds and when they splutter add curry leaves. The curry leaves give a distinct flavor to this dish and hence feel free to add more.
4. Now after sauteing it for 2-3 mins, add remaining onion and some salt. Saute the onion till it is pinkish in color.
5. Add the tomatoes to the cooker and saute.
6. Next add the chicken and saute till well coated with all the masala.
7. Add the roasted spices mix to the chicken, mix well  and pressure cook it for 1 whistle. Pressure cooking though not the best way to cook meat, is the easiest and hence I took this option. Alternately, you can just cover the pan with a lid and cook for 15-20 mins till chicken is cooked. Adjust the water according to the consistency you want. I like it to have some gravy so that it goes well with chapatis.
8. As the chicken is cooking, in another pan start dry roasting 1 cup grated coconut, pinch of haldi and 5-6 pods of garlic and 1/2 tsp jeera till the coconut is slightly brown. Grind this to a coarse paste once cool.
9. Add this dry masala to the chicken when chicken is almost done.  Mix well and cook for 3-4 mins with lid on. Adjust the salt. You can add some more curry leaves for additional flavors.
10. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves (optional)
11. You can serve this with chappatis, hot neer dosas or rice.
    

Category: non-vegetarian,south Indian