Chicken Xacuti
Chicken Xacuti (pronounced Shakooti) singularly captures everything that made the Portuguese swoon over India. It’s a spice extravaganza in one dish. Silky coconut milk cossets the chicken, which has paid homage to its green masala marinade and woody scented spices.
Feeds up to 6
Green Marinade
- 50g coriander leaves
- 2 tbs ginger garlic paste
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 Green chillies (roughly chopped)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 800g boneless, skinless chicken thigh, diced.
Xacuti Masala Paste
- 100g desiccated coconut
- 6 Kashmiri chillies, broken
- 2 tbs coriander seeds
- 5cm stick of cinnamon, broken into pieces
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 4 cloves
- 2 star anise
- 4 garlic cloves
Xacuti Cooking Ingredients
- 2tbs vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 200ml coconut milk
- 1/3 tsp nutmeg
As featured in
CURRYMEMOIRS
How To Make Chicken Xacuti
- Blitz the Green Marinade ingredients (apart from the chicken) in a blender with a little bit of water. Coat the chicken in the marinade
- In a pan, toast the coconut until tanned and brown. Remove and allow to cool
- Dry fry all the Xacuti Masala Paste ingredients apart from the garlic, do this for 3-4 minutes over a medium heat until you can smell the spices yield their musk. Allow to cool.
- Blend the cooled Xacuti Masala Paste ingredients in blender until you have a fine powder. Now blend these ingredients together with the coconut and garlic and add a little water to get a nice dense smooth paste.
- Using a large pan over a medium high heat, fry the onion for around 10 minutes until the slices have turned brown at the edges and cooked through. Turn the heat to medium, add the masala paste ingredients and cover and cook for around 10 minutes until you have a gravy forming, add some water if it starts to stick.
- Add the marinated chicken, to the pan stir thoroughly so that it’s coated, cover and cook for around 20 minutes, add the coconut milk, grate the nutmeg, cover and cook for another 20 minutes until the edges of the pan are forming spice oil patches.
- Serve with rice or for an authentic Goan streetfood experience, pour the curry over a Ros omelette and bread poi!
- NB If you make this in advance and refrigerate, add approx 100ml of water when reheating to ensure a silkier gravy.
Chicken Xacuti
Chicken Xacuti (pronounced Shakooti) singularly captures everything that made the Portuguese swoon over India. It’s a spice extravaganza in one dish. Silky coconut milk cossets the chicken, which has paid homage to its green masala marinade and woody scented spices.
Feeds up to 6
Green Marinade
- 50g coriander leaves
- 2 tbs ginger garlic paste
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 Green chillies (roughly chopped)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 800g boneless, skinless chicken thigh, diced.
Xacuti Masala Paste
- 100g desiccated coconut
- 6 Kashmiri chillies, broken
- 2 tbs coriander seeds
- 5cm stick of cinnamon, broken into pieces
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 4 cloves
- 2 star anise
- 4 garlic cloves
Xacuti Cooking Ingredients
- 2tbs vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 200ml coconut milk
- 1/3 tsp nutmeg
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