Indian food is known to be spicy. Yes it is spicy. The Northern part of India gave us Chicken Tikka Masala and Southern part of India brought us the Chettinad Chicken. Here’s the not-so-known-but-oh-so-delicious Western India special Tambada and Pandhara Rassa with Sukhkha chicken ( तांबडा- पांढरा रस्सा आणि सुख्खा चिकन )

Tambada means Red in Marathi. Pandhara means white and Rassa means broth or gravy. Sukhkha means dry.Roughly it translates to dry spicy preparation of chicken with red and white broth/gravy. The red gravy is supposed to be spicy. The white gravy is supposed to be less spicy and little soothing. This is THE MOST famous non vegetarian dish in western Maharashtra. It is mostly made with mutton. Here I have made it using chicken. In the restaurants in Western Maharashtra where this dish is served the Red and White gravies/broth are served unlimited along with the order of dry chicken.

This recipe was first shared with me by my brother-in-law who belongs to the land of spicy food – Kolhapur.

How to get the Chicken ready.

I used Organic Chicken Thighs with bone. The red gravy or broth is made with chicken broth. Boiling the chicken with bone brings out nice flavor in the broth. I used about 3 pounds of Chicken in this recipe.

Wash and clean the Chicken.

In a pressure cooker add Chicken and enough water to cover all the chicken.

To that water add 2 teaspoons of turmeric, about 2 inch piece of Ginger roughly chopped and Salt to taste.

Pressure cook for about 5-7 minutes of until you hear a whistle.

Remove the Chicken. The meat should be falling off the bone easily. Discard the bones and Keep the chicken aside.

Do not discard the water. This water aka Chicken Broth will be used to make the Red Gravy. Grind the cooked ginger pieces and add it back to the broth. You may want to strain the broth if your ginger has a lot of fiber.

How to make the spice mix

This is a 4 step process.

#1 – Roast about 3 medium whole onions in the oven for about 30 minutes. Alternately you can fry the Onions too. I chose to Roast them.

#2 – Roast together in a pan – 10-15 Black Peppercorn, 1 cup dry Coconut, 1/2 cup Sesame Seeds, 1 cup Coriander Seeds, 1/3 cup Poppy Seeds, 8-10 Cloves, 5-6 green Cardamom, 1 Big Black Cardamom, 2 inch piece of Cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of Mace. Grind to a fine powder. Due to the oil content from Sesame and Poppy Seed the spice mix would be little moist and that’s perfectly alright!

#3 Roast in the pan – 2 cups of freshly grated coconut. Roast just enough to remove the moisture.

#4 -Grind #1,#2,#3 above with 8-10 cloves of Garlic and 1 cup of Fresh Coriander leaves.

This is the basic spice mix for this dish.

Making Sukhkha Chicken (सुख्ख चिकन )

Heat about 4 Teaspoons of oil in a pan. Add about 2 cups of finely chopped onions and fry for a minute.

Add 4 teaspoons of Kolhapuri Masala to the Onions and fry for some more time till the onions look cooked. Add Salt and Red chilly powder to taste. Kolhapuri Masala is very spicy so you need to adjust the red chilly powder according to your taste.

Add the ground masala and cook till oil starts separating.  Once cooked divide this cooked spice in 3 equal portions. Set the 2/3 rd (two third) of the cooked spice aside.

Add the cooked chicken ( See Above) to 1/3rd of the spice and cook for 5 minutes. Adjust salt and spice with Red Chilly powder or little more of the Kolhapuri Masala.

Making Tambada Rassa ( तांबडा रस्सा ) 

In a pan start warming the broth we made in above step when we boiled the chicken. Add 1/3 part of cooked spice in the chicken broth. Add about 1 and a half cup of store bought chicken broth to this and start cooking.

Adjust salt and Red chilly powder accordingly. Let the gravy/broth boil. It would start looking red and the oil will start separating and floating on the top. At this stage the red gravy/ broth is done.

Making Pandhara Rassa (पांढरा रस्सा ) 

In another pan add 2 Cans of Coconut milk, 2 cans of water and 1/3 of the cooked spice mix that we kept aside. Add a little brown sugar and 1-2 spoons of Tamarind Juice. Let it cook it it boils.

This Gravy/broth is supposed to be less spicy than the dry chicken and red gravy/broth.

This meal is served with these 2 gravies and dry chicken. The sliced red onion on the side adds a little crunch to the meal.

With each bite the dry chicken is supposed to be dipped in one of the curries and eaten along with fresh Roti. This is a very rustic dish and has to be enjoyed the rustic way 🙂