Chicken Cafreal is a very popular Goan dish. This is a super duper easy recipe, where the chicken is marinated and cooked with a flavourful aromatic green masala paste.
It gets the heat from the green chillies and the spices and gets the tangy flavour from the lemon jucice. So you can say cafreal is a hot, spicy, tangy, slightly sweet and totally yummy dish. For vegetarians you can replace chicken with fried paneer or potatoes pieces.
A perfect recipe especially when you are entertaining guests as it can be easily prepped in advance and cooked in no time, and never fails to make everyone happy. And don’t forget to use the leftovers the next day for making sandwiches. So ek teer se do shikaar:-)
My earliest memories of this dish are from this restaurant in Goa named O Coqueiro we used to visit once in a while as a child. They serve it with Goan breads- poi or unde. Our trip to goa is never complete without a visit to this restaurant.
So here is my Chicken Cafreal Recipe. Do try it and yes do write how you liked it in the comments section. Would love to hear from you!
Ingredients:
- Chicken 500-600 grams
- Lemon juice of 1 lemon
- Haldi / tumeric powder 2 tsp
- Chilli powder 2 tsp
- Sugar 2 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Oil 4 tbsp
Masala for grinding:
- Ginger 2 inch piece
- Garlic 12-15 cloves
- Green chillies 3-4 or as per taste
- Coriander leaves chopped 2 cups
- Cashewnuts 5
- Cinnamon 1 inch piece
- Cardamon 2
- Cloves 8
- Peppercorns 10
Method:
Grind all the ingredients mentioned in the ingredient list above for grinding with ¼ cup of water.
Marinate the chicken pieces with the ground masala, turmeric powder and half quantity of salt. Allow to marinate overnight in the refrigerator or for at least 3-4 hours at room temp.
Heat oil in a pan. Add the marinated chicken pieces leaving the marinate masala and sauté well on all sides on a high flame. This will take a couple of minutes. Add the remaining marinate masala, and ¼ cup of water and cover and cook on a low flame till the chicken is cooked. This will take you around 20-25 mins.
Add remaining salt, sugar, lemon juice and cover and cook for another 5 mins or till the oil seperates. If you feel the water has dried up then add one or two spoonful’s of water so that the chicken does not stick to the pan. Taste the chicken and adjust salt, chilli powder and lemon juice as per your taste.
The masala should coat the chicken pieces nicely, not too dry and not too runny.
Enjoy the delicious Chicken Cafreal with potato fries and pao.
