Chicken Cafreal is yet another Goan delicacy which was originated by the Portuguese. It is a spicy preparation of chicken in a coriander based marinade. The marinade is the most important and almost only part of this recipe.
The chicken needs to be marinated and kept for atleast 3-4 hours. As with most marination based recipes, the longer the chicken is left with the marinate the more flavorful the result. I often marinate and keep the chicken overnight. This makes my effort for the next day almost nil as all I have to do is shallow fry the chicken pieces. This is one of the reasons this dish is on my menu whenever I am having guests and I have lot of cooking to be done. My non-veg starter is almost ready the previous day itself ?
Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
Chicken : 450 gms
Coriander : 1 cup
Green Chilli : 6-7
Ginger : 1 inch piece
Garlic : 13-14 flakes
Pepper : 6
Cinnamon : 1 inch piece
Turmeric : 1/2 tsp
Vinegar : 3-4 tbsp
Salt : as per taste
Method of Preparation:
- Grind all the ingredients mentioned above to a smooth paste.
- Apply this paste evenly on the chicken and marinate for a minimum of 3-4 hours.
- Heat oil on a pan and place the chicken pieces on the pan.
- Cover and cook for a few minutes. Open the lid. The chicken pieces would tend to leave some water and that is fine. Turn the pieces and cook uncovered till all the liquid dries and the chicken pieces are cooked well.
I typically like serving Cafreal with a mayonnaise based salad by the side ? . Typically its the Russian Salad.
Since Chicken Cafreal is a slightly spicy preparation, the sweet salad makes it a perfect combo. In fact at times our dinner is just Chicken Cafreal and Russian Salad. I think its quite healthy also – shallow fried chicken and a veggie loaded salad.
Also the dinner seems special without much effort ?
Some other of my favorite and easy to make chicken appetizer recipes are Lemon Basil Chicken, Honey Pepper Chicken, Semolina crusted fried chicken.
Chicken Cafreal recipe
- Chicken : 450 gms
- Coriander : 1 cup
- Green Chilli : 6-7
- Ginger : 1 inch piece
- Garlic : 13-14 flakes
- Pepper : 6
- Cinnamon : 1 inch piece
- Turmeric : ½ tsp
- Vinegar : 3-4 tbsp
- Salt : as per taste
- Grind all the ingredients mentioned above to a smooth paste.
- Apply this paste evenly on the chicken and marinate for a minimum of 3-4 hours.
- Heat oil on a pan and place the chicken pieces on the pan.
- Cover and cook for a few minutes. Open the lid. The chicken pieces would tend to leave some water and that is fine. Turn the pieces and cook uncovered till all the liquid dries and the chicken pieces are cooked well. Easy and delicious Chicken Cafreal is ready
pramita says
Hi Resha & Deepa..
I tried the chicken cafreal receipe and turned out to be very delicious. Well I did some little modification by adding some potatoe fingers to it which is typically being served in all goan restaurants.
Glad you liked it ?
Wow! This looks like a great recipe! Looking forward to try it soon.
Haven’t tried much Goan food ever. Tempted now. Love your page!
Hey Akshata
Glad you liked the picture and our page. Do try the recipe soon, am sure you will love it. ?
Regards