Chicken cafreal

Chicken cafreal is a Goan chicken dish with a green, tangy and spicy masala. Raksha Kamat’s selected recipe makes its own coriander-and-spice paste and cooks the marinated chicken to a dry gravy, with fried potato wedges included in the presentation.

The cut chicken first marinates with turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, lime juice and a ginger-garlic paste made by crushing the listed garlic and ginger in a mortar and pestle.

Fresh coriander leaves with stems, garlic, ginger, green chillies, cloves, black peppercorns, cumin seeds, cinnamon and bay leaf are ground with vinegar, lime juice and a little salt into a thick green paste. A little water may help the grinding, and the same paste coats the marinated chicken before another rest.

The potato wedges keep their skins. They are salted, boiled until slightly soft, drained, patted dry and deep-fried until golden, then set aside while the chicken is separated from its reserved green masala and shallow-fried in a separate portion of oil.

The reserved masala returns to the chicken pan for covered, low-heat simmering with occasional stirring until the gravy turns dry. Salt is adjusted, and some fried wedges are coated in that finished gravy while the rest can be served alongside.