Thursday, January 22, 2009

Chicken Xacuti ~ "Shakuti"

Most people know that Chicken Xacuti is actually pronounced as shakuti. Its a unique dish that consists of Poppy seeds and Kashmiri Chillies. The pronunciation "Shakuti" is most probably derived from the word "Chacuti" which is Portuguese, although the Portuguese Chacuti is brownish in colour as compared to the red Goan Xacuti.

Lets take a look how the Goan Chicken Xacuti is made!

Main Xacuti Ingredients:

Chicken Pieces

1 Kg Chicken
Small round Potatoes
Small Onions
Dash of Nutmeg Powder
Small Bits of Coconut

Xacuti Masala Ingredients:

Chicken shakuti masala ingredients

6 Red Chillies (Kashmiri Chillies)
1/2 Scraped Coconut
2 Teaspoon of Cloves
1 Teaspoon Haldi Powder
8 Pepper Corns
1 Teaspoon Jeera
1/4 Teaspoon Methi Seeds
1 Teaspoon Badee Saunf (Moti Saunf)
4 - 5 Flakes Garlic
1/2 Inch Ginger
2 Inch Piece of Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Khus Khus
1 Table Spoon Corriander Seeds
1/2 Teaspoon Til
1/2 Onion

Knock off the stocks and fry 6 red chillies in two tablespoons of oil.

Frying Kashmiri chillies

Add the 1/2 scraped coconut along with the other masala ingredient mentioned above and stir it so everything gets mixed well as shown in the picture below.

Cooking xacuti masala ingredients

Then blend the ingredients with some water until you get the Chicken Shakuti Masala, a nice bright red color!

Chciken xacuti masala

Add masala to the chicken pieces and cook it on a slow fire for nearly one hour.

Semi cooked chicken shakuti

Just before it gets done, you should be able to make out by the colour, add the nutmeg powder, bits of coconut, small onions and small round potatos. The colour should be the same as the picture of the nearly ready chicken xacuti below.

Ready to add onions and potatoes

Once you add the Onions, Potatoes and Coconut Pieces let them cook for a while, make sure you time it properly so that the chicken does not over cook! You now have the authentic goan chicken xacuti recipe, have a lovely meal!

Delicious chicken Xacuti

13 comments:

Varsha said...

Hi... Dont we need to fry sliced onions with the scrapped coconut and then grind with masala?
Also do we need to baggar the chicken with finely cut onions?

Anonymous said...

does not sound right need to fyr coconut and onions brown.

mario desouza

Anonymous said...

WELL SAID, YOU CAN DO IT,BUT SEE THAT IT REMAINS CHICKEN XACUTI

Anonymous said...

Yup it would make a lot more sense to brown the onions as well as the chicken. That will make the dish much more flavorfull. Also remove the skin and fat pieces off the chicken to make it lower calorie.

4 Leaved Clover said...

Thanks clyde for the wonderful recipes, you are amazing, the step-by-step pictures surely add a lot of confidence for me.....

Priya said...

Hi CLyde, i tried ur xacuti and we guys loved it much.thanks for sharing this delectable dish..

Anonymous said...

Hi, Dis is Cindy from Tanzania,
I have tried most of your dishes on dis site n loved it.
Keep postin more.

Jimmy Merchant said...

I agree with the others. It needs to have onions to be fried at the very beginning in order to add taste to it. Also the xacuti colour is often much more darker towards brown, the colour it takes from fried coconut scrappings. That's how mom has been making it for years and so do I!

Lilly D'souza said...

I have not yet tried any of the recipe, but I like the way it has been explained in a very simple manner. The pictures in each stage can be very helpful to observe how close we are to the recipe given. will try soon and also comment on the cooking result. I'm sure it will be good.
- Lilly D'souza

HRH d VQueen said...

some how my xacuti turned out more brownish than the red color that is shown in the pictures..where did i go wrong?

Merel

Clyde said...

@Merel

brown is the right color for the xacuti as the above comments state ...so basically your xacuti is perfect if it tastes right :)

Anonymous said...

This website is awesome! I am 19 yrs old and I know how to cook Indian food, but not Goan food. It sucks because I am Goan so I need to know, but this website has helped me. The food is quite delicious as well. The pictures make the directions more clearer!
Michelle Rebello

Anonymous said...

Your recipes are really great.Very good and very goan

Siddesh Joshi,Goa

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