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Pepper chicken recipe | How to make pepper chicken recipe

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Pepper chicken recipe – Learn how to make pepper chicken with easy step by step pictures. South Indian pepper chicken is a delicious, aromatic, hot & spicy side dish to serve with rice or chapati. This is great to enjoy during monsoon or winters. This pepper chicken recipe is super quick to make as it needs no grinding masala, no elaborate cooking and is made with simple and basic ingredients.
pepper chicken dry
South Indian cuisine is diverse and each region has their own way of making this dish. The recipe shared here has always been a winner at home for the unique aroma and taste. The key to this delicious aromatic dish is the freshly ground pepper which brings a mild heat to the dish.

Pepper chicken is unique in a way from the other Indian Chicken curry recipes I have shared earlier. The quantity of red chili powder and garam masala used is less here when compared to other chicken curries.

This recipe will give a moderately hot & spicy dish. To make it more spicy add more chill powder. If you are looking for a chettinad pepper chicken masala then you can use the chettinad masala which i have shared below.

This pepper chicken recipe can be used to make both versions of the pepper chicken dry and gravy. To get the right taste, do stick on to the exact measurements.

More Indian chicken recipes here
lemon chicken
garlic chicken
chettinad chicken
kadai chicken
chicken ghee roast

Pepper chicken recipe

pepper chicken recipe

Pepper chicken recipe | How to make pepper chicken recipe

Simple pepper chicken recipe - simple pepper chicken masala made with basic spices and herbs in south Indian style. It tastes great with plain rice, chapati or parotta.

Print
Course Main
Cuisine Indian
Keyword pepper chicken
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 378 kcal
Author Swasthi

Ingredients (240 ml cup used)

  • 1 cup onions finely chopped
  • ¾ tsp ginger garlic paste or grated
  • 1 cup tomatoes (adjust if they are sour)
  • salt as needed
  • 1 to 1½ tsp pepper corn
  • ¼ tsp red chili powder
  • ¾ tsp garam masala powder
  • 1 sprig curry leaves or bay leaf or few mint leaves
  • ½ tsp cumin or jeera
  • 2 to 3 green cardamoms
  • 1 inch cinnamon or dalchini
  • 3 cloves or laung
  • 2 to 3 tbsp oil

marination

Optional

  • 3 to 4 tbsp coconut milk optional

How to make the recipe

Preparation for pepper chicken

  1. Wash chicken and drain off the water. Marinate with ingredients under marination. Keep it aside until needed.

  2. Pour oil to a hot pan. Add cumin, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Allow them to sizzle.

  3. Next add curry leaves and ginger garlic paste. Fry till the raw smell of ginger garlic goes off.

  4. Add onions and fry till they turn golden.

  5. Then add tomatoes and salt. Fry till the tomatoes turn mushy and soft.

  6. Add red chili powder, garam masala and coarsely crushed pepper corn.
  7. Fry everything well till the mixture looses all the moisture.

Making pepper chicken

  1. Add chicken and fry for about 3 to 4 minutes.

  2. Cover and cook on a low flame till the chicken turns tender. If the chicken doesn't ooze out enough water to cook, then add little water. Cover and cook until soft. If you want to have gravy, you can take it off while there is moisture. You can also pour 3 to 4 tbsp coconut milk.

  3. If you prefer a dry version, cook without lid and evaporate the moisture in the chicken. fry till all the moisture dries up.
  4. Serve pepper chicken hot with rice and rasam.
Nutrition Facts
Pepper chicken recipe | How to make pepper chicken recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories 378 Calories from Fat 234
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 26g 40%
Saturated Fat 6g 30%
Cholesterol 93mg 31%
Sodium 467mg 19%
Potassium 493mg 14%
Total Carbohydrates 10g 3%
Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
Sugars 4g
Protein 25g 50%
Vitamin A 7.4%
Vitamin C 25%
Calcium 5.2%
Iron 13.3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

Marination for pepper chicken recipe

1. Wash chicken and marinate with lemon juice, ginger garlic paste, salt and turmeric. Set aside till we use it.
2. Chop onions and tomatoes very finely. Crush pepper coarsely and set aside.

3. Optional you can use any ready made garam masala or make chettinad masala from the below ingredients
3 tsp coriander seeds/ dhaniya
1 tsp fennel seeds / saunf
½ tsp cumin / jeera
1 ½ tsp pepper corn
4 green cardamoms/ elaichi
3 cloves
2 inch cinnamon stick
3 red chillis (skip if using chilli powder)
Dry roast the above ingredients and powder finely. Add it in place of garam masala.

Pepper chicken recipe – step by step photos

3. Heat a pan and add oil. Add cumin, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. When they begin to sizzle, add curry leaves and ginger garlic paste.
saute dry spices in oil to make pepper chicken recipe
4. Fry till the raw smell of ginger garlic disappears.Take care not to burn it.
frying ginger garlic paste in oil for pepper chicken recipe
5. Add onions.
addition of chopped onions to fry in oil to make pepper chicken recipe
6. Fry till they turn lightly brown or golden.
golden fried onions in ghee for pepper chicken recipe
7. Add tomatoes, sprinkle salt and fry till the tomatoes turn mushy and soft.
addition of chopped tomatoes to pan to make pepper chicken recipe

How to make pepper chicken recipe

8. Next add crushed pepper corn, red chili powder and garam masala.
addition of crushed pepper to the pan to make pepper chicken recipe
9. Fry everything well till the moisture from tomatoes evaporates completely and begin to get the aroma of pepper and garam masala. This takes around 3 to 4 minutes on a medium flame.At the end of this step you should have an almost dry onion tomato mix. If you wish to have a smooth masala, cool this, add to a blender jar and blend it till smooth with little water. I went ahead without blending.
blending masala well for pepper chicken recipe
10. Add marinated chicken and fry for about 3 to 4 minutes or till the chicken turns white in color.In case you have blended the mixture, add it now after frying chicken.
addition of marinated pepper chicken to the pot for frying
11. Lower the flame to minimum. Cover and cook.
cooking pepper chicken on a low flame to make it tender
12. Occasionally stir in between. Under 7 to 8 minutes, moisture from the chicken oozes out. This may differ from the variety of chicken used. For the chicken we get in Singapore, i don’t need to add water at all. Lot of moisture oozes out and the chicken gets cooked with it. If there is no moisture from the chicken, pour very little water to cook.
addition of water to cook pepper chicken recipe

Pepper chicken gravy

13. when the chicken is cooked fully, you can switch off if you like the pepper chicken gravy. You can also pour 3 to 4 tbsps of coconut milk to this. Stir and cook till it bubbles. The gravy tastes great when the chicken is cooked on the lowest heat or flame for longer time.It almost takes 20 minutes for me to cook the chicken to tender.
pepper chicken gravy
14. If you wish to have a pepper chicken dry, once the chicken is soft cooked. open the lid and fry till the moisture evaporates and the masala clings on to the chicken well.
pepper chicken recipe
Serve with onion wedges, rice and rasam,or naan or chapathi.

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Comments

  8. Hi, very good your vegetable fried rice of preparation, cooking method and good presentation .
    I like to so much your vegetable fried rice. Very excellent your items

    Reply

  15. Can someone explain me the marination part? Do we have to use 3/4 tb spoon garlic paste and 1/8 tumeric for 500 gm chicken during marination ?
    (I’m very beginner in cooking, engineer at cooking who measure stuff in measuring cylinder for accurate measurement)

    Reply

    • Yes Dhruv
      You will have to marinate with ginger galic paste, turmeric and salt. You can also use lemon juice. Hope this helps

      Reply

  16. Love the recipe. Thank you!
    The quantity of g&g paste for the frying is not listed in ingredients on the recipe card.

    Reply

  21. Thanks for the lovely recipe. Came out nice. One word of caution about using chicken that is oozing out water. It means that the manufacturer has inducted water to increase the weight of the meat. You must avoid such chicken .

    Reply

    • Welcome Gopinath Jagadeesan,
      Never knew that water is used to increase the weight of meat. Thanks for sharing this. It will be useful to other readers as well. But in this recipe i suppose onions and tomatoes bring the moisture out from chicken. Thanks again

      Reply

  22. This is similar to what my mother makes, except for the fact that we’re Ghanaians. She uses Scotch Bonnet peppers with onions and ginger. Anyways, the recipe looks good. I’m going to have to try it.

    Reply

  25. Thanks for your excellent presentation.
    Curry leaves, Bay leaves, mint leaves, which is the best for the recipe.
    Marination you have said Ginger paste. Is it Ginger Garlic paste.

    Reply

    • Curry leaves goes best with this pepper chicken recipe.
      yes it is ginger garlic paste. I have updated the post. Thanks for the mention

      Reply

  28. Excellent taste to my taste buds,i am very happy bcs i to also make pepperchicken with ur help thanks a lot

    Reply

  34. I just want to say thank you for your truly amazing blog. I’m a new wife/new citizen of India. I recently moved to India from the States with my husband and your blog is a god send! Everything I’ve made from here as been great and has taught me so much. Thank you!

    Reply

    • Welcome Emi,
      Iam Glad to know you. Thanks for the compliments and happy to know that my blog has helped you. Have a wonderful day

      Reply

        • To.
          Swasthi’s Recipes,
          I thank U very much indeed for your pepper chicken recipe and it is exactly what I was looking for a very long time to learn, for two reasons, first I can’t go for every time using freshly ground masala powder from whole masala corns and secondly, this method seems to be common for both dry and gravy version. Not only this recipe, also your simple yet clear presentation, step-by-step images and above all your interest and involvement in educating the men who have the necessity to cook and eat, are all excellent and well done. Also, two doubts, first, in the middle of the preparation, is it good to add some yogurt?, and secondly, almost just before end of this preparation, do we need to add some coconut cream or milk? Please explain, thanks again,

          Reply

          • Welcome Ahamed Kabeer,
            I feel nice to know the pics and recipe helped out. Thanks a lot for the appreciations. You can add yogurt along with tomatoes by reducing an equal amount of tomatoes otherwise the end dish may turn sour. Another method is you can add 2 tbsp. yogurt for marination and set aside for 30 minutes, apart from lending a unique flavor it also makes the chicken very soft. An addition of coconut cream or milk would be great especially to make a gravy. To keep the recipe simple and best for monsoon/winters i have not used yogurt or coconut milk. Hope this helps. I Would love to know how it turned out if you try. Have a good day.