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.
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
Preparation
Marination for pepper chicken
1. Marinate chicken with 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.
How to make Pepper chicken
4. Heat a pan and add oil. Add cumin, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. When they begin to sizzle, add curry leaves and ginger garlic paste.
5. Fry till the raw smell of ginger garlic disappears.Take care not to burn it.
6. Add onions.
7. Fry till they turn lightly brown or golden.
8. Add tomatoes, sprinkle salt and fry till the tomatoes turn mushy and soft.
How to make pepper chicken recipe
9. Next add crushed pepper corn, red chili powder and garam masala.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Lower the flame to minimum. Cover and cook.
13. 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.
Chicken lets out lot of moisture and that is enough to cook the dish. If there is no moisture, pour very little water to cook.
Pepper chicken gravy
14. 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.
15. 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.
Serve with onion wedges, rice and rasam,or naan or chapathi.
Related Recipes
Pepper chicken recipe | How to make pepper chicken
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
Ingredients for pepper chicken
- 1 cup onions (finely chopped or pureed)
- ¾ tsp ginger garlic paste (or grated)
- 1 cup tomatoes or ¾ cup tomato puree (optional)
- salt as needed
- 1 to 1½ tsp pepper corn or coarse crushed
- ¼ tsp red chili powder (or paprika)
- ¾ to 1 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
- 500 grams chicken (bone-in or boneless)
- ¾ tsp ginger garlic paste (or grated)
- 1/8 tsp turmeric
- salt little
Optional
- 3 to 4 tbsp coconut milk (optional)
Instructions
Preparation for pepper chicken
- Marinate chicken with ingredients under marination. Keep it aside until needed.
- Pour oil to a hot pan. Add cumin, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Allow them to sizzle.
- Next add curry leaves and ginger garlic paste. Fry till the raw smell of ginger garlic goes off.
- Add onions and fry till they turn golden.
- Then add tomatoes and salt. Fry till the tomatoes turn mushy and soft.
- Add red chili powder, garam masala and coarsely crushed pepper corn.
- Fry everything well till the mixture looses all the moisture.
Making pepper chicken
- Add chicken and fry for about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Cover and cook on a low flame till the chicken turns tender.
- If the chicken doesn't let out enough moisture 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.
- If you prefer a dry version, cook without lid and evaporate the moisture in the chicken. fry till all the moisture dries up.
- Serve pepper chicken hot with rice and Rasam. Squeeze in some lemon juice before serving.
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
Gautam says
Hi.
I tried this recipe with a little twist of adding half of the ground pepper when the water has evaporated,right before turning off the heat. This added more flavour to the chicken with already pepper infused into it. Also, I added a very small amount of gingelly oil towards the end.My parents absolutely loved it..
swasthi says
Hi Gautam
Glad it turned out oil.
Thank you!
Gangka says
It’s so delicious. Thank you for sharing Swasthi. Love your recipes.
swasthi says
Welcome Gangka
Thank you!
Rachel says
Question- how much sauce does this make if you were to blend it as you mentioned after step 10? Thanks!
swasthi says
Hi Rachel
I haven’t measured it
Prethum says
We have tried your peper chicken recipe. It turned out be great every one enjoyed it thourgly. Thanks for the wonderful recipe. I have a question, can we use chicken lever in place of chicken to make chicken lever peper fry using the same receipe.
swasthi says
Glad to know!
Yes you can use. Just cut down the tomatoes to 1/2 cup
Lizzy says
Such a tasty recipe! I used 2 tsp of black pepper for an extra kick and it was perfect with the coconut milk! Will be making this again! Thank you so much for your amazing recipes!
swasthi says
Hi Lizzy
You are welcome! Glad to know it turned out tasty.
Thank you!
🙂
Keerthika says
Swasthi – Stuck in a lockdown in Japan, I tried your egg and chicken biryani recipes and they came out so well – made me feel a bit closer to home. Cant wait to try this out today. Thank you so much :’)
swasthi says
Hello Keerthika
You are welcome! Glad to know the recipes helped. Hope you enjoy more recipes from here. Thank you!
🙂
Jenny says
This was so good, yet so simple! I loved the potency of the pepper – it brought such bold, different sort of flavor to the dish. I made mine so as to have a gravy, and the coconut milk was a nice addition to that. Will definitely make this one again. Thank you 🙂
swasthi says
Hello Jenny,
You are welcome! Glad to know. Yes coconut milk does a good job here. Thank you
Carolyn bernard says
U r great. Love all yr recipies. Thank u for making many youngsters cook then buying food.
swasthi says
You are welcome!
Anil Monteiro says
great recipe
swasthi says
Thank you
Cintha says
Awesome…
swasthi says
Thank you Cintha
Padma says
I tried many recipes very tasty my grand son likes very much thanks a lot
swasthi says
Hi Padma Ma’am
You are welcome. Glad your grandson liked it. Thank you!
Me Saleem says
I fell for the picture. Turned out to be a very average chicken curry with a karrahi flavour… NOTHING like the picture. Tasted average. Not v bad.
swasthi says
Hi Saleem,
All the recipes are tried and tested several times by me before I post. I show the same food I cook in the step wise pictures. This recipe has been loved by many readers too. Not sure what went wrong with your pepper chicken. Try adding more garam masala and cook for some more time. This is not an extremely spicy curry.
Mridula Laxman says
Hi Swasthi
I always know I can depend on your recipes veg /non veg /Sweets for festivals
You are an excellent cook and can put across your recipes with helpful tips
Pepper chicken tried without tomatoes and no water and cooked on low flame
Great recipe Thanks
swasthi says
Hi Mridula,
You are welcome. Glad to know! Thanks a lot for trying the recipes.
🙂
Tanu says
Can the chicken be transferred in the pressure cooker for a faster cooking?
swasthi says
Hi Tanu
Sorry was on a break so couldn’t reply you. Yes 1 whistle on a low flame should work.You may need to use about 1/4 cup water.
Apoorva says
Love this recipe!! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
swasthi says
Welcome Apoorva
Priyanka says
I love your recipes. Have been following it for quite a while now and tried a lot of stuff . Was bored of the same cuisines and cooking style. Have something to look forward to everyday.
Only problem is we have to constantly open the website as you have disabled the copy paste option where we can make a scrap book of our recipes. i do understand your dilemna. There are enough plagiarists who would blatantly copy your recipes and pass on as their own.
Which they can nonethless do ,Altough it will involve a little bit more effort. Give a thought to it for your ardent followers and fans:)
swasthi says
Hi Priyanka,
Thanks for following the blog and the feedback.
Suchi says
Really awesome and mouth watering.
Thanks a lot for such an amazing recipe.
swasthi says
Hi Suchi
Welcome. thank you so much!
Suchi says
Really awesome and mouth watering. Thanks a lot for such a great recipe.
Pankaj says
The recipe is too good. .followed it and ended up making awesome pepper chicken.
Thanks for the effort.
swasthi says
Welcome Pankaj
Thanks for the comment
Imogen says
Pepper chicken recipe was worth the try. Everybody enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing
swasthi says
Welcome
Prici Thomas says
Hi Swathi!! you are an excellent cook… Love all your recipes
swasthi says
Thanks Prici