Chicken chaap recipe step by step at home – Kolkata restaurant style chicken chaap is a popular dish among Bengali people. Mughlai-style chicken chaap recipe means a long-hour marinated chicken (with garam masala and other ingredients) slow cooked in ghee and vegetable oil for making a thick gravy. This delicious chicken chaap is actually an authentic and traditional Mughlai dish in Bengal and Kolkata is best at making this recipe all over India. Basically, in Kolkata Arsalan, Aminia, Shiraz, and Royal (famous restaurants) are popular for making the best Mughlai-style chaap recipe(especially with chicken). That is why we never miss having our favorite restaurant’s chaap recipes whenever we go to Kolkata.
For making this Kolkata restaurant style chicken chaap recipe at home, few things are so important, i.e, full chicken legs (including thighs) or boneless breast pieces, special garam masala, the exact amount of essence( food flavor), lots of ghee (including Dalda), long time marination, and a slow cooking process. Without any one of these (specially Dalda), the taste and aroma of this Bengali chicken chaap recipe may differ and you may lose that authentic Kolkata restaurant style taste.
Anybody(Bengali chaap lovers) can easily make this recipe in her kitchen by first marinating the chicken for 3-4 hours in curd, a smooth masala paste of boiled onion, ginger, garlic, green chilies, poppy seeds, melon seeds, and cashew nuts, then homemade powdered chicken chaap masala (a special garam masala), Kashmiri Mirch powder, lemon juice, essence(kewra and mitha attar) and roasted gram flour. After 3-4 hours fried the marinated chicken in ghee, oil, and dalda by adding saffron-soaked milk to make it ready.
In Kolkata, the most popular restaurants always serve this Bengali-style chicken chaap on an oval-shaped plate with less gravy and lots of oil. And this happens by frying rather slow cooked marinated chicken in ghee for a long time, and as a result, the gravy gets reduced by releasing more oil.
Most Bengalis prefer to eat chicken chaap with biryani, but there is no such hard rule, even naan, mughlai paratha, rumali roti are not bad combinations. Though popular Kolkata restaurants like arsalan, aminia, shiraz, Royal Indian hotel are Bengalis final destinations for having their chicken chaap recipe with their Bengali biryani.
You can easily prepare this Kolkata restaurant style popular Bengali chicken chaap recipe at home. But some patience is required as this dish takes a little more time for preparation, marination, and cooking.
You may also try other popular non-veg recipes from my website
Kolkata Chicken Biryani recipe
Kolkata-Arsalan style mutton chaap recipe
Shahi chicken korma curry recipe
Try this Mughlai recipe at home and let me know your valuable comment about this delicious Bengali chicken chaap. Just write down your comment in the comment section below.
Chicken chaap recipe | kolkata restaurant style chicken chaap
Prep time: 25-30 mins
Cook time: 50 mins
Served in: 1 hr 20 mins
Course: Main course
Cuisine: Mughlai/ Bengali
Served for: 3-4 people
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients of chicken chaap
- 700 gms Full Chicken Legs with Thighs/Boneless Breast Pieces
- 3/4 cup Curd/Unflavoured Yogurt
- 2 Medium-Sized Onions
- 12-13 Garlic Cloves
- 1-inch Ginger
- 2 pcs Green Chillies
- 1+1/2 tablespoon Poppy Seeds
- 1+1/2 teaspoon Melon Seeds(Charmagaj)
- 8 Cashew Nuts
- 2 teaspoon Dry Roasted Garam Masala( Described Later)
- 3/4 teaspoon Kewra Water
- 3-4 drops Rose Essence/ 1+1/4 teaspoon Rose Water
- 2-3 drops of Mitha Attar
- 1 tablespoon Sattu(Chhatu) or Roasted Gram Flour
- 1+1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- 1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
- 3 teaspoon Dalda
- 3 teaspoon Ghee
- 3 teaspoon Vegetable Oil
- 4 teaspoon Lukewarm Milk
- 1 pinch of Saffron Strands
- Salt as per taste
How to make chicken chaap recipe (kolkata restaurant style chicken chaap)
Step-by-step Instruction
Ingredients of chicken chaap masala
- Take a pan with 4 green cardamoms, 5 cloves, 1/2 teaspoon whole white pepper, 1-inch cinnamon stick, 3/4 teaspoon shahi jeera or shah jeere(in bengali language), 1/2 teaspoon whole black pepper, and 1+1/2 teaspoon dry rose petals, 1/2 of a mace, and 1/4 of nutmeg(as shown in the pic).
- Dry roast it. Then ground the all roasted garam masala and turn them into a fine powdered form. Ground Chaap masala is ready.
Prepare chicken chaap
- First, take a pan, add 1+1/2 tablespoon poppy seeds, 1+1/2 teaspoon melon seeds(charmagaj in Bengali), and 8 cashew nuts and dry roast it and then soak it in water for 15-20 mins.
- Then take 2 medium-sized onions, peel them out and make a deep slit from its top and boil it well.
- After boiling cool it down for use later.
- Boiled onion is the topmost secret ingredient used in all renowned Kolkata restaurants popular for making such Mughlai recipes.
- Take a small blender jar, add boiled onion, 1-inch ginger, 12-13 garlic cloves and2 pcs green chilies, as shown in the pic.
- Then add soaked poppy seeds, melon seeds, and cashew nuts to the blender jar and make a smooth paste out of it.
- You can add little water to make the paste smooth. This is the secret masala of this recipe used in all popular restaurants(Arsalan, Aminia, Shiraz, or Royal).
- Take 700 g to 1 kg large pieces of chicken( mostly full legs with thighs or boneless chicken breast pieces) as shown below pic.
- Wash it thoroughly, and make 4-5 slits on it with a knife, then add 3/4 cup(≈ 180 ml) of well-beaten curd(unflavoured yogurt/green yogurt)) to it. Mix it well.
- Then add the masala paste(kept in a blender jar) and 2 teaspoons of powdered chaap masala(a special garam masala) to it and rub it nicely on the chicken pieces.
- Add 2 teaspoons of Kashmiri red chilli powder and 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and lastly squeeze the 1/2 lemon(from a bigger size lemon) or add 2 tablespoons lemon juice to it.
- Then add 3/4 teaspoon of kewra water, 3-4 drops rose essence or 1+1/4 teaspoon rose water, 2-3 drops of mitha attar to it, and mix it nicely.
- Lastly, add 1 tablespoon of sattu(chhatu in Bengali) or roasted gram flour(shown in the pic below) to it and mix it together. Then keep it in the refrigerator for 3-4 hrs.
Making of chicken chaap
- After 3-4 hrs, take out the marinated chicken from the refrigerator and place a flat and wide-bottomed pan on low heat, add ghee, Dalda, and refined oil/vegetable oil with 3 tablespoons each to it.
- When the oil, ghee, Dalda mix gets heated up, then add the marinated chicken to it and cover the pan. After every 5 mins check it.
- After slow cooked for the first 10 minutes, slowly turn the chicken pieces then cover it again.
- When the chicken pieces are almost cooked and the raw smell of masala completely goes off, then add salt(as per taste) to it for the first time, I’ve added 1+1/2 teaspoons of salt, you may use less or much as required.
- In the meantime, take 4 tablespoons of lukewarm milk in a bowl and add 1 pinch of saffron strands to it(shown in the pic). And later crush the soaked saffron strands pressing by with fingers.
- Then add this saffron-soaked milk to the pan and stir it well. Slowly the gravy will change its colour due to adding the saffron.
- When the chicken is completely cooked and the gravy is fully covered by oil as shown in the pics then turn off the flame.
- Now kolkata restaurant style chicken chaap is ready to serve, have it with paratha, naan or rumali roti or even with bengali biryani.
Tips
- Keep the rest of the dry roasted and powdered chaap masala in an airtight container for further use.
- If you are using large chicken legs, then you must slit the pieces before cooking. So the chicken pieces will be cooked quickly and masala will easily get into the pieces.
- I never use the salt until the chicken is not almost cooked. Even you may add it at the beginning of cooking too. But do not add it during or before the marination.
- If you don’t want to add dalda to this dish then replace it with the same amount of ghee or oil or both.
Based on 41 Review(s)
Hello Moumita,
Thanks for the recipe it is great and so easy. I tried the chicken chaap and I think I was around 70% successful.
I am facing one problem if you can help. During the making of the chicken chaap, we are seeing the gravy getting very thick and sticking into the no stick pan. What can be the reason for this. It will be great if you can guide me.
Hi Malabika,
Really glad to know you loved my chicken chaap recipe, and thank you so much for the feedback you shared with me. Actually mainly because of using cashew nuts and melon seeds paste make chaap’s gravy quite thick and sticky even roasted gram flour or sattu is also one more reason for that. Nut’s paste is mandatory for making any chaap recipe as it makes creamy consistency of the gravy and even enhances its taste as well. On the other hand, roasted gram flour is used to make the same texture and taste found in the restaurant’s chaap recipe. So as both ingredients are mandatory for making any authentic Mughlai style chicken chaap, we can not skip any step described in this recipe. Then I must suggest you, while you’re cooking must check the gravy after every 5 mins instead of 10 mins described in my recipe, even whenever you feel the gravy gets too thick and stick to the pan then you may add 4-5 tbsp of hot water to this gravy. But must use the hot water only, otherwise, its taste can be spoiled, even never add the water when cooking is done, as after adding water, proper boiling is required to get the perfect taste. Even after cooling down if you notice the chaap’s gravy gets too thick then you may add about 1/4 cup of hot water for heating it in the gas stove and make it ready by boiling. However, for heating this chaap in a microwave oven no need to add water.
Hope it will solve your problem. Try this recipe in this way and let me know how it worked.
Wonderful recipe! Thanks for this… Since we moved out of Kolkata, we have been missing the ‘typical’ Chicken Chaap flavour of Shiraz and Arasalan. Found your blog and this recipe and our taste buds were relieved! Thank you once again! Would like to get a recipe of the authentic Mutton Chaap or Mutton Pasinda. Do share it if possible!
Thank you so much for such a wonderful review…And yes I will surely share the authentic Mutton chaap and Mutton pasanda recipe soon.
This recipe is amazing, we have done this many times and everytime it has been perfect. Just wanted to say Thank you. 😊
Welcome, Mr. Suvadip, really happy to read your comment… Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words.