Chicken majestic or chicken 777 is a popular starter in the Hyderabad region of South India. Seems that it hasn’t spread much outside, so not many people may know about it. Indeed, I had never heard about it too.
The first time I came across this recipe was on the menu card of a popular Andhra restaurant here in Qatar, where it was mentioned as chicken 777 and I was wondering what this new thing was as I was only aware of chicken 65.
Upon research, I came to know it’s more commonly known as chicken majestic. And that it’s another Indo-Chinese fusion recipe, partly adapted from the chicken Manchurian recipe.
There are 2 marinations in this recipe. One simple brining with buttermilk and the other the regular Manchurian marinade. Brining tenderizes the chicken.
Use proper buttermilk for brining, not the one in which vinegar is added to milk. One simple way is to just add half a cup of water to half a cup of curd/yogurt and beat well. That is what I did for this recipe.
Else, you can use storebought buttermilk too, the one which we call laban here. The general recommendation is to soak the chicken for at least 2 hours to overnight.
But I marinated for 20 minutes only due to lack of time. Yet the chicken turned out amazingly tender. The second marinade I adapted from my Chicken Manchurian recipe, was also marinated for another 20 minutes.
The final sauteeing after deep frying is where our regular Indian masalas come into the picture. It gives a good coating to the chicken as well as enhances the flavor. Also, yogurt replaces the tomato sauce and vinegar in the Manchurian recipe.
It tasted delicious and completely different from the Manchurian that even my picky eater son loved it. Do give it a try and I bet you will love it too.
Over to the recipe…
Chicken majestic
Ingredients
1st marinade
- 250 g boneless chicken fillets
- 1 cup buttermilk
- salt as needed
2nd marinade
- 1 small egg
- ½ tsp pepper
- ⅛ tsp ginger powder
- ⅛ tsp garlic powder
- salt as needed
- 1 tsp corn flour
Other ingredients
- 1 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp curd/yogurt
- 2 tsps soy sauce
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 green chillies
- few curry leaves
- a few coriander leaves
- a few mint leaves
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- ½ tsp cumin powder
- ½ tsp garam masala powder
- a pinch of turmeric powder
- salt as needed
- oil for deep frying
For garnishing
- coriander leaves
- lemon wedges
Instructions
- Wash the chicken, chop it into longitudinal strips and marinate it in buttermilk and salt solution for 20 minutes
- After 20 minutes, remove it from the marinade, squeeze as much water as possible from it and marinate with the ingredients given in the 2nd marinade for another 20 minutes.
- Heat up oil and deep fry the chicken pieces in batches and drain onto a kitchen towel.
- In a pan heat up 1 tbsp of oil, and add the finely chopped garlic, green chillies, curry leaves, coriander, and mint leaves.
- Add all the powders, saute for a few seconds and add the yogurt/curd. Give it a quick mix and add the soya sauce and salt as needed.
- Simmer the flame and add the chicken pieces. Toss so that the masala gets coated evenly on all the chicken pieces.
- Turn off the stove once it dries up completely. Serve, garnished with lemon slices and chopped coriander leaves.
Hema’s P.S
- Ensure that the buttermilk is optimally sour and add salt as needed to balance the tangy taste.
- I have deep-fried the chicken pieces, you can opt to shallow fry or tawa fry too if you prefer.
- Adding mint will enhance the flavor. I have not added it here as I did not have it on hand.
- The spices and chillies can be adjusted to personal preference.
- The chicken is usually cut into longitudinal strips in this recipe.
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Looks colourful. Should try it soon