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Chicken Avakaya (Chicken Pickle)

Jul 25th, 2008 | By | Category: All Recipes, Chicken Recipes, Chutneys & Pachadis, Featured recipes, Non-Veg Recipes

Mixture of exotic spices with chicken is a pickle made back at home by my mom. A perfect partner for steamed rice. For all those chicken lovers out there, try this and I bet you’ll love it.
you’ll need

chicken – 1 lb (I’ve used chicken with bones) cut into bite sized pieces
Turmeric – 1 tsp
ginger & garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Oil – 1/4 cup
Mustard seeds (avalu) – 1 tsp  
coriander seeds (dhaniyalu) – 1 1/2 tbsp  
cumin seeds (jeera) – 1/4 tsp
cloves (lavangalu) – 10
cardamom pods (elaichi) – 3  
cinnamon stick (dalchini) – 1 inch
poppy seeds (gasagasalu) – 2 tbsps  
Large Lemon – 1 (Squeeze the juice and set aside)
red chilly powder – 1/4  cup (adjust according to suite your spice levels)
Salt to taste

How to:

  • Wash chicken pieces under running water and drain.
  • In a bowl mix together ginger garlic paste, turmeric. Add washed chicken pieces to this mixture and coat well.
  • Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan/kadhai, reduce the heat to medium and add chicken to it. mix gently, cover the pan with a lid for 2 mts.

  • Remove the lid and on medium low flame allow the chicken to fry till golden brown. Keep stirring in between such that all the pieces are evenly cooked and colored. Do not overfry the chicken as this turns the pieces hard to chew. Light golden brown color would be good.

  • Once the chicken is fried, set aside and allow it to cool. Meanwhile dry fry all the spices individually (mustard seeds, coriander seeeds, cumin seeds, cloves, elaichi, dalchini and poppy seeds) on low flame till nice aroma comes out. Do not burn them (the pickle would turn bitter if spices are over burnt)
  • Once done allow the spices to cool off and grind all spices together to a fine powder.


  • Heat the squeezed lime juice on low flame for 10 seconds (Do not overheat). Alternatively you could warm it for 10 seconds in a microwave. Adding fresh lime juice will not let the pickle stay fresh for long time and thats why we want it to be warm.
  • Now add ground spice powder(do not add entire powder at once, instead add in small quantities and adjust according to your spice levels), dried red chilly powder, to the fried chicken and mix well. Add lemon juice and adjust salt.
  • If the pickle looks too dry a little bit of oil could be added. Its not required to heat oil at this point of time.

  • Leave the pickle in the bowl for an hour and transfer it into a closed jar. This pickle stays fresh for a month even if not refrigerated. If you are not refrigerating the pickle and leaving it outdoors, make sure the pickle is covered with good amount of oil floating on top. It can be eaten on the day of preparation itself. Serve it with steamed rice. Also goes well with dosas and idlys too. 
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18 comments
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  1. vandana rajesh September 25th, 2008 7:33 pm

    Hi that chicken looks real spicy and yummy…just fit for the Andhra spice levels.

  2. KV October 22nd, 2008 11:24 pm

    this was exactly what i was looking for. thanks for sharing. 🙂

  3. Sowjanya October 24th, 2008 10:51 am

    Vandana, Rajesh

    Thanks for dropping by. Do try the recipe and let me know how it tasted. Yeah this is a classic andhra pickle that I picked up from my mom.

  4. Kitchen Flavours November 18th, 2008 11:34 pm

    Wow iam drooling over. Looks yummy ans spicy.

  5. Sowjanya November 19th, 2008 4:25 pm

    Kitchen flavours,

    Thanks for dropping by. 🙂 I keep drooling over this dish as I cook it. Do try it and let me know how it turned out.

  6. Paneer August 4th, 2009 7:05 am

    Nice recipes

  7. usha August 23rd, 2009 10:22 pm

    thanx for posting chicken pickle …i am eagerly searching for this dish once i tried by seeing in another site but it wont come they didnt use any masala .now without doing i am telling it will come nice becoz its moms dish ..thanx once again… dont stop continue sharing with all

  8. Rock February 5th, 2010 3:50 am

    Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe…I tried it out and it was quite delicious…:)

  9. Aseem Saxena November 13th, 2010 1:28 am

    Dear Sowjanya,

    1. For red chilly powder – is that 1/4th tsp or Tbsp or am I missing something?

    Thanks,

    Aseem

  10. Sowjanya November 23rd, 2010 9:54 am

    Hi Aseem,

    Sorry that was a typo. It is 1/4 cup actually. updated the post. Thanks for letting me know.

  11. prameela December 23rd, 2010 12:25 pm

    hi,
    i tried ur chicken pickle. It came out really very well. very delicious. Thank u for sharing this recipe. Can u please give the recipe for prawns pickle.

  12. Sowjanya December 23rd, 2010 4:06 pm

    Hi prameela,

    Thanks for trying the pickle. I will be posting the prawn pickle too in my future posts.

  13. Arunareddy February 13th, 2011 6:13 am

    Hi Sowjanya God bless you for sharing such yummy recipe.More than me my cook thamks you for she never tried chicken pickle as she is from karnataka.I translated everything for her she got it right at one go.Thanks again

  14. nelson May 29th, 2011 3:02 am

    thanks for this wonderful recipe i tried this and it came of really nice

  15. Sowjanya June 8th, 2011 1:33 pm

    Hi Nelson,

    Its wonderful to hear from someone who tried the recipe and letting me know on the same. glad you liked it.

  16. Deepthi November 24th, 2011 12:29 pm

    First time I did this chicken pickle, my husband said it is superb

  17. Kavithasrinivas December 3rd, 2011 1:52 am

    hi sowjanya,

    i wondered after seeing your pickle process in andhra style. i searched lot of website about chicken pickel in your website.i really tried my self.thanks for sharing such a nice andhra recipe keep it up.

  18. Sumanth July 17th, 2012 2:29 pm

    Hi sowjanya,ur husband so lucky. 😉

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