Chicken Kakka Roti is a traditional malabar dish in which small rice dumplings are dipped in spicy chicken gravy. It is also known in many other names like kunji pathiri , kozhi kadamb etc. In mangalore ,it is known as koli pinde. Traditionally, the gravy is made by grinding whole red chilly, coriander ,coconut ; and mini rice dumplings are made by grinding rice with coconut. In this blog, I am sharing the easy and shortcut method of preparing the dish.

Ingredients:
For chicken gravy :-
- chicken – 1/2 kg (bone-in)
- Red chilly powder – 1 tablespoon
- coriander powder – 3/4 tablespoon
- turmeric powder – 3/4 teaspoon
- onion – 2
- Tomato – 1
- garlic – 1 clove
- curry leaves – a few
- salt
- coconut milk – 3/4 to 1 cup
- ghee – 2 tablespoon
For rice dumplings :-
- rice powder (pathiri powder) – 3 to 3.5 cups
- grated coconut – a handful
- salt
- water
Method :
Pre- preparations :-
- Clean and wash the chicken pieces.
- Slice the onions and tomatoes.
- Coconut milk can be prepared using instant coconut milk powder or from fresh coconut. Use it according to your spice level.
To Prepare chicken gravy :-
- In a heated pan, dry roast red chilly powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder until nice aroma comes. Switch off and let it cool. Transfer the roasted spice powder to a blender and blend it using 1/2 cup water. Add garlic clove and pulse once in the blender.
- Take a pot. Pour the blended masala paste. Add in 1 sliced onion and tomato. Boil it very well. Once boiled, add chicken pieces and salt. Cover and cook till chicken is done. Add coconut milk. Let it boil .
- Mean while, in a small pan , heat ghee . Fry onions until it turns golden. Add curry leaves just before removing the onions from the ghee. Pour this onion- curry leaves mixture to the above chicken gravy.
Chicken gravy is ready !
To prepare rice dumplings :-
- Take a handful of grated coconut and pulse it once with little water in a grinder to a course paste.
- Take a mixing bowl. Transfer rice powder, ground coconut and salt. Knead it to a soft dough using warm water (similar to rice pathiri dough)
- Heat water in a steamer .
- Make small dumplings out of rice dough. Steam it for about 20-25 minutes.( tip:-place a few dumplings at a time so that dumplings don’t stick to each other , after a couple of minutes, add a few more on top ; continue doing so until all the dumplings are placed in the steamer)
To prepare the chicken Kakka roti:-
- To the hot chicken gravy , add cooked rice dumplings. (tip :- take out chicken pieces (except a few) or else chicken pieces would get over cooked and fall off the bone.
- Cook on low flame until the rice dumplings get soaked well and chicken gravy reaches needed thick consistency. (make sure not to dry it completely as the dumplings tend to soak more gravy even after removing from flame)
- Add the chicken pieces back to the pot . Give a gentle mix.
Chicken Kakka Roti is ready! Enjoy !

Have a look at our other malabar dishes :-