Mutton Chukka (Tamil Style Mutton Dry Fry)

Posted on | March 8, 2010 | 26 Comments |

mutton chukka

I haven’t posted any Tamil recipes in a while, not because Siv is not cooking anymore, but because he has a tendency to stick with a few tried and tested recipes whenever he does. I think I have posted all the dishes that he regularly makes. Today when he said he wanted to cook goat, I asked him to cook something new aka a bloggable dish, as I’ve been having a creative block lately. So he immediately made a call to his mom, asking for ideas and she gave him a quick and easy recipe for Mutton Chukka.

Chukka means dry in Tamil and I think Mutton Chukka is a term used to describe a generic dry mutton dish. This particular one is a Madurai style mutton chukka recipe. Siv mentioned that it is something like what they’d serve in a Muniyandi Vilas restaurant. I’ve never heard of or eaten at a Muniyandi vilas restaurant before, I am not even sure if it is a chain or a type of restaurant. The name just sounds like a place I’d really like to eat at. Especially if they are serving dishes like this! This recipe is a really simple one, just a few ingredients and minimal work, doesn’t even need onions. I think Siv can add one more to his go-to recipe collection.

mutton chukka

Ingredients

2lb goat meat, cleaned and cut into small pieces
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
6 red chilies
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
1” cinnamon stick
10 cloves Garlic
2 tbsp thinly sliced ginger pieces
1 tsp oil
Salt to taste
Plenty of curry leaves

Method

Dry roast the spices and grind to a smooth powder. Heat the oil in the same pan and sauté the ginger and garlic. Grind this to a paste with 1tbsp water. Marinate the mutton pieces with salt, turmeric powder, powdered spices and the ginger-garlic paste. Let it marinate for 30 minutes.

Place the marinated mutton in a pressure cooker. Close the cooker and cook for about 6 minutes after the first whistle (after it comes to full pressure) on medium heat. Let it cool naturally. No need to add water, as the meat would give out plenty of liquid during the cooking process.

When the pressure cooker is cool enough to handle, open it. Since goat is very fatty, the liquid in the cooker will have plenty of oil floating in it. We don’t need to use extra oil to fry the mutton. Carefully pour the liquid from the pan into a large sauté pan. Heat this liquid on high heat till most of the water evaporates and only the oil remains. If there isn’t enough fat in the pan, you can always add a tbsp oil into the pan at this point.

Add the cooked mutton pieces along with half of the curry leaves into the pan. Sauté till all the liquid is gone and the mutton pieces are browned on all sides. Stir in the remaining curry leaves and remove from the heat.

As with most of my spicy dry dishes, I recommend this with a cold beer. It is best with rice and a really light gravy, like daal.

Category: India - Tamil Nadu, Lamb or Goat

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Comments

26 Responses to “Mutton Chukka (Tamil Style Mutton Dry Fry)”

Srivalli
March 9th, 2010 @ 1:19 am
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Pictures are looking classic..I haven’t been posting non veg too as nothing new has been cooked in a while..less ingredients..sounds good..will try it sometime..and you strongly recommend that beer on the side??..:)
Happy Cook
March 9th, 2010 @ 1:46 am
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I so so wish we get goat here, but alas we don’t. ANd i think even if you make with other meat some dishes are best prepared with goat.
I think i would just eat this just like that, don’t need anything else.
It reminds me of our Kerala dry beed dish. Which I have not had for 2 yrs.
Sunita
March 9th, 2010 @ 2:21 am
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What a lovely recipe Sig/Siv. And so easy to make too
Mamatha
March 9th, 2010 @ 4:11 am
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:’( If I hadn’t run out of goat meat, I would have made this tonight. I’ve heard of Muniyandi Vilas from friends and family but have never eaten there. I think it’s one of Madurai’s most famous and long-standing institutions.
usha
March 9th, 2010 @ 4:21 am
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Nice recipe and beautiful click!
Raaga
March 9th, 2010 @ 4:23 am
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I’ve always heard of Muniyandi Vilas… but have never entered one. I need a beer now though!
Soma
March 9th, 2010 @ 8:02 am
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There you go Sig.. another one bookmarked:-) I make a similar type ( a bit less dry) but without the curry leaves. We love that, and I am sure this is going to be fabulous.
Bong Mom
March 9th, 2010 @ 8:12 am
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Mmmm, gorgeous. Have a little goat meat left, will try this. Chukka == Sukha !!!
indosungod
March 9th, 2010 @ 8:46 am
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Muniyandi vilas was our favorite haunt when we wanted Non.Veg while in college. Siv sure has a style Sig, this is one delicious chukka.
sandhya
March 9th, 2010 @ 8:54 am
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In Bay Area there is both Muniyandi Vilas and another famous(I think so, thats what one of my tamil friend says ) chettinadu restaurant named Anjappar.Few weeks back we tried this same dish from Anjappar and it was really good. If you ever visit bay area give it a try…
Anu
March 9th, 2010 @ 10:35 am
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Hi Sig,

I have been a reader of your blog for quite a bit now, especially coz I’m from Kerala too. I love your style of writing. I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your series on SB. After reading your post I decided to go on SB, and I have lost close to 20lbs. Thanks to you. I am a vegetarian so it was hard, but now I’m ok. A few recipes that you can perhaps add is tomato omlette (using besan) and I even ate the low fat pakodas (so chickpea flour onions etc and use a unniappam chatti)..it was yummy. But just thanks for your posts and inspiring me.

Anu

Hi Anu, thanks for the ideas! I am always looking for new SBD friendly recipes. The omlette with besan sounds very intersting. Will try.
-Sig
Sapna
March 9th, 2010 @ 12:50 pm
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Awesome recipe and seems very simple too. Thanks for posting it.

I normally buy lamb from the American grocery store, but lately I have noticed ‘Australian goat’. Have you cooked with it? I wonder if it is tougher..

Hi Sapna, I have tried the Australian lamb, I don’t like the smell that results from packaging the meat in plastic sheets. So I don’t buy it anymore. Luckily, we have Indian stores here which sells fresh goat and lamb.
-Sig
Kay
March 9th, 2010 @ 5:58 pm
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After a series of Diego and Dora since morning ,now I feel like saying ‘Yum, yum, yum…delicioso!’

I’m drooling here… Looks so good!
aquadaze
March 9th, 2010 @ 7:28 pm
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Very few blogs that post meat, I like yours because it always tickles my palate
Love this, I make something similar, but I use grated coconut as well. Must try this, your method is very different and it sounds yum!
sra
March 10th, 2010 @ 1:04 am
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That’s a nice, detailed recipe. I always thought Muniyandi Vilas was vegetarian. Once we were doing a road trip across Southern TN and just outside Pudukottai we stopped at a biggish small hotel on the highway, they had great non-veg food there!
SuperChef
March 10th, 2010 @ 1:05 am
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i know!! I know!! Muniyandi Vilas! Obviously havent gone there as I will just have to have rice and water
shilpa
March 10th, 2010 @ 7:06 pm
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This looks great Sig, I will try this with chicken soon as I don’t cook goat meat.
Sharon Pullins
March 11th, 2010 @ 10:08 am
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Looks gorgeous! I plan to try it this weekend.
Anil
March 13th, 2010 @ 11:23 am
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Hey sig
This came out just great!!!For a mallu flavour i cut small pieces of cocunut at the very end and boy the dish was awesome!!!Tell hi to Siva’s mom from my side and tell her i miss her cooking…Ah those days…Even her rasam was awesome…
Thanks
anil
Bong Mom
March 15th, 2010 @ 7:58 am
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Sig

This was awesome. I had less meat(only 1lb) but went with these amount of spices. Boy was it spicy and finger licking good. Everyone at home loved it.
Thanks to Siv
Mona
March 15th, 2010 @ 6:00 pm
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Sig, that is one intriguing plate of mutton, looks super mouth watering!
Soli
March 16th, 2010 @ 4:24 pm
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Sig, I tried your Mutton Chukka this weekend and it came out so good. Loved it! It is perfect with Beer or just plain Rice and Pulisseri.
smitha
March 17th, 2010 @ 4:43 pm
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Hey Sig,

we were thinking of dropping in to seattle this weekend. the store near our place that sells goat meat went out of business. If you could give us the name of the indian store that sells goat, i d b really grateful. i so wanna try this dish
aartee
March 18th, 2010 @ 10:42 am
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Hi Sig, now this is a must try dish with dhaal and rice i guess!! will try it soon. In the meantime i did try a few of your dishes last week and they all turned out awesome…This is the link of what I posted on my blog with pictures,hope you didn’t mind. http://nalabagham.blogspot.com/2010/03/viveks-birthday.html
Miri
March 22nd, 2010 @ 7:22 am
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This is one of husband’s favourites and I have made it a few times at home – will be definitely trying this recipe since I have liked every single on I have tried from here before!.

Muniyandi Vilas is to paraphrase my husband “the Tamil equivalent of a dhaba”. Its speciality is non vegetarian dishes – small hole in the walls which serve up some slap dash food – no niceties needed. Hubby and friends (read beer guzzling bachelors) had “trained” one of these places to wash and dry the plates once again every time they visited them which -since there werent many places open in Chennai at 1 am – was a lot!

Miri
Ash
April 2nd, 2010 @ 5:16 am
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Just by luking at it am hungry…will sure try it out:-)