Chicken Rasam Or Indian Style Chicken Soup is a comforting spicy soup where tender chicken (preferably country chicken) is cooked in an aromatic sauce made with few earthy spices, herbs and onions. This Kozhi Rasam or Chicken Kulambu is spicy, savoury, warm, and it will tickle your taste buds…..works wonders especially when you are down with a cold.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2015 and has been updated with Video and replaced with better edited pictures for comprehensiveness and freshness.
A bowl of soup may take up so many other names, call it broth, stew, chowder, gumbo, bouillabaisse, potage, bouillon….according to its texture, ingredients and also the cuisine it belongs to. Nevertheless, a bowl of soup by another name would be as comforting as rasam, a spicy South Indian soup, a must in most Indian vegetarian cuisine. But today’s Chicken Rasam or Indian Style Chicken Soup uses almost the same spices used in the regular rasam – cumin seeds, red chillies, black/white peppercorns, mustard seeds – minus the tamarind essence and asafoetida plus an extra dash of spices specific to Non vegetarian cooking.
These spices are pounded with ginger, garlic and onions, fried in a little oil before adding the boney chicken pieces (the meatier part gets into the chicken gravy!) which are then simmered in water on low flame or cooked in a pressure cooker till the chicken flavour is well infused in the soup. All this makes the dish taste so authentic.
You can either use tomatoes, lemon juice or even yoghurt for tanginess. But it’s purely optional. Like I always say, it’s a spicy soup and you can play around with the spices and other ingredients to alter to suit your taste. I did the same here for my Chicken Rasam or Indian Style Chicken Soup. The taste was pretty good and the comforting effect of having a bowl of hot soup was there. It is a good remedy for body aches, cold, cough and for convalescent period. Even a tasteless tongue during fever or cold will enjoy this spicy rasam thoroughly.
Which part of the chicken works best for Chicken Rasam:
The chicken should be mainly bones with a little meat on them as the flavour lies in the bones, which can be eaten while enjoying this rasam or you can drain out the chicken pieces from the rasam once it is cooked and separately fry with spices. This is the best chicken fry I have ever eaten. Today, I did the same and the chicken fry on the side, which you get see in the pictures is the same. Boneless chicken doesn’t suit this recipe though, but if you want to make it healthy, please go ahead.
Can I replace chicken with Vegetables:
Yes!! you can mirror this Chicken Rasam or Indian Style Chicken Soup recipe with Mushrooms, Soya Chunks, Peas, Drumsticks or even Eggs.
You can also add vegetables of your choice like potatoes, corn, carrots, peas etc to the Chicken Rasam or Indian Style Chicken Soup. Adding vegetables is optional but I suggest you to try once since they add taste to the soup. The soup is spicy, savoury, warm, and it will tickle your taste buds. If you are feeling under the weather every sip will liven you up and definitely make you feel much better.
Let’s quickly move on to the recipe!!
Step-by-Step to follow for
Chicken Rasam or Indian Style Chicken Soup:
- Marinate chicken with red chilli powder, turmeric and salt (ingredients under the list “to marinate”) for about 15 minutes.
- I have also included some boneless pieces, which I will remove later from cooked chicken rasam and prepare chicken fry.
Let’s grind the masala:
- Meanwhile grind masala. First coarsely grind all the ingredients ( except onions) given under the list “To Grind”. Please check the recipe card at the end of the post for the list.
- Now add shallots, and grind to a fine paste adding a little warm water.
Let’s start making Chicken Rasam:
- Heat oil in a pressure cooker over medium heat and add the ingredients under the list “To Season”.
- Once mustard seeds splutter, add the ground paste and curry leaves. Fry for a few minutes till the raw smell strips off.
- Now add marinated chicken, sauté for few minutes until you get a nice aroma.
- In case you are using tomatoes, add chopped tomatoes at this stage. (optional)
- In today’s recipe I’m using lemon juice (Which will be added at the end just before serving).
- Add water to get the desired consistency and some chopped coriander leaves.
- Adjust salt to suit your taste.
- Close the lid of the pressure cooker and allow 5 to 7 whistles. It’s fine even if the chicken is overcooked, so that the soup imparts the flavour of chicken.
- Turn off the heat and open the lid of the pressure cooker once pressure subsides.
- Allow the rasam to cool and then add lemon juice.
- Adjust salt if required, sprinkle some garam masala and garnish with coriander.
- Serve with hot piping rice and chicken fry on the side. That’s an awesome combination.
- Or drink the soup with chunks of chicken and feel refreshed!!
Chicken Rasam or Indian Style Chicken Soup - Kozhi Rasam | Chicken Kulambu
Ingredients
To marinate:
- 250 grams Chicken pieces with bones Cut into small pieces
- 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
To Grind:
- 1 inch Ginger
- 3 Garlic Pods
- 1 cm Cinnamon Stick
- 2 Cloves
- 2 tsp Coriander Seeds
- ½ tsp Peppercorns
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- ÂĽ tsp Fennel Seeds
- 2 Dry Red Chillies
- 1 tsp Poppy Seeds
- 4 Shallots(Chinna Vengayam) Cut into chunks
To Season:
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 cm Cinnamon Stick
- 2 Cloves
Other Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp Lemon juice
- ÂĽ tsp Garam masal powder
- Required Salt to taste
Instructions
- Marinate chicken with ingredients under the list “to marinate” for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile grind the ingredients given under the list “To Grind” as fine paste adding a little warm water.
- Heat oil in a pressure pan over medium heat and add the rest of the ingredients under the list “To Season”. Once mustard seeds splutter, add the ground paste and curry leaves.
- Fry for a few minutes till the raw smell strips off.
- Now add marinated chicken, sauté for few minutes until a nice aroma comes.
- Add chopped coriander leaves and enough water to get the desired consistency.
- Adjust salt. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and allow 5 to 7 whistles.
- Turn off the heat and open the lid of the pressure cooker once pressure subsides.
- Allow the rasam to completely cool down and add lemon juice.
- Adjust salt if required, sprinkle Garam masal powder and garnish with coriander.
- Serve with hot piping rice and chicken fry rice and chicken fry on the side. It’s an awesome combination.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Adjust spice levels with red chilli powder.
- You can also add a tablespoon of yoghurt while marinating to tenderize the meat.
- Have this rasam as a soup when you are down with cold...it is absolutely comforting!
- I make my garam masala fresh as and when needed. Check recipe here.
- You can prepare this rasam in a pressure cooker to save time or also cook in a pan simmered in on low flame.
- Do not add lemon juice while the rasam is still hot, otherwise you get a bitter taste.
- You can replace lemon juice with tomatoes or yoghurt while cooking. Each one tastes slightly different. Try out and see which is your favourite!!
You may want to check other popular chicken recipes, rasam/sambar/soup varieties from my blog-
- Classic Andhra style chicken curry
- South Indian style Chicken fry
- Quick chicken korma
- Pepper Rasam
- Moong Dal Rasam
- Mixed vegetable sambar
- Pumpkin carrot ginger soup
Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!
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Happy CookingÂ
Cheers!!
Padma.