Chicken Rasam – A South Indian Soup

I had a lovely weekend with my cousins and aunts; we saw the much hyped movie of the season “SAROJA” (South Indian Movie – Tamil). As expected the movie was a thorough entertainer, and few scenes do drag you to the edge of the seat. Extremely witty one liners of all the characters were the highlight of the movie. Saroja has created a niche for itself and I would recommend it for people who want to have a good laugh throughout.
SAROJA = Awesome thriller with a great humor!!! 🙂

Coming to my recipe, I had cooked a very simple chicken curry. 1..2..3.. chicken, a hotty, gingery, peppery, garlicky soup is a very spicy gravy having a rasam like consistency. The pepper corns and green chillies add a beautiful flavor to the dish and also provides an extra heat to it. You can alter the taste according to your palate.
I had it with rotis or Indian flatbreads, whatever you may want to call them and boy was it deliciiious! This is how I make soft rotis whenever we make rasam or any other gravy for that matter.
Before we begin with the ingredients of the recipe, let’s discuss what all equipments I needed for this recipe. I used a mixer grinder to prepare the mixture given below. Since the quantity wasn’t that much, I believe you could even grind the paste on a grinding stone too! Ah yes, the good-old ways, how I love them.
But regardless of how much you may be attached to your old ways, they sure can be tiring. I’d advise you to look at my list of affordable mixer grinders under 4000 and get one for yourself if you’re into south Indian cooking. You pretty much can’t get away without it these days.
Well, what else? A pan of course, that’s about it.


Chicken Rasam – A South Indian soup
Ingredients
- 250 gms chicken (cleaned and chopped; preferably ones with bone pieces)
- 2-3 green chillies
- 2 onions – diced
- 1 inch ginger
- 4-5 garlic pods
- 1 large tomato – cubed
- 1/2 tsp mustard
- 2 tsp cummin seeds
- 2 tbsp black pepper corns
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 10-12 curry leaves
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1 liter water
- 1/4 cup cilantro – chopped
- Salt
Instructions
- In a mixer grinder or a smoothie blender, grind the onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and pepper corns to a fine paste.
- Heat the cooking pan to smoking hotness. Add the mustard seeds and let it pop. Then add the above made onion paste. Cook till the oil separates. Add the tomatoes, turmeric powder, chilli powder and cook till the raw smell disappears.
- Add the chicken and saute for 5-10minutes.
- Add water and curry leaves. Cook for 8-10 whistles.
- The chicken should be really soft and tender. Add salt to taste. Garnish with fresh cilantro. Serve hot.

This yummy dish is a perfect accompaniment to rice and goes great with chicken fry. Wrap the meal with a glass of cold buttermilk. Sluurrrrrpppp!!!!! 🙂
Hi, I really enjoyed making your chicken rasam, it was really delicious and filling.
This chicken rasam with South Indian sticky rice is mouth watering.
Hi, this is my first time making the dish, so I don’t know how much salt to put, would it be okay to add the salt after the dish is cooked?
Hi Leila,
You can add 1/2 tsp of salt and then add a little more according to your taste.
This recipe was really easy to make, thank you Advilka.
Chicken aside, the soup was really delicious. I should make this dish more often during the winter.
Hi Advika,
The recipe was really delicious, I just added a bit more of red chilli powder because I enjoy spicy food.
veri nice recipe
Hi , I really enjoyed the Chicken Rasam recipe.So yummy on a cold day.
Chicken is love and so is this recipe thank you so much for putting up this recipe along with the steps. I made this recipe for my kids today and they really loved it. Five stars to you and your efforts.
It was a very good recipe! I added a cup of rice and more water to make it into porridge, was very good.
Sounds like a good idea
This was really yummy. My husband and I loved it! We did turn down heat a little bit. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
We’re all sick and this is what I think my husbands mother makes. I’m going to make it for him. Do you ever add carrots or other vegetables?
Are you using a pressure cooker? You mention ‘8-10 whistles’ yet say we only need a mixer and pan. So the pan is a pressure cooker?