Chettinad Chicken Curry — Kalpasi and Marathi Mokku Technique (செட்டிநாடு கோழி)

Chettinad region, Sivaganga District, Tamil Nadu — the Nagarathar (Chettiar) merchant community's cuisine

Chettinad chicken is the most spice-complex regional chicken preparation in India — it uses up to 28 individual spices, including stone flower (kalpasi), dried flower buds (marathi mokku), kalpasi (Parmotrema perlatum), and dried red Guntur chillies in quantities that characterise the cuisine's unapologetic heat. The Chettinad masala is always freshly made rather than store-bought: whole spices are dry-roasted to separate specified stages, then wet-ground with fresh coconut and shallots into a coarse paste. The chicken is cooked in this paste without added water — the moisture comes from the onions, tomato, and the chicken's own juices, concentrating the masala around the protein.

With steamed seeraga samba rice (small-grain cumin rice from the Chettinad region) or appam. A raw onion, lime wedge, and cooling thin buttermilk (mor) alongside.