This Chicken Salli is a beautiful and different curry. It is cooked with dried apricots and spices, then garnished with deep-fried potato straws, called Salli.
It is a Parsi chicken curry that is often served on special occasions. But it is so easy to make at home that you can serve it as a midweek meal.
The dried apricots give this curry a wonderful natural sweetness, while the marinade on the chicken adds a tartness. A truly delicious curry can be on the table in under an hour.
What is Chicken Salli?
Chicken Salli is also known as Murgh Salli or Jardaloo Salli Marghi.
Salli is the potato stick.
Marghi means chicken.
Jordaloo means apricot.
Chicken Salli is a delicious Parsi curry with some sweetness from the apricots and some bite from the vinegar used to marinate the chicken.
It is a delicious, well-balanced curry, perfect served with rice, roti, and kachumber.
Ingredients Notes
These notes are here to help make this recipe a success; they cover some but not all ingredients. For a complete ingredient list, check out the recipe card below.
- Chicken: Use chicken thighs to ensure you get juicy, tender meat.
- Ground Spices: Turmeric, ground cumin, ground coriander, sweet paprika, ground fennel, garam masala, and nutmeg. These can all be easily found in grocery stores.
- Whole spices: The cinnamon stick and cardamom pods are left whole, but you can use ground spices instead. See the recipe notes for how to substitute ground spices.
- Vinegar: You can use apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, or red wine vinegar.
- Ghee: You can find this in larger grocery stores, but you can easily substitute it with a neutral-flavored oil like canola.
- Onions: Standard brown onions are great here.
- Green chili: To add flavor without too much heat, stab it a few times with a knife and then leave it whole. If you want more spice, you can chop it up or leave it out altogether.
- Dried Apricots: These can be left out but add an exquisite taste to the curry.
- Brown Sugar: This gives the curry a hint of caramel. You can substitute it with white sugar.
How to make Chicken Salli
First, the chicken is marinated in a mixture of spices, salt, and vinegar. This is set aside while the curry base is made. You can leave the marinade on for several hours.
While the chicken is in the marinade, the curry base comes together.
Whole spices, onion, garlic, and ginger are cooked in ghee or oil. Then a can of pureed tomatoes is added along with some apricots, sugar, and chili. We leave it whole but stab it with a knife, so it releases some of its flavor and heat but doesn't make the curry too spicy. Feel free to chop it up and add it if you want a spicier curry.
Once this has been simmered, the chicken and marinade are added, and everything is cooked together for 20-25 minutes.
The final curry is topped with deep-fried potato sticks and garnished with fresh cilantro.
Marinating the chicken
The spices you need for the chicken can all be found in the grocery store.
- turmeric
- ground cumin
- ground coriander
- paprika
- ground fennel
- salt
These get mixed with some vinegar and used to marinate the chicken.
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Making Salli (Potato Straws)
You can buy fried matchstick potatoes in the grocery store or make your own. The grocery store ones are super crispy. So if you want a real crisp crunch, grab a bag of those.
For homemade ones, first, you want to peel the potatoes and cut them into thin matchsticks.
Next, soak the potatoes in salted water while you make the curry. Then drain well and pat dry.
Fry them in neutral oil until crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and top the curry just before serving.
What to serve with Chicken Salli
Although this chicken curry has crispy potato straws on top, I think you still need some extra sides.
We like to serve it with rice, either simple basmati rice or an Indian Pilau.
And then a side of naan or roti is perfect as well. The curry's sweetness balances perfectly with a spicy bread like this Bullet naan. But sweet Peshwari naan is fantastic with it, as is a simple Garlic naan.
Enjoy x
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Get the Recipe
Chicken Salli
Ingredients
For the chicken
- 1 lb chicken thighs boneless skinless
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground fennel
- 2 teaspoon vinegar (see note 1)
For the curry
- 1 tablespoon ghee/canola oil
- 1 cinnamon stick (see note 2)
- 4 green cardamom pods (see note 3)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 onion chopped into large chunks
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 cup pureed tomatoes
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- 1 green chili (see note 4)
- ½ cup dried apricots
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar (see note 5)
- 1½ teaspoon garam masala
- pinch nutmeg
- salt
For the potato straws
- 1 large potato
- ½ cup oil
To garnish
- red onion
- cilantro
Instructions
Prep work
- Chop the chicken thighs into bite-sized chunks.1 lb chicken thighs
- Mix the turmeric, ground cumin, ground coriander, sweet paprika, salt, ground fennel, and vinegar in a large non-metallic bowl.1 teaspoon turmeric1 tablespoon ground cumin1 tablespoon ground coriander1 tablespoon sweet paprika1 teaspoon salt½ teaspoon ground fennel2 teaspoon vinegar
- Add the chopped chicken to the marinade and set aside while you make the curry base or for up to 4 hours.
- Peel the potato and then slice them into thin matchsticks.1 large potato
- Soak the sliced potatoes in salted water while everything else cooks.
For the curry base
- Add the ghee/oil to a heavy pan.1 tablespoon ghee/canola oil
- Add the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, and bay leaves. Cook for 2 minutes.1 cinnamon stick 4 green cardamom pods 2 bay leaves
- Add the onion and cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat until soft and colored on the edges.2 onion
- Add in the minced garlic and ginger. Stir for a minute, then pour in the tomatoes, broth, and green chili. (see note 4)3 cloves garlic1 tablespoon grated ginger1 cup pureed tomatoes¼ cup chicken broth1 green chili
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 6-8 minutes.
- Add the dried apricots, brown sugar, garam masala, and nutmeg. Stir to combine.½ cup dried apricots2 teaspoons brown sugar 1½ teaspoon garam masalapinch nutmeg
- Add the marinated chicken and scrape in any marinade or juice from the bowl.
- Cook over medium-low heat for 20-15 minutes until thick.
- Taste the curry and add salt if needed.salt
To prepare the Salli (potato straws)
- Drain the potatoes and pat dry with a kitchen towel.
- Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil.½ cup oil
- Fry the potatoes until golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the oil and drain them on kitchen paper.
- Season with a bit of salt. (as you would fries)salt
- Serve the curry topped with potato straws, thinly sliced red onion, and plenty of fresh cilantro.red onioncilantro
Notes
- You can use apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, or red wine vinegar.
- If you want to substitute the cinnamon stick with ground cinnamon, use ½ a teaspoon and add it when you add the sugar to the curry.
- If you want to substitute the cardamon pods with ground cardamon, use ½ a teaspoon and add it when you add the sugar to the curry.
- To add flavor without too much heat, stab the chili a few times with a knife and then leave it whole. If you want more spice, you can chop it up or leave it out altogether. (You can substitute with red chili)
- You can substitute brown sugar with white sugar.
Nutrition
Nutrition is per serving
Sean says
This recipe was delightful. It was light and really flavorful.
Jenny says
We loved this chicken salli. I was looking for a new recipe, and yours is easy, fuss-free, and delicious. It will go into our rotation. Thanks so much for posting it.
Ann says
I have never heard of this before, but it sounds delicious! Excited to give it a try! Thanks for the share!
Amy Liu Dong says
It looks like a good and tasty dish. I will try to make this at home.
Savita says
I love how it balanced two different flavors, also the recipe seems so easy to follow. Loved it.
Danielle says
This is something new I can try tonight for dinner with my partner! Thank you! Very intrigued about the natural sweetness of the apricots.
Claire McEwen says
It is a delicious and different dish for sure. Hope you enjoy it 🙂
Cx
Luke says
An excellent curry recipe; the apricots give it the perfect amount of sweetness 🙂
We love this for a Friday night fakeaway 😉
Gen says
I love a good sweet & savory combo - the apricots and sugar really liven this dish up! Thanks for a great recipe.
Shelby says
Dried apricots are one of my kids favorites so I actually one them over on this dish with just that! Loved the classic curry flavor but the light, fruit undertone!
Jennifer says
I was craving something different so we gave this recipe a try. Wow! Terrific! The dried apricots gave it such a subtle sweetness that was much appreciated after eating so many 1-note curries. We'll be back for more!
Allyssa says
This tasted so amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing this super easy to make chicken salli recipe! Fam really loves it! Will surely have this again! Highly recommended!