If you are a fan of fresh herbs in your cooking, this herbaceous hariyali chicken recipe is going to become your next favorite! The hariyali masala marinade I am sharing in this post can be use for making boneless hariyali chicken tikka or kebab, chicken leg quaters or drumsticks as well as for whole roasted chicken.
Also known as hariyali murgh (murgh = chicken) or hara bhara chicken, this recipe is keto friendly and gluten free. It makes a lip smacking starter or appetizer or can be served for a full meal with sides.
In indian homes, green chutney is a star ingredient. Often, mom would make a quick paste with green chutney in the fridge, yogurt and spices and marinate chicken in it. Then she cooked the tikka on a hot tawa. We used to called it green chicken tikka.
Whenever cold season arrives, my cravings for roasted chicken or tikka go up. These dishes reminds me of the street food vendors on the roads of Delhi. You walk past hem and a smoky spice laded aroma would fill up your nostrils. Mouth watering yet? One of my favorite part about Delhi winter evenings used to be standing next to a street carts and feasting on piping hot tikka and kebab wrapped in naan or tandoori rotis.
What is Hariyali Chicken?
Hariyali means greenery. The marinade is prepared using a green paste of fresh herbs like cilantro (coriander) leaves, mint leaves and (hot) green chillies, yogurt, cashew paste and heavy cream. After marination, the hariyali masala that coats the chicken lends it the pretty green color, hence this dish is so called.
Hariyali chicken originated in Punjab and it is a popular dish all over north India. It served in restaurants and street side dhabas (diners).
About My Recipe
- Quick & Easy Recipe - If you have a jar of green chutney in the fridge, this marinade takes 5 minutes. If you start from scratch- barely 10 minutes.
- Great for meal prep - You can marinate the chicken and cook when you want to serve.
- Fresh Mild Flavors- as compared to spice laden marinades, this marinade tastes fresh and mildly creamy (just control the heat to your liking).
- Versatile- Use the same marinade for vegetables or paneer. Or for fish and shrimp.
Jump to:
Ingredients
- Chicken - I used skinless leg quarters today. You may use chicken thighs or drumsticks. I always recommend dark chicken meat however, you can make hariyali tikka using boneless chicken breast or thighs (cut in bite size pieces). Here's an old video of hariyali malai tikka on my Instagram page. You can use a whole chicken and cover it in marinade and roast if you wish.
For The Green Masala Marinade
- Plain yogurt - I use full fat yogurt. Indian style dahi is preferable, however greek yogurt is fine too.
- Green chutney Or Fresh Herbs (cilantro/coriander leaves, mint leaves)
- Green Chillies-. Use any hot green pepper. Go for serrano peppers or thai bird chillies (I use these). We wont add red chilli powder or cayenne because we want to preserve that green color.
- Ground Spices- Cardamom Powder, Black Pepper, Roasted Cumin powder, Nutmeg, Garam Masala
Tip - To make roasted cumin, simply dry roast the cumin seeds in a small sauce pan and roast on low medium heat, stirring continuously until you see that the seed are dark brown in color. You will smell a toasty aroma too.
- Kasuri methi - These fragrant dried fenugreek leaves are a very common flavoring in north indian/punjabi dishes. If you cook indian food often, its a good idea to stock on these. Skip if not available.
- Cashew Powder (simply blitz 7-8) cashews in a dry grinder or spice grinder. Or grind with little yogurt to make a thick cashew paste. You may skip the nuts if you wish.
- Other Ingredients - Ginger garlic paste (store bought is fine), lemon Juice
Tip - To make ginger garlic paste at home, In a small blender jar, add equal quantity (by weight) of fresh ginger an peeled garlic cloves. Blitz to a fine paste.
How To Make Chicken Hariyali (Step Photos)
Here are the written steps and pictures for your reference. Please read the detailed instructions in the recipe card.
- Make sure that the chicken quarters are dry. Use a paper towel to dry them. Using a sharp knife, make a few gashes in the chicken. If using boneless chicken, cut into bite size pieces.
- Add cilantro leaves, green chillies, mint leaves to a blender. Blitz to make a smooth paste. If needed you can add a tablespoon of yogurt. Don't add water.
Tip - Make the green paste separate and mix with yogurt. If yogurt is blended at high speed, the marinade tends to get watery.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the beaten yogurt along with all the ingredients. Whisk to mix well.
- Rub the marinade all over chicken. Marinate bone in chicken for at least 2 hours (overnight is preferable). For boneless chicken, marinate for at least 30 minutes (4-8 hours is preferable).
- Before cooking, bring the marinated chicken pieces to room temperature. If you are using boneless chicken, skewer them.
- Heat up a heavy cast iron skillet or a grill pan on high heat. Brush oil or ghee and carefully place the chicken leg quarters. Let char for 5-6 minutes. Flip and repeat to get a nice char on the other side too.
- Cover and cook for 15-18 minutes or till the chicken is fully cooked. You will have to flip a few times in between to make sure that the chicken isn't overly charred.
Tip - When cooking bone in chicken on stove, covering the pot or pan makes sure that the chicken is fully cooked inside and stays juicy. Else the chicken will be charred from outside and remain raw inside.
- Rest the chicken for about 5 minutes before serving.
How To Serve Hariyali Chicken
- Hariyali chicken is a great starter with a creamy dip like tzatziki or garlicky yogurt.
- I personally love it with raita (spiced yogurt), lemony onion rings and paratha or tandoori roti.
- You can serve it with rice pulao or biryani.
- Serve it with fries to kids, mine absolutely love it!
- It can be served with roasted potatoes or all sorts of vegetables. Or salad greens.
- If you are making bite size tikka, shred the leftover tikka and make wraps by stuffing it in parathas or flatbreads along with some sliced onion and kachumber (cucumber & tomatoes) and a drizzle of garlic yogurt.
Variations & Some Tips
- You can grind a few scallions along with herbs to lend the marinade an onion taste.
- If you are able to find green garlic you can use it in the green paste too.
- If you dont want to use cashews, add some roasted besan (gram flour) to thicken the marinade.
- You can use the same marinade with paneer or salmon or any kind of protein you like.
- Make sure that the marinade is thick to begin with.
- I have learnt after many attempts that using just the leaves (not the stems) of fresh herbs makes a better tasting green paste.
- Make sure that the marinated chicken is at room temperature before you start cooking. I usually take it out 1 to 1.5 hours and let sit on kitchen counter.
- Dont skimp on oil or ghee while cooking else the chicken turns out dryish.
- For added creaminess, add a tablespoon of heavy cream to the marinade.
FAQ
It depends on how hot the green peppers you are using. I use green thai chillies, that are pretty hot, however you may use de seeded jalapeños for mild heat.
Bake the leg quarters in a 400F preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, flipping after 10-12 minutes. For boneless hariyali tikka, bake at 350F for 15-120 minutes. You will see that the water of chicken & yogurt would dry up and they will look oily. The internal temperature of the chicken should be 165F.
Preheat your grill to medium, about 300-350F. Place the chicken leg quarters and cook with grill closed for 20-25 minutes, flipping after 10-12 minutes. The internal temperature of the chicken should be 165F after grilling.
Hariyali Chicken
Equipment
- mixing bowls
- Cast Iron Skillet or Grill Pan
Ingredients
- 4 chicken leg quarters skinned (or use 1.5 lb of boneless chicken thighs if you want to make tikka)
- Oil or ghee for cooking
Hariyali (Green) Marinade
- 1 small bunch fresh cilantro leaves only
- 18-20 fresh mint leaves
- 5-6 hot green peppers I use thai bird chillies. Or use serrano. Adjust to taste
- ½ cup plain yogurt full fat, beaten
- 2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
- ¾ teaspoon roasted cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon kasuri methi skip if not available
- ½ teaspoon green cardamom powder
- fresh grated nutmeg about ¼ teaspoon
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1.5 tablespoon cashew powder simply blitz 6-8 cashwes in a grinder
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream optional
- 1.5 teaspoon salt or to taste
To Serve
- Chaat Masala, Onion Slices, Kachumber
Instructions
- Make sure that the chicken leg quarters are dry. Use a paper towel to dry them. Using a sharp knife, make a few gashes in the chicken. If using boneless chicken, cut into bite size pieces.
- Add cilantro leaves, green chillies, mint leaves to a blender. Blitz to make a fine paste. If needed you can add a tablespoon of yogurt. Don't add water. Tip - Make the green herb paste separately and then mix with yogurt. If yogurt is blended at high speed, the marinade tends to get watery. Thats why I dont dump everything in a blender to make this marinade. We want a thickish marinade that lightly coats the chicken.
- In a large bowl, add the yogurt along with the green paste and rest of the listed ingredients. Whisk to mix very well. Tip:- Taste the marinade after mixing., It should taste quite salty. This will make sure that the chicken is well seasoned. Adjust salt if needed.
- Rub the marinade all over the chicken. Cover the bowl with a cling film and marinate. Depending on the kind of chicken you are using, marinate bone in chicken for at least 2 hours (overnight is preferable). For boneless chicken, marinate for 30 minutes (4-8 hours is preferable).
- Before starting to cook, bring the chicken to room temperature. I take it out about an hour prior to cooking.
- Heat up a heavy cast iron skillet or grill pan to high. Brush some oil or ghee. Lift up the marinated chicken from the marinade and let the extra marinade fall back into the bowl. We dont want a ton of marinade on the chicken else it will get watery.
- Carefully, place the chicken leg quarters. Let char for 5-6 minutes. Flip using tongs and repeat for the other side. Tip :- Dont reduce the heat to low while cooking the chicken else the yogurt will start releasing its water
- Cover the pan with a lid and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 15-16 minutes or so covered and make sure that the chicken is fully cooked. You will have to flip a few times in between to make sure that the chicken isn't overly charred. Tip - When cooking bone in chicken on stove, covering the pot or pan makes sure that the chicken is fully cooked inside and stays juicy. Else the chicken will be charred from outside and remain raw inside.
- Towards the end, you can add some thick cut onions to the pan and finish with the chicken. Read the blog post FAQs on how to bake or use a grill for making these .
- Rest the chicken for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with some chaat masala and then serve warm with lemon wedges.
Notes
- Hariyali chicken is a great starter with a creamy dip like tzatziki or garlicky yogurt.
- I personally love it with raita (spiced yogurt) and some naan or tandoori roti.
- You can serve it with rice pulao or biryani.
- Serve it with fries to kids, mine absolutely love it!
- It can be served with roasted potatoes or all sorts of vegetables. Or salad greens.
- If you are making bite size tikka, shred the chicken and make wraps by stuffing it in parathas along with some sliced onion and kachumber (cucumber & tomatoes) and drizzle of garlic yogurt.
- You can grind a few scallions along with herbs to lend the marinade an onion taste.
- If you are able to find green garlic you can use it in the green paste too.
- If you dont want to use cashews, add some roasted besan (gram flour) to thicken the marinade.
- You can use the same marinade with paneer or salmon or any kind of protein you like.
- Make sure that the marinade is thick to begin with.
- I have learnt after many attempts that using just the leaves (not the stems) of fresh herbs makes a better tasting green paste.
- Make sure that the marinated chicken is at room temperature before you start cooking. I usually take it out 1 to 1.5 hours and let sit on kitchen counter.
- Dont skimp on oil or ghee while cooking else the chicken turns out dryish.
- For added creaminess, add a tablespoon of heavy cream to the marinade.
Kate
We made this two nights ago and are making it again tonight - absolutely fantastic! We sauteed some red onions, added the chicken, put it in the oven with a lid on for 15 minutes then added some veggies (asparagus and zucchini), the remainder of the marinade and cooked until thickened and it was ridiculously good. Thank you for the fabulous recipe - this will be on regular rotation in our house!
Tanvi Srivastava
Thank you so much for the feedback. I am so happy to know that. I love how you sautéed the marinated chicken with onions and vegetables, gotta try it!!