Chettinad egg curry recipe with coconut is popular South Indian Tamil Nadu style egg curry recipe which is also very popular in many parts of kerala.

This chettinad egg curry recipe uses roasted whole spices in its preparation, which results in delicious and aromatic egg curry of its own style and variety.
Chettinad is actually a region in South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and chettinad style masala, egg curry and other chettinad style dishes are popular in South India.
In this Chettinad egg curry recipe, we also use spice powders in addition to whole spices and we also use roasted coconut to make a grind mixture (along with whole spices) which is added to the curry to make it more delicious, creamy and rich.
The use of whole black peppercorns make this egg curry absolutely delicious.
The base of the curry is prepared using sauteed onions and tomatoes, to which we add ginger and garlic and also the spice powders and also the grind mixture.
Finally we add the cooked or boiled eggs to the delicious curry or gravy we made, and the sliced eggs immersed in the gravy will absorb the masala and other spices making it absolutely delicious egg curry which can be enjoyed as a side dish with rice or Indian flatbread chapathi, poori, bhatura, or even South Indian delicacies like appam, idliyappam etc.
Or you can enjoy it with any main course as you wish, for example, this would make an exotic nice addition with pulao, biryani etc.
So here is how you can make this delicious chettinad egg curry following this chettinad egg curry recipe with coconut.
How To Make Indian Chettinad Egg Curry With Roasted Coconut And Spices
To make Indian Chettinad style egg curry with coconut and spices, we use the following ingredients.
Ingredients used
4 eggs
½ teaspoon salt adjust as needed
3 cups water plus extra for boiling eggs
2 medium sized tomatoes
1 onion
2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
2 green chilies chopped
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon extra coconut oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 string curry leaves (make sure no water in leaves)
5 dried red chilies (broken)
Spice powders
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
½ teaspoon cumin seeds powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper powder
For grinding (includes whole spices)
2 cups grated coconut
4 dry red chilies
1 tablespoon black pepper corns
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 bay leaves
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 star anise
2 small cinnamon sticks
Step By Step Instructions
Boil the eggs and once the eggs are cooled enough, peel off the eggshells and keep the boiled the eggs aside.
Wash and peel the onion, slice the onion finely, keep this aside separately.
Wash the tomatoes, chop into fine pieces, keep this aside separately from the onions.
In a pan, dry roast the whole spices meant for grinding (spices mentioned in the section for "ingredients for grinding") - coriander seeds, red chilies, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cloves, black pepper corns and star anise.
Add the coconut also to the pan and dry roast it until the coconut is roasted and almost browned.
In a good quality food processor, grind together all the dry roasted spices and coconut together along with 2 cups of water to make a smooth coconut paste. You may sprinkle a little water to make a smooth paste, if the mixture is too dry.
To make the seasoning, in a pan, heat 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and add the mustard seeds.
When the mustard seeds splutter, add the broken dried red chilies and curry leaves, fry for a few seconds.
To make the curry, add the chopped onion to the pan and saute for few minutes until the onions turn transparent in color or start to turn brown in color.
Once the onions are sauteed, add the ginger garlic paste and chopped green chilies, saute for another 1 minute.
Add the chopped tomatoes and stir fry the contents for another 4 to 5 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked and soft and the oil starts to separate.
Add all the spice powders to the pan - turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, cumin seeds powder and black pepper powder, saute the mixture for another 2 minutes.
Now add the grind coconut mixture to the pan, add enough salt and stir well and saute the contents for another 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the water, stir well and bring the mixture to a boil.
Once the mixture starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook for another 1 more minute.
In case if you prefer even less gravy, you may reduce the amount of water you are adding, or you may cook the contents for few more minutes until the gravy is thickened as per you desire.
Add the extra whole black pepper corns and the remaining one more spoon of oil to the pan, stir the contents very well and cook for another 1 minute.
Now the base for the delicious chettinadu curry with coconut is ready, we just need to add the boiled eggs to the curry.
I recommend slicing each egg in half, although you may also add the whole eggs to the curry if you wish.
Once you have sliced the boiled eggs in halves, you can add the sliced boiled eggs gently into the curry with the yellow yolk side facing the top, and using a spoon, pour a little curry over each egg slice, which will help the egg slices absorb the masala.
Keep the curry closed for few minutes to make it even more delicious.
Serve the delicious chettinad egg curry with coconut for rice or enjoy it as a delicious side dish with chapathi, poori or appam or idiyappam as you wish!
See more egg curry recipes in this blog:
Easy Tomato Egg Curry Recipe Without Coconut
Kerala Egg Roast/Dry Egg Masala Recipe
The chettinad egg curry recipe is quite spicy as we use red chilies, black pepper corns, green chilies, ginger and also spice powders like red chili powder, garam masala powder, black pepper powder etc.
If you wish to reduce the spiciness, you can reduce or avoid using some of the spices that contributes to the spiciness, for example, you may avoid or skip using red chilies or reduce the amount.
One spice that I highly recommend using in this chettinad egg curry is the black pepper corns.
We dry roast the black peppercorns along with other whole spices and then we add some black pepper powder too, and also use extra black peppercorns in the final stages of the preparation.
Even if you skip using the black pepper powder to reduce the spiciness, make sure to add the whole black peppercorns in this egg curry, which will take the curry to the next level making it so delicious.
Below you can read the South Indian style Chettinad egg curry in detail.
Indian Chettinad Egg Curry With Coconut & Spices
Ingredients
- 4 hard boiled eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt adjust as needed
- 3 cups water
- 2 medium sized tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
- 2 green chilies chopped
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon extra coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 string curry leaves make sure no water in leaves
- 5 dry red chilies or green chilies broken
Spice powders
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds powder
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder
For grinding (includes whole spices)
- 2 cups grated coconut
- 4 dry red chilies broken
- 1 tablespoon black pepper corns
- 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cardamom pods
- 2 cloves
- 1 star anise
- 2 small cinnamon sticks
Instructions
- Peel off the shells from hard boiled eggs (rinse if needed), keep aside (you need to boil the eggs in advance to make hard boiled eggs to use in this recipe).
- Wash and peel the onion, slice the onion finely, keep this aside separately.
- Wash the tomatoes, chop into fine pieces, keep this aside separately from the onions.
- In a pan, dry roast the whole spices meant for grinding (spices mentioned in the section for "ingredients for grinding") - coriander seeds, dried red chilies (break the chilies before adding), cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cloves, black pepper corns and star anise.
- Add the coconut also to the pan and dry roast it until the coconut is roasted and almost browned.
- In a good quality food processor, grind together all the dry roasted spices and coconut together along with 2 cups of water to make a smooth coconut paste. You may sprinkle a little water to make a smooth paste, if the mixture is too dry.
- In a pan, heat 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and add the mustard seeds.
- When the mustard seeds splutter, add the broken dried red chilies and curry leaves, fry for a few seconds.
- Add the chopped onion to the pan and saute for few minutes until the onions turn transparent in color or start to turn brown in color.
- Once the onions are sauteed, add the ginger garlic paste and chopped green chilies, saute for another 1 minute.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and stir fry the contents for another 4 to 5 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked and soft and the oil starts to separate.
- Add all the spice powders to the pan - turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, cumin seeds powder and black pepper powder, saute the mixture for another 2 minutes.
- Now add the grind coconut mixture to the pan, add enough salt and stir well and saute the contents for another 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the water, stir well and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Once the mixture starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook for another 1 more minute. In case if you prefer even less gravy, you may reduce the amount of water you are adding, or you may cook the contents for few more minutes until the gravy is thickened as per you desire.
- Add the extra whole black pepper corns and the remaining one more spoon of oil to the pan, stir the contents very well and cook for another 1 minute.
- Now the base for the delicious chettinadu curry with coconut is ready, we just need to add the boiled eggs to the curry.
- I recommend slicing each egg in half, although you may also add the whole eggs to the curry if you wish. Once you have sliced the eggs in halves, you can add the sliced eggs gently into the curry with the yellow yolk side facing the top, and using a spoon, pour a little curry over each egg slice, which will help the egg slices absorb the masala. Keep the curry closed for few minutes to make it even more delicious.
- Serve the delicious chettinad egg curry with coconut for rice or enjoy it as a delicious side dish with chapathi, poori or appam or idiyappam as you wish!
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