Name: Baluchi-style chicken sajji (Roast chicken with fennel and mango powder)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Pakistani
Ingredients: ½ tsp ground black pepper; ½ tsp salt; 1.5 kg/3¼ lb whole chicken, with skin; 2 tbsp vegetable oil; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 2 tbsp sajji masala (you can substitute the above sajji masala with shop-bought chaat masala available in most South Asian grocery stores); juice of 1 lemon

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
1 hr

Appears in

Summers Under the Tamarind Tree

By Sumayya Usmani

Published 2016

About

Sajji is the native dish of the province of Baluchistan – here, food is simple and cooking techniques rather rustic. Dishes usually feature spit-roasted meat or poultry, and sajji is traditionally a large leg of lamb, stuffed with pulao rice and slow-cooked over coals. The chicken version is also popular, and all over Pakistan large open-air ovens cook chickens to be topped with spicy sajji masala. My contemporary take on this dish can be an alternative to a traditional Sunday roast.