This is a place where one can dig into your favourite chicken dish without fear of weight gain. Head to Kasagarod. Just one bit of this herbal-flavoured chicken will make you its addict. For, the chicken dish uses medicinal herbs to as masala for flavour. The taste of this herbal chicken is known as far as in Dubai. In Kerala, actors Mammootty and Saiju Kurup are fans of this.
Herbal chicken is the ‘trademark’ of Kasaragod-native Fakruddin. He says the eatery is always teeming with people who have been hearing of this on social media. The restaurant is located at Anangooor, 4 km from Kasaragod town.
The work on preparing the chicken starts at 11 am. It takes two hours to get the chicken to the tables using a masala which mixes over 30 herbs. Some of the herbs and mixes used are known only to Fakruddin and he intends to keep it a secret.
The marinated chicken is wrapped in leaves and coated with earth. This is kept for two hours before being heated in a flame before serving. The earth used is brought only from Fakruddin’s compound.
The mix, the marination, and the heating is all a very delicate thing which may go awry if the timings are not adhered to. Fakruddin trained his sons Thousif and others for two years to get the temperature of the hearth, the thickness of the coating, and the margination right. He commandeered their support only after they executed all tasks to his satisfaction.
Fakruddin landed on the herbal chicken idea after a lot of thought and experiment. He was a restaurant employee in the Gulf and Karnataka. He wanted to set up an eatery when he returned to his native place.
Thousif says the place gets customers from across Kerala and from other states too. People are increasingly taking home parcels as well, he says. Actors Saiju Kurup and Harish Kanaran are among those who take home parcels. The parcel can hold heat for a long time and it does not lose the taste for a while, Thousif says.
A crop of youngsters, all gym buffs, also frequent the shop, Thousif says. Probably they are the ones who have been spreading the word. He too vouches for the health quotient of the chicken as it is marinated in herbs.
So, head out to Kasaragod with tasty chicken in mind and have your heart’s fill.
