Best Chicken Cafreal in Goa: succulent chicken that just melts in your mouth

PANAJI: While the chicken cafreal dish that consists of succulent, tasty chicken pieces or chunks, that just melts in your mouth, cooked in spicy-thick greenish cafreal masala paste, which is traditional to Goa and normally not available in restaurants or outlets outside the coastal state, maybe available at various places and locations within Goa, one of the best and tastiest, authentic and traditional Goan chicken cafreal is served at the iconic Calangute beachfront restaurant Souza Lobo and we definitely recommend this place if you want to try out the original Goan dish.

Like chicken xacuti, the preparation of the original chicken cafreal masala paste is an elaborate and time-consuming exercise and while (unfortunately) most restaurants prefer the short-cut route of using readymade, mass-produced, packaged xacuti and cafreal masalas, Souza Lobo follows the age-old traditional way of doing things.

After all, the 90-year-young restaurant’s tag line is ‘traditional recipes live here‘ and the sea-facing, almost century-old place definitely lives up to this adage.

The cafreal masala is freshly prepared – the various ingredients and spices are ground together to form a thick paste and the semi-fried chicken is marinated for at least an hour or two in the paste for it to absorb and soak in the flavour.

The ingredients of the cafreal masala include, but are not only only restricted to garlic pods, cloves, ginger, peppercorns, cinnamon, cumin seeds, poppy seeds, turmeric, and a small ball of tamarind for seasoning.

It is said that for Goan weddings, traditional Goan cooks would marinate the pan-dried or lightly fried chicken in the cafreal paste overnight to allow the chicken to imbibe all the flavour, essence and aroma. While this is not practically possible in a commercial restaurant, at Souza Lobo the cafreal paste is freshly prepared twice a day and tender pieces of chicken are soaked in to marinate, to ensure that the meat soaks in all the cafreal flavour.

While chicken leg pieces are best for chicken cafreal, even breast pieces give a similar taste and flavour. As mentioned in another article (Read Here) on chicken xacuti, the source, age and breed of the bird used is very important and is responsible for almost 30 to 40 per cent of the final taste of the dish.

Mostly country or organically bred country, desi or gavthi chicken imparts the best taste for both chicken xacuti and chicken cafreal and most local cooks prefer this variety of chicken meat for its arguably much better taste, flavour, meat texture and softness.

At Souza Lobo, the chicken meat is tender and just falls apart as you bite a piece. There are options available while placing your order – you may opt for chicken cafreal with thick gravy, semi dry or the dry cafreal version depending on what you plan to have it with.

Chicken cafreal is best had with the local Goan bread called poie or pao, but tastes good with sliced bread as well. It is also used as a gravy for pulao or even plain rice. Cafreal gravy is sometimes served with the famous ros omlette in Goa

The gravy version can be had with rice, though we recommend the semi dry or dry chicken cafreal as it tastes best with pao, giving you the experience of a lifetime, as you slowly let the flavours circulate in your mouth, letting the chicken melt in naturally.

Editor’s picks: The Souza Lobo restaurant at Calangute is known across Goa (and India) for their fabulous flagship Recheado Pomfret, Recheado Prawns, Recheado King Prawns, Recheado Bangdo, Recheado Squids and the recently introduced experimental or fusion food – Recheado Prawn Parathas, Cafreal Kulchas, Sorpotel Naans and Crab Kulchas.

In addition to the Chicken Cafreal mentioned above, they also make the best (and authentic Goan) Chicken Xacuti (Read Here) as well as Crab Xacuti  (Read Here) in all of Goa. 

In our opinion, Souza Lobo restaurant is the best place for traditional and authentic Goan food and the dishes mentioned above are a must try, depending on your budget.