Ask any Bengalurean about the best non-vegetarian snack option, especially late in the evening, and there is a good chance you will see their eyes light up, as they yell out ‘dosa chicken’.
This dish, that combines a crisply-roasted dosa with a red chilli chicken and a green chicken stew, has over the past decade emerged as a go to snack for everyone from students to IT professionals and call centre employees working the graveyard shift.
It is nearly 12 in the night. The streets are emptying out fast, but crowds start to converge at the Empire Hotel on the Church Street - Museum Road intersection in pursuit of a bite of the eatery’s famous dosa chicken. College student Sameer Mathur and his group of friends are feasting on multiple plates of the delicacy.
Sameer says, “It is comfort food for us. It is filling and the chicken stew is an excellent accompaniment. It is very different from the traditional dosa places across the city and is also not priced very steeply.
“Apart from Empire, we also like the dosa chicken served at the Kentecky Chicken Corner, located off Vittal Mallya Road. The dosa is softer and I like their chicken gravy too.”
For marketing professional and food blogger Rohit Bidappa, the dosa chicken combination was a guilty indulgence.
“I used to love the chicken curry dosa combination one of our neighbours used to make when I was growing up in Chennai even more than the standard dosa-sambar combination. It was amazing to discover a better version in the Empire Hotels in Bengaluru.
“I am vegetarian now, but used to enjoy the taste and flavour of the green chicken stew. One of my friends in Indiranagar meets up only if we promise to get her dosa chicken.”
Junaiz M, the CEO and general manager of Empire Hotel gives an insight into the history of the dish.
“Dosa was always popular in Bengaluru. In 2004, we decided to change it and introduced this variant, with dosa and chilli chicken and stew as the gravy accompaniment.
“We made the dosa crisper. Initially, the response was rather tepid. However, over the years, it has become one of our best selling items. We have introduced chicken curry and idli and chicken curry appam variants and they are very popular. We have seen other chains also adapt this dish over the past decade.”
