Kundapur Chicken, a coconut-laced curry

Jaipore Xpress' Kandapur Chicken, and owners, from left, Roshan Balan, John Chacko and Jeevan Pullan. AMY SOWDER PHOTOS

By AMY SOWDER

Most Americans know Indian food through the lens of the North, with its creamy, rich kormas and pillowy naans that have become comfort food staples. 

But India is almost 1.3 million square miles, and its regional cuisines are as distinct as a Cajun po’boy is from a New England chowder. At a recently opened Bedford Hills outpost of Jaipore XPress, one dish is making the case for the South.

Kundapur chicken (sometimes called Kundapura, Condapur or Coondapur, as it’s listed on the menu) is a mildly spicy, coconut-laced curry from the southwestern coastal region of Karnataka in India. It’s deeply aromatic, layered with heat — but that fire is tamped down a bit “for our local audience,” said Roshan Balan, one of three co-owners of the Jaipore restaurant group.

The dish is built on a foundation of techniques that most diners never see coming. And it’s one of only two Southern Indian dishes on an otherwise North-leaning menu.

“It’s mostly the local favorite classics,” Balan said. “We have a small menu.” That restraint makes Kundapur chicken all the more striking when it arrives.

Jaipore XPress is located in Bedford Hills.

Karnataka is a coastal town in the Udupi district, which rests at the crossroads of sea breeze and spice trade. Southern Indian cuisine, broadly speaking, relies on rice, lentils, tamarind and above all, coconut in its many forms. It’s brighter, tangier and considerably spicier than its northern counterpart, which leans on cream, dried fruits, naan and warming spice blends like garam masala.

In the South, coconut oil is king. And it’s precisely what makes Kundapur chicken reign.

The dish begins with tempering, a foundational technique in Southern Indian cooking where whole spices are bloomed in hot oil until they release their essential oils. In a wide pan, mustard seeds hit the coconut oil first.

“That has to crackle,” Balan said. The sound matters. When mustard seeds pop, they shed their bitterness and turn nutty and pungent.

Then come the curry leaves, julienned ginger, sun-dried red chiles and turmeric. The kitchen fills with something smoky, herbal, warm, alive.

“The taste lies in the tempering of mustard seed, curry leaves and sun-dried red chiles,” Balan said. “Tempering totally changes the flavor, the aromatics.”

From there, onion and a tomato-based sauce go in, built with cinnamon, cumin, garlic and cardamom, followed by a splash of pure tomato sauce, then chunks of chicken. The whole thing is finished with coconut cream, which smooths the heat.

A treasured spice blend stirred through the dish is made in-house and freshly ground. They won’t tell you what’s in that blend. It’s a closely guarded recipe. 

Then, “salt to taste,” said John Chacko, another co-owner, testing a few drops of the sauce by dripping it on his upper hand and taking a taste. 

It’s a dish flavored by instinct, not simply measurement.

The curry is served over basmati rice seasoned with cardamom, cumin and mint leaf. Traditionally in Karnataka, you’d eat something like this with paratha, a flaky, layered round bread made with whole wheat flour. But here, the owners have their own preferences, tailored to what northern Westchester guests want.

“It’s usually served over rice,” said Jeevan Pullan, the third co-owner.

“Garlic naan and rice is best,” Chacko said before demonstrating how they make the bubbly, savory naan by slapping a kneaded round of dough on the fiery interior wall of the tandoor oven. He watches the naan expand almost like a balloon as it cooks before pulling it out of the top-loading tandoor. 

A scattering of lightly fried curry leaves crowns the main attraction, the bowl of Kundapur chicken, for a perfumed, crispy, aromatic final flourish.

Balan, Chacko and Pullan all hail from Kerala, the lush tropical state on India’s southwestern tip, nicknamed “God’s Own Country” for its backwaters, beaches and biodiversity. Kerala cooking shares the South’s love of coconut, seafood and bold spice, so the sensibility behind Kundapur chicken feels deeply personal to all three.

Thex trio met across Connecticut and New York around 2004 and eventually built what is now a sprawling restaurant group, including: Maska Indian Street Food, VEGA Mexican Cuisine and NH 44 Indian in Hartsdale, TAKO Mexican Street Food in Yonkers, and six Jaipore Xpress locations from Briarcliff to Ridgefield, Conn. Jaipore Royal Indian Cuisine in Brewster is the flagship, and Jaipore Market across from Xpress in Bedford Hills should open soon. 

The name Jaipore nods to a storied city shaped by the Mughals, traders who carriead Persian and Central Asian flavors into India’s north centuries ago. It’s a fitting name for a group that holds both worlds — the grand northern canon and the vivid, under-celebrated south — inside one kitchen.

Kundapur chicken is proof that the South deserves its seat at the table.

Jaipore Xpress is located at 740 North Bedford Road, Bedford Hills.