A Quick and Tasty Chicken Curry Can Break the Boring Dinner Routine
A simple recipe for non-chefs
Have you ever tried to recreate the Indian style curry that you ate at your favorite restaurant? I have and it usually ended in a disaster (if it worked for you — I would love to know). I remember taking 2 hours to cook a rubbery chicken mess.
It is not as if I was unacquainted with Indian food. I am an Indian by birth and grew up there. I moved out of the country as an adult. So I have a keen sense of Indian food and access to a plethora of recipes through my family and online resources. But none of them worked out for me. They were either too complicated with many different ingredients or time taking. The desire to eat a decent, home-cooked curry led to a lot of internet sleuthing and experimentation.
Eventually, I chanced upon a YouTube video that promised an easy recipe for people like me. I adapted it further and figured that it was a quick and simple way to get great food every time.
The curry here is the base — you can add anything to eat from chicken to tofu — it works well.
So without much further waiting here is the simple recipe -
Ingredients:
1 red onion,
3–4 garlic cloves,
2 ginger slices (the size and thickness of a quarter),
2–3 tomatoes,
2 chicken breast,
1–2 tablespoon curry powder,
vegetable oil,
salt,
2–3 twigs of cilantro
Method:
- Take the chicken out of the fridge — clean it, cut into bite-size pieces and leave it at room temperature
- Finely chop the onion, garlic, and ginger. Ginger needs to be very fine.
- Chop the tomatoes in chunky pieces
- Now heat vegetable oil (enough to coat the base) in a pan (a deep wok would work best)
- Once the oil is hot (it shimmers), add the onion
- Fry till the onion is translucent, then add the ginger and garlic
- Sauté it further till the onion and garlic pieces are brown
- Add the tomatoes, mix it and cover the wok for a few minutes
- The tomatoes would emit their juices making the mixture paste-like
- Now add the curry powder and mix it well
- Put on a medium flame — the curry is ready
- Add the chicken pieces, mix them well with the curry paste, keep the wok covered on a low flame
- Extra water is generally not needed as the chicken emits water when cooked
- The chicken curry should be ready in 15–20 minutes or once the chicken is cooked to perfection
- Now add salt as per taste (often not needed if the curry powder has salt)
- Chop cilantro and sprinkle for extra flavor
That’s it! an awesome curry!
Eat it with boiled rice — cook it in parallel in a rice cooker!
Do try — I hope it works for you as it worked for me!
