Simple Homestyle Indian Chicken Curry

This recipe is a simple homestyle curry. I did this to make a truly approachable curry recipe. It's still work - Indian cooking is not simple - but I made this on a Tuesday night in about an hour.

The web is full of "simple" curry recipes. Simple recipes that have you shopping for spices you've never heard of. Toasting and grinding whole spices. Work.

They're right though. To get the depth and flavour you need to walk the walk. In fact, if you want to replicate the tastes you get in an Indian restaurant you need to forget everything the internet knows and learn about pre-cooked meats, curry bases and blazing hot stoves. How do you think they make a curry in 10 minutes? It's not by making stew and hoping somebody will come along to buy it...

This recipe is a baseline really on which you can build variants. Want something dopiaza like, fry up some biggish chunks of onion before starting this recipe and toss them in with the green chilies. Jalfrezi"esque", add some pre-cooked green pepper and don't mince the green chilies so fine. Add some curry leaves if you can find them. Lots of possibilities. 

Recipe

Spice Mix

1 Tbsp corriander powder
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chili powder 
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp kosher salt to start

Note. I use an Indian chili powder called mild kashmiri. If you can't get that (or don't want to bother) go with 1/3-1/2 tsp cayenne topped up with enough paprika to make 1 tsp.

3 Tbsp vegetable oil plus one Tbsp vegetable oil
1 2" piece of cinnamon bark (or stick - don't beat yourself up)
8 green cardamom pods
1 large cooking onion, finely diced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
3 cloves garlic
1" piece of ginger
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 green chilis, seeded and diced (or 1 jalepeno, seeded and diced)
8 skinless, bone-in chicken thighs
1/2 cup salt free chicken stock or water

Make your mix powder. Combine all the ground spices with the salt.

Use a food processor to finely chop the onion. It takes two seconds and it works way better. You are looking for a really fine dice. Almost a paste.

Now use your food processor (it's already dirty so this comes for free) to make a garlic ginger paste. Combine the garlic and ginger with a bit of water and whiz until you have a puree. If you have a big food processor you may have to make more to get it to work or use a blender (more dishes though).

Heat 3 Tbsp oil in a 4-5 quart pot. Add the cinnamon and cardamom and cook about 20-30 seconds. The spices should sizzle. 

Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes. You are going for light brown onions. A light caramel colour. This is key.

Crank up your fan hood to max. Really. Full blast time...

Add the 4th Tbsp of oil and your spice mix. Watch the heat. You don't want your spices to burn. Stir constantly for about a minute, then add the tomato paste and ginger paste. Continue to stir and cook another minute. 

Curry Masala

Add the green chilies and diced tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. Add the skinned chicken thighs to the pot, stir and add 1/2 cup of stock or water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Adjust salt to taste. I expect probably another 1/2 tsp if you are using kosher salt. Probably not at all if you are using table salt.

Serve over basmati rice and garnish with cilantro. Remember, the whole spices are not meant to be eaten.