Chicken Curry Recipe
This delicious homemade Chicken Curry Recipe is loaded with spices and herbs and slowly simmered with caramelized onions and tomatoes.
Ingredients
For the Curry:
- 3 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil
- 8-10 cardamom pods
- 3 broken pieces of cinnamon stick
- 2 tablespoons cracked coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon cloves
- 1 ½ tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
- 2 peeled thinly sliced red onions
- 8 finely minced garlic cloves
- 2 teaspoons peeled and finely minced fresh ginger
- 1 ½ tablespoons turmeric
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 ½ tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
- 8 roughly chopped vine-ripe tomatoes, or 5 cups roughly pureed
- coarse salt to taste
For the Chicken:
- 3 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil
- 3 pounds of cubed boneless skinless chicken breasts
- coarse salt to taste
- ¼ cup finely minced fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Curry: Add the oil to a saucepot over medium-low heat and add in the cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, and peppercorns and cook for 3 to 4 minutes to bring out some aromatics and flavor.
- If you don't want these large spices in the sauce, it is best at this point to remove the spices and grind them down using a mortar and pestle and return them to the pan. If you plan to cook the sauce for long periods, the large spices will eventually break down.
- Next, add the onions and caramelize until soft and dark brown, which takes about 30 minutes, while frequently stirring.
- Next, stir in the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or just until you smell it.
- Stir in the turmeric, coriander, cumin, and chili powder and cook for 2 to 3 minutes over low heat.
- Pour in the tomatoes and stew over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until it becomes thick like a paste. Finish with salt.
- Chicken: Add the oil to a large frying pan over high heat. Once lightly smoking add in the chicken and cook for 7 to 9 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through.
- Season with salt, add the homemade curry, and stir to combine over medium heat.
- Finish with cilantro and serve with optional cooked long-grain white rice, steamed peas, carrots and potatoes, and naan.
Notes
Make-Ahead: For freshness, you can make this chicken curry up to 2 days ahead.
How to Store: This will hold in the refrigerator covered up for up to 4 days. It will also freeze well covered for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator for 1 day before reheating.
How to Reheat: To reheat the chicken curry, return it to a pan and cook over low heat until hot.
I use whole spices instead of ground that are also toasted. These will break down into the curry as it cooks. Yes, there still may be some chunks of spices in there, and if you do not like that, then I recommend using ground spices.
The browning of the chicken will help bring about more flavor.
You can roughly chop the tomatoes, finely mince them, or place them in a blender to rough puree, which is what I did.
Chicken curry is commonly served and eaten with long-grain rice and some bread.
Other popular curries are Massaman, Panang, Madras, Korma, and Vindaloo.
Yellow and green curry will have differing ingredients then this typical Indian curry.
Nutrition
Calories: 354kcalCarbohydrates: 15gProtein: 39gFat: 16gSaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 109mgSodium: 235mgPotassium: 1127mgFiber: 5gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 1579IUVitamin C: 23mgCalcium: 86mgIron: 3mg