Chicken curry

"Chicken is love" and it doesn't matter what dish it is. If it is chicken, hell yes, I'm in. Today, let's talk about chicken curry. Chicken curry is an authentic Indian non-vegetarian dish with a spicy curry having a blunt of Indian spices. Chicken curry goes well with steamed rice/Chapati/Jowar roti.

This is an easy-to-make recipe and even a novice can easily prepare chicken curry in his/her kitchen with the use of basic cooking techniques, cookware, and Indian spices. Indian chicken curry has a large amount of regional variation, with many variations on the basis of ingredients and cooking techniques used. Some regions in Indian may use tomatoes or tomato puree in the curry whereas some regions don't like the use of tomatoes in the curry. South Indian regions use coconut milk in the curries. So at last, there is no fixed recipe for Indian chicken curry but every curry tastes different and is special in itself.

Do you know these facts about chicken curry?

The word curry comes from the South-Asian word kori, which is a sauce with cooked meat or fish.

There is no fixed recipe for Indian chicken curry and the recipe varies from region to region.

12th January is celebrated as National Curried Chicken day in the United States of America.

Photo credit: Indian Desi Kitchen

Ingredients checklist:

Chicken - 0.5 kg
Onions - 4 medium size
Green chilies (medium/less spicy) - 3
Garlic - 5 to 6 cloves
Cloves (laung) - 5
Mustard seeds (Rai)
Cumin seeds (Jeera)
Cinnamon (Dalchini) - 1-inch piece
Black pepper (Kali mirch) - 5 seeds
Bay leaf (tej patta) - 1
Poppy seeds (khaskhas) - 1 tsp
Red chili powder
Chicken curry masala powder
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Salt
Fresh lime juice
Fresh Coriander leaves
Water

Procedure:

Boiling the chicken and stock:

Buy a tender chicken from the market and look for a small/medium size bird. Avoid the large size birds because their meat tends to be rough and it doesn't cook well.
Wash the chicken thoroughly with clean water and repeat this procedure two times.
Let us now marinate the chicken with some salt, 2-3 tsp of turmeric powder, ginger-garlic paste, and fresh lime juice, and leave it aside for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, finely chop 1 onion, 2/3 garlic cloves, and 3/4 green chilies.
Heat the cooking pot and add some oil to it.
Add 1 tsp of mustard seeds (rai) and 1 tsp of cumin seeds (jeera) to the oil and let them sizzle a bit. Now add finely chopped onion, green chilies, and garlic, and let them cook for 2 minutes.
Now add 4/5 cloves (laung), cinnamon, 4/5 black pepper seeds, bay leaf, and let it infuse its spices into the oil.
Now add the marinated chicken and mix well all the contents in the pot. Cover the pot and let the contents cook for 2-3 minutes on a low/medium flame.
Now open the lid, mix well all the contents again and add 2 glasses of clean drinking water to the pot. At this stage, you may need to add some more salt. Add the salt accordingly.
Cover the lid well and let the chicken cook for 15-20 minutes. Keep checking on the pot and keep mixing the contents at a regular interval.
After 15/20 minutes, the chicken shall be well cooked. Keep the chicken stock, it will be used for the curry later.

Curry Making:

Cut 3-4 onions into small dices and add them to a mixer/blender. Add 7-8 garlic cloves, 2-inch ginger, cinnamon 1-inch piece, 1-2 bay leaves, heated poppy seeds to the blender and blend the mixture well till the mixture is uniform.
Optional: You may add the tomato puree to this mixture as well but this is completely optional.
Heat some oil in a medium-size deep frying pan/kadhai.
Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds to the hot oil and let it sizzle for a bit.
Next, add the blunt mixture to the oil, mix it well and let it cook. Add the spices to the mixture like 2-3 tsp of red chili powder, 2-3 tsp of chicken curry masala powder, and 1 spoonful of ginger-garlic paste.
Keep an eye on the kadhai and do not let the mixture stick to the pan bottom. Keep mixing the mixture repeatedly and let it cook until the oil separates from the mixture.
Optional: If you are using the tomato puree, then add it to the mixture and let it cook till the oil leaves the mixture.
Now, add the boiled chicken pieces to the mixture in the pan and mix the content well. Let this cook for a minute and then add the chicken stock to the mixture in the pan. Please add enough amount of stock to the pan, the amount of stock may differ according to the desired thickness of the curry you need. Add the chicken stock accordingly and allow it to cook on a medium flame.
Add salt to taste and allow the content to boil for a minute or two.
Turn off the flame, garnish the curry with chopped coriander leaves and serve this hot and spicy chicken curry with steamed rice or Chapati/roti.