A Really Easy Chicken Curry Recipe

Spurred on by the purchase of some shiny stainless steel bowls on Pali market yesterday (for some reason stainless steel shops in India have the same effect on me as stationery shops), I was inspired to cook a curry. But I didn't want to cook anything too taxing - that would require a million ingredients and hours of marinating time (i.e. a 'proper' curry).

I found an old recipe that I had actually brought over from the UK - for Chicken in a Sweet Red Pepper Sauce - and thought 'that will do'! This recipe calls for minimum effort as you basically put most of the ingredients into a food processor to make the sauce - then add it to the chicken. Not only is this chicken curry simple to make - but it is relatively low fat and healthy.

So here's the recipe and pictures with the cooking instructions....a happy Wednesday to you!

Chicken in a red sweet pepper sauce (Lal Masale Wali Murghi)



Serves 4

1kg skinned chicken parts (I used just breast)
110g onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 gloves garlic, peeled
1 inch/2.5 cms cube ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
25g blanched slivered almonds (in India, buy them whole, leave them to soak in boiling water for an hour and peel.  Leave whole)
350g red sweet peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped (I used regular red peppers, completely fine!)
1 tbsp ground cumin (that's a tablespoon)
2 tsps ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
7 tbsp vegetable oil (I used half this amount)
225 ml water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Make sure your chicken is divided into parts - thighs, drumsticks etc.  Breasts should be divided into four parts.  However, I used pure chicken breast for this and it was fine.  Indians usually prefer to eat on the bone as the bones impart a better flavour to the sauce during the cooking process.

Combine the onions, ginger, almonds, peppers, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne and salt in a food processor or blender (or in my case, a mini-chopper).  Blend, pushing down with a rubber spatula whenever you need to, until you have a fine paste.

The the oil in a large, wide and preferably non-stick pan and heat over a medium-high flame.  When hot, pour in your paste and stir fry for 10-12 minutes or until you can see the oil forming tiny bubbles around it.

Put in the chicken with the 225 mls of water, lemon juice, and black pepper.  Stir to mix and bring to the boil.  Cover, turn the heat to low and simmer gently for 25 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Stir a few times during the cooking period and add more water if the sauce sticks.

Serve with basmati rice, or roti and a curried veg side dish of your choice!

My veg, ginger garlic and almonds all ready for blending.

The blended paste should look like this (I used a mini-chopper)

In the end I didn't need my silver mixing bowls! But I put the sliced chicken into one just to show you...professional eh?

Fry off the paste - if you only use half the amount of oil as I did, you will have to make sure it doesn't stick.

Indian Lemons! (Nimbu) and the excellent contraption that looks like an ice cream scoop to get the juice out!

Add the chicken, water & lemon juice to the paste

My new bowls ;)

Simmer for 25 mins or until the chicken is tender.

Et Voila! Served here with basmati rice and a glass of Sula Chenin Blanc.  Yum.