Home-style chicken curry (Tariwalla murgh)
This recipe uses easy-to-find ingredients and is a favourite on days when I miss home. The key is to blend the onions separately from the garlic and ginger – the temptation is to blend them together but the cooking times vary for each.
1 HOUR | SERVES 4 | EASY |
white onions 180g, roughly chopped
garlic 6 cloves, roughly chopped
ginger 21/2 cm, roughly chopped
tomatoes 120g, roughly chopped
tomato purée 1 heaped tbsp
vegetable oil 3 tbsp
green cardamom pods cinnamon stick 21/2 cm
dried bay leaves 2
ground turmeric 1 tsp
kashmiri chilli powder ½ tsp
ground cumin 1 tsp
ground coriander 2 tsp
whole chicken thighs and drumsticks 850g, skinned potatoes 230g, peeled and diced
coriander chopped to garnish
lemon juice 1 tbsp roti or pulao to serve
salad to serve
Blitz the onions in a blender to a smooth paste, then remove and set aside. In the same blender, blitz the garlic and ginger, then remove and set aside.
Now add the tomatoes and tomato purée to the blender and blitz to a smooth paste, then set aside.
Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based, non-stick pan over a medium heat. Add the whole spices and, when they sizzle, add the onion paste and fry for 9-10 minutes, stirring well.
Add the garlic and ginger paste, and fry for 1 minute to cook out the raw flavours. Add the tomato paste and fry for 2 minutes until it begins to thicken. Add the turmeric, chilli powder, cumin and ground coriander, and fry for 3 minutes, stirring well.
Add the chicken and mix to coat with all the spices, frying for 7-8 minutes to seal on all sides. Season to taste, then add 270ml of water. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the potatoes and continue cooking, with the lid on, for 15-17 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through and the chicken is cooked through. Garnish with the coriander and lemon juice. Serve with roti or pulao and a salad.
PER SERVING 355 kcals | fat 18.8G saturates 3.3G | carbs 15.2G | sugars 4.9G fibre 3.7G | protein 29.4G | salt 0.2G
Maunika Gowardhan is an Indian chef, food writer and author of Indian Kitchen: Secrets of Indian Home Cooking. Follow her on Instagram @cookinacurry.