Over lunch, I asked my Tory A-list, working-mother colleague if she cooked Indian food. She told me about her favourite recipe. It involved lashings of every imaginable masala combined with pineapple and yoghurt. I had a vision of my dead grandmother churning in her grave.
My colleague isn’t alone. I come across many people who have developed “Indian” recipes that couldn’t be further away from the country if they tried. They involve the most odd, mumbo jumbo combinations of herbs, spices, fruits and nuts imaginable.
Chucking all your Indian spices into a pot does not a curry make. The best chicken curry recipe I have found, is actually the simplest, and it has hardly anything in it.
So here is my recipe for the world’s simplest chicken curry. It serves 2:
4/5 skinless chicken thighs/drumsticks
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 and a half inch stick of ginger
1 level teaspoon of chilli powder
Half teaspoon of turmeric powder
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
Half teaspoon of garam masala
2 tablespoons oil
Pinch of sugar
Peel the ginger and garlic and blitz with the onion in a food processor. I do this to save time, but you could chop if you wanted. Heat the oil in a non-stick pot. When it’s hot, add the sugar. This caramelizes to give the curry a lovely red appearance, without added food colour.
As soon as the sugar caramelizes add the onion mixture and cook it on high heat. You have to watch this because it shouldn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. If it does add a little bit of hot water.
When the mixture changes colour, add the turmeric and chilli powder. Fry for five minutes and add the chopped tomatoes. Stir for another five minutes and then lower the flame and simmer.
Now you are cooking the masalas. Wait until you see the mixture giving out oil. Little holes appear and oil comes out from the sides as well. Add some water if it starts sticking.
After 5 minutes, add the chicken. Turn the flame up and cook, stirring the chicken vigorously to incorporate the masalas. After five minutes, add a little water to cover the chicken, lower the heat and stir from time to time until done.
When the chicken is cooked, stir in the garam masala. Sprinkle with some coriander leaves to serve.
10 Comments
We can either stagnate in the comfort zone of what has always been done or incorporate new and exciting ideas into cuisine.
In our new innovation (which contains pineapple and is almost day-glo with turmeric), we capture the nature of India as it blasts forward into the 21st century full of life and vigour, taking influences from international cuisine.
If we just carried eating what our grandmothers approved of I would be tucking into a plate of gristle and dripping for my tea…
as a child of the raj I grew up on chicken, sultanas, apples and curry powder and it must have been the last proper dishmy mother cooked for my father before she died. I loved it at the time but it seems awful now. I am really looking forward to your quick chick. curry and shall observe your excellent advice about preventing the whole place reeking of curry
Thanks for saying that and having it on the Internet so I can just point. I mean I visit Chowhound here in the States and there’ s been a recent thread about the infamously touristy Indian food places on the Lower East Side of New York City. So there is a sludge-curry house invasion version I don’t know what number it is, but it’s all wretched. Say that out loud on Chowhound and the powers that be there (all hired hands from the corporate food-racketeering industry) will hound you down. When you dare say “go to the mom-and-pop shops in the suburbs”, you get some (non-Indian) telling you (well, I grew up on dahl and rice, with curried meats) what good curry is all about.
Now, I am an incorrigible experimenter in the kitchen: I like my crazy spicy hodge podges but I never call them curry or Indian nor even Indian-inspired or Mexican-inspired. I have too much respect for the real thing, and also want to differentiate the once-in-a-blue-moon slam-bang different taste I personally come up with… That’s really the problem, we call ourselves so hip and chic for having this thing “cultural diversity” but cultures need to be understood and acknowledged before it can be respected. And left alone. I could really enjoy someone else’s hodge podge made with tumeric and coriander, but call it a curry and the door’s shut cuz that’s just ignorant or pretentious or both.
You are so right!! If we claim to be so culturally aware surely we should make an effort to figure out the real deal, right??
you should chill out-at least others are trying to apppreciate our culture-fusion cuisine as well all cultural influences eventually merge/evolve into new ones. there are even dramatic differences in these recipes from various geographic points within the country itself-why not be open to creative new variations?
I am TOTALLY NEW to Indian cooking and I know this is going to sound dumb, but can you buy garam masala, or do you make it by just mixing the spices dry - I know, I know, DUH but I want to make this - it sounds totally delicious. Thank you,
Carol
Hi Carol
Please just buy the garam masala. It’s way too much effort to make it from scratch. You should be able to buy it online or simply by traipsing down to the nearest Indian cornershop.
Good luck!
As my Hungarian grandmother used to say, some of the goulash they serve in North America wouldn’t be fit to serve to a Romanian.
Some curries are similar.
I must try this one - the simple recipe is intriguing.
Greeting from Formentua,
i am working on a yacht based out of the south of france and have moved down to a small idyllic island off ibiza for the next few weeks. I am the chief stewardess and our chef has had a day off so I took the responsability of cooking for all the crew. I cooked a red thai curry, your chana masala and quick chicken curry. Compliments to you the crew were over the moon!! It made them home sick for English curry houses!! Thanks for helping when i needed maximum taste with little time to spare. Excellent!
Boo hoo hoo I am home alone for the next four days, boyfriend is on a trip. Usually when I am by myself I lose all cooking motivation and eat baked potatoes, etc. I think I will make this instead of moping.
Thanks!
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