Learn how to make a basic Indian aromatic curry paste and turn it into a restaurant-style Indian chicken dish that pairs perfectly with Naan or rice.
If you have been to any Indian restaurant or any Indian’s home you have probably tried some version of this dish. Sometimes simply called Chicken curry, this dish is basic in it’s use of whole spices and ingredients to bring out the complex flavors of a curry. It’s not your Chicken Tikka Masala…or butter chicken, although it may look similar. The flavors here are more intense as you cook down the onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and whole spices with yogurt into a deeply flavored masala paste. For those of you wondering what Masala is, it’s basically a combination of spices, sometimes ground into a powder or some times cooked whole with other flavor bases to make a paste.
Now just because this dish is a called curry it doesn’t necessarily need to have ‘Curry Powder’ which is a very western concept. I have had readers comment in the past on my Indian dishes and and say things like “You can’t call this a curry when there is no such curry in the dish!”. It’s unfortunate that in the West here that Indian food become synonymous with the use of “curry-powder”, which is just one of the spice mixes that most closely resembles what we call “Madras Curry Powder”. It is very hard to find the this called ‘curry powder’ any where in India really and I would say roughly 98% of most curries in Indian don’t contain said “curry powder”. So if you’re looking for a curry powder recipe…I’m sorry to disappoint…this isn’t it. But if you’re looking to make a real Authentic Indian Curry…I promise to share all the secrets I know.
Like I said above, this is a common curry made in Indian households and is also a common feature on most Indian restaurants. There are a lot of variations of this dish however as people use different ratio of spices, some leave the spices whole and dice the onion and tomato to make a more rustic sauce. Some leave out the tomato. The yogurt is added at different times of the cooking process and so on. The biggest difference of most home-made versions of this dish and what they offer up in restaurants, is a little more refinement and effort in making everything pastes instead of simply dicing and having chunks in the sauce and also the time taking to slow fry and caramelize the paste to intensify the flavors of the spices and onions and tomatoes. They also use a lot more oil/ghee (which I haven’t in this case). Once you have this Masala paste, which you can make ahead and store…the rest of the curry process is very simple.
This Chicken Masala Curry however, unlike Chicken Tikka Masala that most people here in the west eat with rice…is best served up with Naan (here’s my recipe to make Naan at home) or some form of flatbread/ bread. It goes ok with rice but it’s better with Naan. Trust me!
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Here’s how you can make my version of Chicken Masala and as always…please do comment below if you like and try this recipe. Also I would love to see your dishes on Instagram and Facebook so tag me @noreen_picturetherecipe (instagram) and share them on https://www.facebook.com/PictureTheRecipe/ or simple tag them with #picturetherecipe.
- * 2 lbs Chicken (I did boneless thighs & breasts)
- * 2 Onions (I used 1 walla-walla sweet onion & 1 red onion)
- * 10-12 Garlic Cloves
- * 1 1/2 inch Ginger
- * 3 Tomatoes
- * 1 (6oz) Greek Yogurt, Plain
- * 2 green Chili peppers/ 1/2 Serrano pepper
- * 8- 10 Black Peppercorns
- * 8-10 Cloves
- * 1 inch Cinnamon Stick
- * 3-4 Cardamom Pods
- * 1 Bay leaf
- * 1 Tbsp Kashmiri Chili Powder (Use paprika if not available)
- * 1 Tbsp Coriander Powder
- * 1 tsp Garam Masala Powder
- * 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- * 2 Tbsp Ghee/Oil
- * Handful of Cilantro
- * 1 lime
- * Salt, to taste
- - Blend the garlic and ginger together to make a paste. You can also just grate them together if you want (the blender just makes it quicker)c.
- - Peel and big chop 2 onions (I used 1 full walla-walla sweet onion & 1/2 the red onion, reserving the rest for later) and add it to a bigger blender jar. Set aside.
- - Add the green chili peppers, black peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom pods and bay leaf with a little bit of water and blend to form a paste. Set aside.
- - In the same blender jar, add 3 diced tomatoes and puree them. Set aside.
- - Cut the chicken into big pieces. I cut the thighs into thirds and the breast into 4 pieces.
- - Marinate the cut chicken with half the ginger garlic paste, half the Kashmiri chili powder, turmeric and the juice of 1/2 a lime and mix to coat all the chicken well.
- - Set aside and let the chicken marinate at room temperature for 30 mins.
- - Heat a large pan on medium and add 1 Tbsp of ghee.
- - Add the onion paste and caramelize the onion paste for 10-12 minutes on medium-low heat stirring frequently until it turns a light brown color and reduces to less than half it's original volume. The oil should start separating from the onion. Don't rush this step...it is very important to fry out all the raw flavors of the spices and onion to develop a sweet caramelized paste.
- - Add 1 tbsp of the remaining garlic-ginger paste and fry for about 2-3 minutes.
- - Add one 6 oz container of Greek yogurt and stir it into the onion paste.
- - Add the remaining 1/2 Tbsp Kashmiri Chili powder and 1 tbsp coriander powder and fry the spices for another 7-8 minutes until it dries and the oil starts separating again.
- - Then add the tomato puree, mix it in with the spice and onion paste and fry for another 10- 15 minutes or until it reduces, cooks out all the rawness of the tomatoes and forms a thick deep red paste. You may need to add a touch more oil/ghee to see it separate out of the paste. But that's when you know it's ready.
- - Take out the paste from the pan and set it aside. This is a basic Indian curry paste and you can store it in the fridge for up to 10 days and use spoonfuls to flavor veggies or chicken or meat dishes.
- - Moving on to the chicken Masala part. Turn up the heat to medium-high and add the remaining ghee/oil to the pan.
- - Add the marinated chicken pieces, salt and fry the chicken until it's partly cooked/ browned.
- - Add the masala paste and a cup of water and mix it all well.
- - Put a lid on and simmer the chicken for 10 minutes.
- - Add the remaining 1/2 red onion, sliced and 1 tsp garam masala powder, a handful of chopped cilantro stir and simmer for another 5 minutes.
- - Garnish with more chopped cilantro and serve hot with Naan.
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Thank you madam Clear explanation and superb photography.
Thank you!
Itz nice… I like it a lot thank you so much
Is it possible to leave some of the spices out of you haven’t got them all
I use tea masala or grounded spices powders whatever i find and they still taste so good. You can try, worked for me.
Sure you can modify it the way you want it but then end product will not be same.
I followed this recipe exactly but sorry to say it didn’t come out anything like you said, in terms of look and taste. I should have stuck to my own method which looks and tastes better. Not mention your recipe is too time consuming. Instead of belending the spices you can use ground cinnamon, ground cardamom.
I agree. This recipe was nothing like it looks in the picture. I tried it and followed every step with precision and received nothing but disappointment 🙁 Sorry
I followed this recipe exactly. But sorry to say, I’m very disappointed with the results. I’m a very experienced chicken curry cooker, but I decided to try something different. Unfortunately your recipe, is nothing but pastes made from raw ingredients and spices thrown together and simmered together. I doesn’t really bring out the flavor, not to mention while cooking it doesn’t give off as good as an aroma. You used lime, and yogurt in the same recipe, making it very sour. I noticed in your picture, you blended the tomatoes with the seeds, bad idea, de-seed tomatoes, and always freeze tomatoes one night before in the freezer. The advantage is, when you run them under hot water, the skin comes right off, and then try to take out as much of the seeds as possible, and don’t blend them, this will give a raw taste, no matter how much you try to cook them into a paste. Always try to cook, and lightly fry all the ingredients as much as possible. You can use pre-made ginger garlic paste, no need to blend cinnamon, and cardamom, you can use grounded ones. But if you do want to use whole, I suggest fry them for a few minutes, the peppercorns, along with cumin seeds, the cloves, and all, they will taste and smell better. I’m sorry but your recipe was way to time consuming, yielding a recipe that tastes like the chicken has been simmer in a sour sauce. Instead of yogurt, try a bit of summer cream. Your recipe said 60z which is 3/4 cup, it dampens the color of the tomatoes, and doesn’t look as red.
Food tastes vary from person to person. Sorry the recipe didn’t meet your curry cooker expert standards. Just because something is done differently than you are used to, it doesn’t make it wrong or incorrect. I was born and brought up in the land of curries “India: and have eaten curries almost every day of my life. Yes you can use ground spices, yes, there are a number of variations and changes you can make to any recipe to suit your own preferences. Unlike your suggestion of summer cream which is virtually unheard of in India where this dish is from…yogurt is always used. But yes, you are welcome to substitute it to suit your palate. As for de-seeding tomatoes and freezing them…if that floats your boat…go for it! I highly doubt it’s such a bad idea when millions of people do it this way. Tomato seeds aren’t bitter or hard to digest in anyway. My tomato pastes have never tasted raw when cooked correctly. All your “suggestions” are based on your personal taste just as my recipe is my taste. I you don’t like it you are free to move on and do your own thing without bashing someone elses work and tastes.
Well said. I found this recipe very helpful when making a curry masala tonight as I needed some guidance. I plan to try it step by step soon, the pictures alongside the recipe is SO helpful, thank you!
There is no mention of when to add salt?
Made this recipe and was amazing! Added some green pepper and tomato in place of extra onion towards end. Don’t understand the hate on some comments but one thing I will say is towards the end it needed cooking down quite a bit longer than it says. It brought all flavours together and looked like a proper curry. So use your own judgement on cooking times. But the recipe is amazing once cooked right!! Ty
Thanks Joe! you are right about using your judgement on the cooking times, at the end you have to cook it till you kinda see the oil separate again especially if the spice paste wasn’t dried out completely. So glad you liked the recipe though.
I followed every little step and it came out perfectly.the pictures really were really helpful too.thanks
I used your receioe twice and turned out very nice. Thanks for sharing. I just used with (tomato paste insteadc and did not marinatecchicken, just browned it first. I will cook it regularly
We tried this recipe today and we simply loved it! Added some honey and it was perfect. Thanks ❤️
First time visiting your site. Tried this recipe and LOVED it. Each picture very clearly shows what I should be doing at that step. So, guess I can’t just stop here. Time to try another of your recipes!
Your curry recipe was delicious thank you I added some Thai basil at the end with the coriander beautiful . Thanks nick from Australia!
I love it
I made this today and it was really good. Ur recipe has been very well explained.
The recipe was one of the best chicken recipes I’ve ever made. Thanks for the clear explanation
I loved this recipe! Just made it and it turned out perfectly. I’m always amazed that some people feel it necessary to write such “strong” reviews without any thought to that person’s feelings. Thank you for a delicious recipe. I love Indian food and this recipe did not disappoint.
P.s. I have also dry pan fried my spices and this also is a wonderful way to bring out flavors too.
So delicious! Thank you for this recipe, I was very happy with the results! It tastes so authentic 🙂
This recipe is so hard to follow. Various steps state set aside but never when to combine. When do you add the pepper mixture? When do you add the tomatos?
Everything is very clearly specified..please read that again.
Such a delicious recipe I tried ever. This recipe is awesome. I tried at home and my family also love this recipe.
Hi. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I literally just finish making this dish and it was so delicious ?. Your step by step pictures were of great help. I am now enjoying a plate of great meal and look forward to trying more of your recipes!!
Absolutely delicious! Well worth the time it takes!
Thank you ? for your posting. I absolutely loved the end result and have made this recipe twice so far. Great step by step pics, it really helped a lot. Looking forward to trying your other recipes. Yummy ?
Thank you. This dish was delicious and so easy to make, even though I messed up and blended the tomatoes with the onions etc. I love the fact that the spices were blended so I didn’t have to pick them out before biting into any of them. I will be making again, maybe I’ll dry fry the spices first to see how that turns out.
No idea what some of the people, with disappointing results, did wrong???
I followed the recipe to the teeth and it came out amazing!!!
First time cooking Indian food myself (I do cook all kinds of other Asian foods all the time) and I’ll tell you this: Jammy, jammy, jammy!!!
After following step by step recipe, and extra efforts and time put in, the final product was not great. The taste, texture and color was very ordinary. Better I would have used my own way of preparation of recipe with some Creame as suggested by one of the reviewers earlier. Sorry for the author. Please don’t mind- I have given my opinion on the basis of my honest and actual experience, please.
Tried the recipe today. Only change I made was replace 6 oz of Greek Yogurt with 2 tablespoons of heavy cream because I did not have Greek Yogurt. Came out absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I made chicken curry for the first time with this recipe and it was really great. I am a vegetarian and my husband is a non vegetarian so was very happy when he loved it. Thank you.