Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee
- Three 2-inch cinnamon sticks
- 3 bay leaves
- 10 cardamom pods
- 1 medium onion, sliced into fine half rings
- One 1.6kg chicken, skinned and cut into small serving pieces (breast into 6 pieces, each leg into 2 pieces, wings into 3 pieces, back into 3 pieces, neck into 2 pieces)
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped very finely
- 3 tablespoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger (use a fine microplane)
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- 120ml plain yogurt plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice, beaten until smooth
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1–2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh hot green chilies
Put the oil into a large sauté pan or a large, deep frying pan and set over medium-high heat.
When the oil is really hot, put in the cinnamon, bay leaves, and cardamom. Stir for 10 seconds as the spices sizzle.
Add the sliced onions. Stir and fry for about 3 minutes or until the onions brown a bit.
Add the chicken pieces. Stir and cook 5–6 minutes or until the chicken pieces brown lightly.
Add the chopped onions, the ginger, and the garlic. Stir and fry for 2 minutes.
Add the yogurt and salt. Stir and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the chilies and 3 tablespoons water. Bring to a simmer.
Cover, turn heat to low, and simmer very gently for another 10–15 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Method
Here is another curry for the curry evening we had last weekend - neighbours and friends and children, means a wide age range and a wide range of acceptable levels of spiciness. A korma, which has a bit of a bad reputation in the UK for being a "wimps" curry, is actually very flavourful in this version although not hot it is well spiced with cardamon and ginger which means it satisfies a wide range of punters...
So this is chicken poached in yogurt and spices really - not an almond in sight for all of those of you who have been to your local curry house and had that version. And it is quick -less than an hour start to finish. The only fiddle is grating all that ginger (it takes a lot of root to make a tbsp of grated ginger!) but you can taste it later so worth the effort. In her original Madhur J used a whole chicken chopped into pieces - I used just thighs with some pieces of diced breast thrown in for good measure, but then I was making double quantities. If you prefer you can use just breast. Use your common sense to adjust weight as it has no bone......
Incidentally you may need to do the chicken in batches to get some colour on it. This is fine, but be sure to remove the onion as well or it will blacken if it is on the pan too long.