We all love a curry and one of the most popular and most common is probably a chicken curry. Easy to make and ready in less then 30 minutes. Delicious and perfect for the family to enjoy for lunch, dinner or for those busy week days….

Chicken curry is a popular Indian dish where chicken pieces are cooked in onions and tomatoes with Indian spices and simmered down until chicken is done. The flavors of chicken curry are just mouthwatering and the spices bring out the overall flavor of the dish. You can make it hot or medium spicy by adjusting the amount of chili powder you add. Also the flavor gets even better with chopped fresh cilantro sprinkled right on top the the curry just before serving.

You can cook chicken curry using bone in chicken pieces or chicken breast pieces. My mom makes the best bone in chicken curry, its super simple and tasty, the recipe for that will be available soon. In this recipe I will be using chicken breast pieces. It’s just more time saving and my family prefer chicken breast pieces. You can of course use bone in chicken for this recipe, you will just have to cook and simmer the chicken for extra 10 minutes. You can serve chicken curry with rice or flatbread such as roti’s or naan bread. Either of these go really well and taste great. You will also find my easy rice recipe here on my site too. Any leftovers from the chicken curry can be stored in a airtight container in the refrigerator. Chicken curry will stay good for up to 4 days, so you can even make ahead or make extra to store away for later.

Ingredients you will need are chicken pieces, onions, salt, ginger grated, minced garlic. Spices including, chili, turmeric, coriander, cumin, curry, and garam masala. Curry powder is optional, if you don’t have it don’t worry you can use all the other spices and it will still taste great. Some veggies like tomatoes and bell peppers also add to the extra flavor.

In any curry the most important thing is probably cooking the spices. The spices that are added to any curry are raw spices, so when you add these spices to the onion base it is very important to cook the spices on a medium low heat without burning the spices. You will know when the spices are cooked when you start to see some of the oil floating around the surface. That is when it’s time to add your main ingredient, whether your cooking with vegetables or chicken/meat.

Cooking preparation

Start by cleaning and cutting up your chicken pieces. Here I am using chicken breast, so I like to cut them up in 1 inch pieces. Next, peel and chop the onions, you can thinly slice them or dice them up. Either way the onions will break up during the cooking process. Peel and grate inch and a half piece of ginger. Peel 4 cloves of garlic and finely mince or grate. Chop up 2 tomatoes, and 1 bell pepper, again roughly to 1 inch pieces. Lastly chop some fresh cilantro to garnish for later. Preparing all these ingredients will help to speed up the cooking process and it just makes it that much easier overall.

Cooking

Heat up some oil in a saucepot and add in the chopped onions and salt, let that cook until light golden on medium flame. Add in the ginger and garlic. Stir well and cook for a minute then add in 1/4 cup of hot water, stir, cover with a lid and cook on medium flame for 2-3 minutes. This will help to soften the onions and will give you the perfect onion base for the curry.

Next add in all the spices one by one, turmeric powder, chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, curry powder and garam masala. At this point once all the spices are added, lower the flame and stir well. Add in 2 tablespoons of hot water, then let the spices cook for two minutes on a medium low flame until you see some oil starting to float around the surface of the curry base.

Now it is time to add in the chicken breast pieces, add them in and stir well, coating the chicken pieces with the curry base (spices) on a medium high flame, cover and let that cook for 2 minutes.

Then add in the tomatoes and bell peppers, stir well and cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes on medium high flame. Now uncover and add in 1/2 cup of hot water, stir, turn the flame on high and let the curry come to a slight boil. Then simmer on a medium low heat for 15 minutes until some of the oil floats on the surface of the curry.

Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and take the curry off the heat. Serve warm with rice or your choice of flatbread.

Chicken Curry

Recipe by Shema Course: MainCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4-6

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

Easy Indian Chicken Curry

Ingredients

• 500 grams Chicken breast pieces, cut into 1 inch pieces

• 1/4 cup cooking oil

• 2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced or chopped

• 1 and 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated

• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

• 3 teaspoons of salt

• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons chili powder (adjust to preference of heat level)

• 2 teaspoons of coriander powder

• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder

• 1 teaspoon of curry powder

• 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala

• 2 medium tomatoes chopped

• 1 bell pepper chopped, 1 inch pieces roughly

• 1 cup of hot water

• Chopped fresh cilantro to garnish

Directions

• Clean and cut up the chicken breast into 1 inch pieces
• Cut up the vegetables, slice the onions, grate the ginger, mince the garlic, chop tomatoes, bell pepper and cilantro
• Heat oil in a saucepot and add in sliced onions and salt, stir and cook on medium flame until lightly golden
• Add in the ginger and garlic, stir and cook for 1 minute
• Add in 1/4 cup of hot water, stir, cover the pot with a lid for 2-3 minutes on medium flame, this will help to soften and cook the onions, ginger and garlic
• Next one by one add in the spices, turmeric, chili, coriander, cumin, curry and garam masala powder. On a low flame stir these spices in well, adding 2 tablespoons of hot water
• Cook for 2 minutes on medium flame until some of the oil starts to float around on the surface
• Add in the chicken breast pieces, stir well, cover and cook on medium high flame for 2 minutes
• Add in the tomatoes and bell peppers, give that a good stir, cover and cook on medium high flame for another 2-3 minutes
• Uncover and add half a cup of hot water, stir, turn the flame on high and let the curry come to a slight boil then simmer for 15 minutes
• The curry is done when you see some of the oil floating on the surface of the curry
• Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and take the curry off the heat
• Serve warm with rice, roti or naan bread

Notes

• Any leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator and will stay good for up to 4 days.