Chicken Curry

My Mum's delicious chicken curry...

Very simple to make and never fails to impress... no fancy ingredients, inexpensive, healthy and fresh - served best with Indian rice. Recipe for Indian rice will be available soon - keep watching!

Cooking Time: 60-80 mins

Serves: 4

What you'll need:

A large saucepan with lid
Wooden spoon

Ingredients:

3 large onions
3 gloves of garlic
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
3 green finger chillies
Salt
Turmeric
Red chilli powder
1 tin of plum or chopped tomatoes (half a tin)
1kg of skinless and boneless chicken thighs - if you're buying from the butcher, you can ask them to chop into pieces for you
Fresh coriander

Method:

Getting started: Heat up a table spoon of olive oil in a large saucepan, set to a low heat.

1. Finely chop the three large onions and add to the pan. You want to cook the onions slowly, softening and browning them gradually.

2. While the onions are cooking, finely chop the garlic, ginger and green chillies.

3. Once the onions have softened - add the finely chopped garlic, ginger and chillies. Keep an eye on the pan as ginger tends to stick. If you feel it's sticking, turn the heat down. Cook slowly on a low to medium heat.

4. Once the onions, garlic, ginger and chillies have browned, add a tea spoon of turmeric, a tea spoon of salt and stir. Once all the ingredients in the pan have coloured with the turmeric, cook for a further two minutes on a medium heat.

5. Next you'll need to add half a tin of chopped tomatoes or three plum tomatoes and some juice from the tin into the pan. Once added, stir thoroughly ensuring everything comes together. This is now your base sauce. Keep on a low heat and cook slowly, stirring occasionally - add two table spoons of water if you find that it's sticking to the pan.

If you're using plum tomatoes, use your wooden spoon to chop them up in the pan as it cooks - be careful not to splash yourself with the sauce, turmeric is difficult to get out of clothes!

Taste your sauce: if you feel it's too chilli, add a pinch of salt to even out - if it's too salty, add a pinch of red chilli powder. Taste again if needed, best make sure it's right now before you add the chicken.

6. While your base sauce simmers away on a low heat, get your chicken ready (however, be sure to keep checking on your sauce - don't let it burn or stick to the pan). If your chicken comes pre-packed in large pieces you'll need to cut it down into smaller pieces, the larger the pieces, the longer you'll need for cooking time - I tend to go for large thumb size pieces. Or if you bought it from a butcher and asked for it to be cut down, you're good to go!

7. Wash the chicken and drain in a colander. Add the chicken to the pan and stir. Make sure the chicken is covered all over with your sauce, no need to add water at this stage. Once covered, keep the heat on a low setting and cover. Let it simmer for five minutes.

8. After five minutes, stir again - the chicken releases water as it cooks, if you feel there's not enough water and the chicken is sticking, add water to the pan - enough to almost cover the chicken but not more than this. Cook on a medium heat for a further 20 mins - stirring occasionally.

Keep checking your dish, once the chicken has softened and breaks up when you poke it with your wooden spoon - it's almost ready!

9.  Roughly chop the coriander, five sprigs should be enough - add to the chicken and stir. Cook for a further minute.

10. Your dish is done! Serve with chapatis, naan or my favourite - my Mum's Indian Basmati rice dish.

Enjoy your meal!

If you need any further advice when using my recipes, please do get in touch - I'd be happy to help!