- 2 days ago
In this edition of Epicurious 101, learn how to make rich, flavorful chicken curry from scratch with chef Neel Kajale. This authentic North Indian, one-pot chicken curry uses yogurt marinade, whole spices, and a deeply layered masala for maximum flavor. Perfect for beginners, this easy chicken curry recipe delivers restaurant-quality results at home with simple techniques, bold spices, and juicy, tender chicken every time.
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00:00Chicken curry is probably the most generic name for the kind of chicken that we eat back in India.
00:05The chicken curry that I'm making is predominantly found in the north.
00:09The best part about this dish is that it's a one part wonder.
00:12You can literally see the dish coming through in the same skillet.
00:18The first part of this very simple chicken curry is making a marinade for your chicken.
00:22Could you just throw in chicken into the gravy, into the masala that you're building? Yes.
00:26Is that a lackluster way of making a chicken curry? Yes.
00:30Do you want to build more flavor? Absolutely.
00:32And I feel like the yogurt marination does a great trick for that.
00:34I'm just going to use my hands.
00:35Full fat Greek yogurt, 5%.
00:37So that makes the sauce really creamy.
00:39You can definitely use Indian style dahi.
00:42That's what we use back home.
00:43My Kashmiri red chili.
00:45This is going to get the color and the heat.
00:46Turmeric powder.
00:47Ginger garlic paste.
00:49Ginger and garlic are two ingredients that Indian food can just not do without.
00:53It's also something that's very readily available in the Indian store.
00:56I like making mine fresh, but ready-made store-bought ginger garlic paste is very much available.
01:01Salt.
01:02You could definitely use a whisk.
01:03You could use a spatula.
01:04I just like getting a feel of the ingredients.
01:07Feeling how the marinade is feeling in terms of how thick it is.
01:11It's taught to us when we're cooking Indian food.
01:13And it's just something that I have always practiced when I'm cooking Indian food.
01:18Drumsticks and Thai.
01:20On the bone, the bones impart a lot of flavor to the final curry.
01:24They're super juicy.
01:25They stay succulent.
01:26They don't overcook.
01:26Chicken breast is not the most ideal cut for braising.
01:29There is a very high possibility that it might overcook and become dry and stringy.
01:33That's not a characteristic I like in my chicken curry.
01:35The whole point of making this marinade is to add an extra layer of flavor and depth to the chicken.
01:41Yogurt is acid.
01:43So what's happening right now is the acid is denaturing the protein.
01:46It's going to tenderize the protein.
01:48If I leave it on for too long, it will make it extra rubbery.
01:51You can leave this in the refrigerator covered for a maximum of two hours.
01:55If you know when you're going to make this chicken curry, if you're making this on the fly,
01:58I would suggest that you give it about 35 to 40 minutes.
02:01Just let it sit in that marinade.
02:02So, chicken is looking great.
02:04While this sits for the next 35 to 40 minutes, I'm going to start cooking off my masala.
02:11So a masala in the glossary of Indian cooking can mean a bunch of different things.
02:16It could mean powdered spices.
02:18It could mean a marinade or a marination sauce that you make with yogurt.
02:22In this case, the masala that I'm making is literally chopped up onions and chopped up tomatoes
02:28that I'm going to cook for a while with the whole spices and powdered spices.
02:31And that's going to be the basis of the body of a chicken curry.
02:34I have a wide skillet, tall edges, turn off heat between medium and high.
02:38Traditionally, I would make this in a pot called a kadhai, a round bottomed pan.
02:42It's usually a cast iron kadhai.
02:44That would just take the final taste of the dish to a whole new level.
02:48But just a really nice stainless steel heavy bottomed pan also works great for this.
02:52Now here's a trick that I like a lot and I often share it with everyone.
02:57I'm not going to wait for my ghee to melt before I add the whole spices.
03:00I'm going to add them right now while the pan is still cold.
03:02The cumin seeds, bay leaf, a stick of cinnamon, which just has that very nice aroma and sweetness.
03:08Green cardamom, black cardamom, very different aroma and flavor compared to green cardamom.
03:12And I'm going to go in with my cloves.
03:13As the fat gradually heats up, the spices also gradually releasing their flavors and slowly infusing themselves in the ghee.
03:20This is something that often people get very wrong.
03:22They'll get the pan ripping hot and then they'll just add all the spices and in the next 10 seconds,
03:27they'll go in with their next ingredient.
03:29There's no point in rushing this.
03:30Indian food is a lot about patience.
03:32So the reason why I'm not dry roasting the spices is because this ghee or this fat is also going
03:39to be the fat in which I saute my onions and my tomatoes further.
03:42This is literally the fat or the shortening I need to make my base for the chicken curry.
03:47So while this continues to toast, I can see that's happening.
03:52I can see the spices are slowly and steadily releasing their flavor.
03:56I can see the ghee is starting to smoke a little bit and I'm very happy with the way this
03:59is looking.
04:00I'm going to go in with my finely chopped onions.
04:03This is the most important step about making this chicken curry.
04:06You really need to cook those onions out.
04:08Get a good caramelization.
04:09If you don't get color and flavor here, your chicken curry, the end product is not going to have the
04:14color that you want.
04:15The caramelization is only going to happen inside the onions when the onions are devoid of all the moisture that
04:20is inside them.
04:21Leave it on a high flame and keep stirring.
04:23This is not something that you want to set it and forget it.
04:25Seven to eight minutes.
04:26I feel the smell of onions sautéing in ghee is one of my most nostalgic childhood aromas.
04:33I see that my onions are getting a really nice golden brown color and I'm happy with the way that's
04:39looking.
04:40My next set of aromats, finely chopped ginger and green chilies.
04:43Great way to build more flavor into the final curry.
04:46This is going to be spicy.
04:48It's going to add heat.
04:49I want to have a very balanced but a very complex curry.
04:52It smells so good and it might feel like it's burning.
04:55Just have control on it.
04:56If you feel it's too much, get it off the heat.
04:59I can smell and tell that the rawness from the green chilies and the ginger is out.
05:04It's time for me to add my powdered spices to this mix.
05:07Kashmiri red chili.
05:08Going to add color and it's going to add spice.
05:11Cumin powder.
05:12Add a little bit of water just to get everything that's stuck off off from the pan.
05:17And what this does, it essentially stops the spices from burning and over-toasting.
05:23More surface area allows the onions and the spices and the ghee to cook much faster, much more uniformly.
05:29The ghee is taking the color from the red chili powder and the coriander.
05:33It's slowly releasing itself, which is a great way to tell that your spices are finished toasting.
05:37That's exactly what you want.
05:38This is a one-pot meal.
05:40You're literally building flavor step by step.
05:42So everything that's stuck to the bottom of the pan is eventually going to lend its flavor to the ultimate
05:47and to the final curry.
05:48I'm going to go in with my tomatoes next.
05:50The acid in the tomatoes is going to help deglaze this pan.
05:54In about 30 seconds, this pan is going to come off clean.
05:57Tomatoes are going to pick up all that delicious fond and bring it back into the sauce.
06:01We just have to keep cooking it at a high heat, five to seven minutes.
06:04Once this cooks for long enough, tomatoes will literally turn into pulp and you won't be able to tell the
06:09tomatoes from the onions.
06:10And that's the tell sign to know that you're ready for your next step, which is adding the chicken.
06:16I literally want to put the chicken in, saute the chicken with the marinade on it into that masala that
06:22I'm building.
06:23What I'm looking for right now is for the yogurt that's on the chicken to kind of break down and
06:28for the chicken to get a really nice sear.
06:30Again, the yogurt has acid.
06:32The acid is again going to help deglaze the pan.
06:34When the sauce is done, you'll see that the curry has a really nice dark brown color and that's because
06:39of all the form that's stuck to the base.
06:41It keeps getting lifted and keeps getting put back into the sauce, which is phenomenal.
06:45I like how the chicken is looking right now.
06:48The same bowl in which I marinate the chicken, it's going to get all that marinade back in with my
06:52water.
06:52I don't want to waste any of this marination.
06:54It's delicious.
06:55Just look at that color.
06:56Just look at that color.
06:57All I have to do is just literally put some salt, put a lid on and I'm going to let
07:01this cook for the next 15 to 20 minutes.
07:03And that's going to give enough time for the bones to release all their flavor into that gravy.
07:09For the chicken to cook, it smells divine.
07:12I'm finally going to lift the lid up and see how the final product is looking.
07:15That looks insane.
07:17Like genuinely, that looks insane.
07:19The fat, the ghee is all surfaced back to the top.
07:21That is what they call tari.
07:23That's a fantastic way of telling that your chicken is really up to the mark.
07:27And that's how I want my chicken curry to look each time.
07:29But we're not completely done yet.
07:31I have a house-made garam masala, which is an absolute crucial part of finishing this chicken curry.
07:37Everyone has a different version or a different recipe for garam masala.
07:40This is my garam masala recipe.
07:42A good 15 whole spices, including roast petals that go inside it to just make it very fragrant and very
07:48aromatic.
07:49Small little pinch of it right into the whole chicken.
07:53I'm going to lift up the flavor of the chicken curry.
07:55Suddenly, you're going to get this intense hit of spices that have been toasted.
07:59And we always use garam masala as a finishing spice.
08:03Because all the spices in a garam masala have already been toasted.
08:06Obviously, can be bought.
08:07You don't have to make your own garam masala.
08:09For me, a house-made garam masala always wins over the store-bought ones.
08:13You do have some dried fenugreek leaves.
08:15Green Indian leafy vegetable that's very indigenous to India.
08:18Adds a lot of depth and bitter umami to the final product.
08:21This probably right now is a very rustic chicken curry that you would get at a dhaba or a shack
08:26on the freeway.
08:27Adding the cream is just my personal touch to make it a little rich and a little velvety.
08:31Again, like I said, the chicken curry differs from home to home.
08:34This is just my little touch that I like to add to make the chicken curry a little more rich.
08:38Salt.
08:39I'm going to squeeze the lemon in right at the end.
08:42And just like all good things in Indian cooking, I have to finish this off with coriander.
08:49Fresh ginger juliennes, just add a sense of heat at the back of your throat when you're eating this chicken
08:53curry.
08:54Also, great texture.
08:55So, our chicken curry is all cooked.
08:56It's now time to plate.
08:58When I'm having a chicken curry, which is so simple, I don't want much with it.
09:01So, I have some plain jeera rice or jeera pulao, just made with some aged basmati rice.
09:05A very generous helping of my sauce.
09:08It's just the perfect viscosity.
09:10I like to do half and half.
09:11Then, I like to mix it up and eat all of it.
09:13I'm going to be unapologetic about this and very shameless.
09:16I'm going to eat it exactly how I eat it at home.
09:18I'm going to go in with my hands.
09:19It's really hot.
09:20But that's what makes it also really fun.
09:23I'm going to mix it in with the rice.
09:27I'm going to shred a little bit of that chicken.
09:30I'm going to mix it all up.
09:31Make like a really nice bite in my hands.
09:34I use my four fingers and then I use my thumb to push it in my mouth.
09:37So,
09:43that makes me very happy.
09:45It's everything I want in a chicken curry.
09:47It's so balanced.
09:49The spice, the seasoning, the acidity, the richness of the sauce, the way it complements
09:54with the rice, the way the chickens cook.
09:56It's really juicy.
09:58It's falling off the bone.
09:59This is genuinely the tell sign of what a good chicken curry is supposed to be like,
10:05what it's supposed to taste like.
10:06The best part about this dish is it's a completely one-pot wonder.
10:09I don't have to do different pots.
10:11I don't have to do different pans.
10:12Everything was built and finished in the same pot.
10:15Very low effort, but great high reward.
10:18When I taste this,
10:19it immediately brings me back to my childhood
10:21because this is exactly the kind of chicken curry I grew up eating.
10:24Still hits the spot each time.
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