Back home, chicken used to play the lead role in Sunday lunches every other week or so. Now that I think back, it was probably one of the things I looked forward to the most on weekends. It's surprising that in spite of liking chicken so much, my own frequency of cooking it is even lower than every other Sunday. Maybe it's because cooking vegetarian lends itself to easier prep and clean up. Anyhow, so I bought some chicken breasts from the store one day and threw together a bunch of things from the kitchen and pantry into a marinade - yes the whole spectrum from veggies to spices to nuts. Now it wasn't nearly as random as I'm making it sound.....I definitely have some sense of what ingredients go together well so long as it's regular kitchen stuff. Now if they put me on an episode of Chopped, I probably wouldn't survive even 5 minutes.....
So getting back to my story, I came up with this chicken marinade and then turned the thing into a seriously amazing curry that far exceeded whatever expectations I had. It's tried and tested and I'm yet to meet a person who dislikes it. Either that or I know some seriously polite people!! If curry is not your style, the marinade along with some red chilli powder (ground red pepper/cayenne pepper), salt and garam masala is fabulous on grilled chicken.
Chicken Curry
2 lb boneless skinless
chicken breast, cut into medium sized pieces
Marinade :
4 large cashews
2 tsp slivered almonds
(without skin)
1 Kashmiri red chilli - optional
2 teaspoons oil
1 medium red onion, sliced
thin
1 medium sized tomato, cut into
chunks
3-4 large cloves of
garlic, cut into chunks
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
1 cup cilantro (coriander) leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
Curry:
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon garam masala
salt, to taste
1 cup water
Marinade: Soak the cashews, almonds and the red chilli (if using) in warm water for an hour. Heat oil in a pan. Saute the
onion until it begins browning. Then add the ginger, garlic and tomatoes
and continue to cook until the tomatoes become soft, about 5 minutes. Take it off the heat. Add
the soaked ingredients and cilantro leaves. Grind the mixture with a little bit of water (about 2 tablespoons), after it cools. Marinate the chicken with this paste, salt and spice
powders. Let it sit in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
Curry: Heat the oil in a large
pan. Add the chicken and saute for 4-5 mins. Add water and cover the pan to let
the chicken cook. When the chicken is almost done, add garam masala. Add more salt and red chilli powder as required. Let the chicken simmer on
low heat for 10 minutes. Serve over rice or with your favorite bread.
Notes:
1. Slivered almonds are basically almonds with the skin taken off and chopped lengthwise. If you can't find them, just soak whole almonds and make sure you take the skin off before adding them to the marinade.
2. For the uninitiated, a Kashmiri chilli is a kind of chilli pepper that is widely used for color and flavor and not so much for the heat. You can leave it out if you don't have it.
3. Adding a little bit of cream or half and half during the last minute or two of simmering the curry makes it richer and takes the flavor up a couple of notches. Do not overdo it though.
4. There really is no substitute for cilantro in this one. Parsley will NOT work!!
