My Grandma's Indian Style Curry Chicken

This is the chicken I grew up eating practically every day. I absolutely adore it and today she taught me how to cook it.

We made boneless chicken thighs, but you can also use chicken with bones, use whatever chicken you prefer. We prefer thighs because it cooks very well. Be careful with chicken breasts because they can dry very easily.

First we have the marinade. We let it stew in the fridge for 24 hours, however, typically you'll want to aim for anywhere between 4-12 hours, You can prep it the night before and cook it in the morning. That is ideal and quite convenient. 

Marinade

Ingredients: 

2 lbs of boneless chicken thighs

4 tablespoons of plain yogurt

1/2 tablespoon of turmeric 

1/2 tablespoon of red chili powder

1/2 tablespoon of garam masala

2 pinches of salt

* Garam Masala you can buy in a store. My grandma makes her own blend and when she runs out I'll do an article of how she makes it *

Ingredients for Cooking the Chicken:

3 cloves of garlic

2 onions

1/2 tomato

4 tablespoons of Shan Meat Masala

1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander (powder)

1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds (powder)

1/2 teaspoon of garam masala (powder)

1 cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon of paprika

1 1/2 cups of water

cilantro to garnish with.

Steps

1. Peel and mince 3 cloves of garlic and 2 onions. 

          *TIP* The trick to cutting onions (and other things) into small pieces, is to use a knife with a serrated edge.

2. Take 1/2 tomato and cut it into 4 - 8 pieces. Then put it through the food chopper. It should end up in a liquid paste like consistency. 

3. Make the spice mix in a separate bowl:

          - 4 tablespoons of Shan Meat Masala 

          - 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander (powder)

          - 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds (powder)

          - 1/2 garam masala (powder)

4. In a large pan, add 1/3 cup of canola oil, 1 cinnamon stick, and the chopped onions and garlic. On medium heat, stir softly and consistently. Adjust heat accordingly, use your best judgement to make sure it heats evenly. 

5. Add the chicken piece by piece into the pan. Don't dump it in because you want to avoid the excess water in the marinade. Stir the pan as you add the chicken in.

6. Stir and cook the chicken. A lot of water will come out of the chicken. We pushed the chicken and the onions to the side of the pan and for approximately two minutes we let the excess water evaporate out of the pan.

7. When the water evaporates add in the spice mixture.

          *TIP* If the spices soak up all of the oil, because spices can do that, then add in more oil. But be careful because your dish could become too oily. At the end of the cooking process, a lot of the oil soaked up by the spices may release back into the dish as it starts to cool.  

8. Add in 1 tablespoon of paprika for color. It really brightens up the dish. Our oil amount was perfect in proportion to spices and the chicken, so we didn't add anymore oil.

9. Add in the tomato paste-like substance. 

          *TIP* At this point, you can also add in whatever vegetables you want. For example, Bell Peppers, Potatoes, and Spinach or Kale pair nicely with this dish. My mom likes to add parsnips. Since this is the most basic form of the recipe, we didn't add anything else.

10. Now add in the 1 1/2 cups of water. This will make the curry.

11. Cover the pan and simmer on low heat for approximately 20 minutes. Watch the chicken and stir frequently. Keep checking on it. This will allow the chicken to cook all the way through and allow the spices to seep into the chicken as well as form a nice strong curry.

12. Taste and Check the salt level after it's done cooking. We added 1/2 a teaspoon of salt at the end for flavor. 

13. Before serving, add a handful of chopped cilantro to garnish. We're eating the chicken later tonight so there's no cilantro in the pictures. 

To keep your eating gluten free, eat this delicious chicken with rice. There are options for gluten-free naan and other bread types, but my favorite way of eating it is with rice. 

This is a dish I recommend everyone try making. It is way too good to miss out on!