Mrs. Chittaluru's Family (authentic Indian) Chicken Curry Recipe

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 4 tablespoons ginger (you can easily make this if you want, far better than the jar variety) or 4 tablespoons garlic paste (you can easily make this if you want, far better than the jar variety)
• 3 tablespoons coriander powder (toasted seeds and ground in the blender is best but fresh powder will work fine)
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder (toasted seeds and ground in the blender is best but fresh powder will work fine here too)
• salt & fresh ground pepper (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 8 whole cloves
• 8 whole cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (your favorite)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste) or 1 hot chili pepper
• 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken
• 1 large onion (diced)
• 1 tomato (diced)
• 2 tablespoons butter (optional)
• hot water

Recipe

• 1 ginger/garlic paste: in a blender add peeled ginger and peeled garlic in equal parts and a little water and blend into a paste. you can also buy this in the indian market, but it is much better when made fresh.
• 2 meat prep: cut chicken into bite sized pieces.
• 3 in a bowl, mix chicken, salt, pepper, turmeric, cayenne (if using cayenne), cumin powder and coriander powder.
• 4 set aside.
• 5 cooking: use medium heat! lower heat and longer cooking time gives the best results.
• 6 in a deep wide pan (using medium heat) heat oil till it's hot and add cloves, cardamom (give a small smack on each cardamom pod to open up the pod just a little bit) and cinnamon stick.
• 7 move it it around for several minutes.
• 8 at this point, i remove the clove and cardamom because i hate biting into them later.
• 9 add onions and saute until they are soft and golden.
• 10 take your time on this as this is what makes the gravy creamy, (you don't want burned onions).
• 11 add ginger/garlic paste and lower the heat to medium low and cook for several minutes scraping the bottom often.
• 12 if you have enough oil in the pan you will not have that much of a problem. hey! it's indian food, so oil is necessary evil :)
• 13 add chicken mix from the bowl and cook till the chicken turns color.
• 14 add butter if desired.
• 15 keep stirring so that bottom is not sticking. this will take about 8-10 minutes or so.
• 16 add tomato and cook for another 2 minutes
• 17 then add hot water to the pan till it barely covers the chicken.
• 18 cook on medium high till you see a lot of bubbling.
• 19 lower the heat to medium/low and cover the pan and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• 20 when done, you should have smooth dark brownish gravy that is not runny and the chicken should be tender. eat it with hot rice.