Curry cooking advice

I would like to make chicken curry at home and have it turn out like it does at India palace. Does anyone have any good advice or recipes for Indian food?

I’ve never had curry chicken like you are asking about but we make tikka masala at home all the time. It’s my family’s favorite meal, kids included. Not exactly Indian food but really good.

Seems like most googled recipes are about the same.

INGREDIENTS
For the chicken marinade:
28 oz (800g) boneless and skinless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon ginger
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili (or 1/2 teaspoon ground red chili powder)
1 teaspoon of salt
For the sauce:
2 tablespoons of vegetable/canola oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 small onions (or 1 large onion) finely diced
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic finely grated
1 tablespoon ginger finely grated
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
14 oz (400g) tomato puree (tomato sauce/Passata)
1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili (optional for colour and flavour)
1 teaspoon ground red chili powder (adjust to your taste preference)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups of heavy or thickened cream (use evaporated milk for lower calories)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 cup water if needed
4 tablespoons Fresh cilantro or coriander to garnish

INSTRUCTIONS
In a bowl, combine chicken with all of the ingredients for the chicken marinade; let marinate for 10 minutes to an hour (or overnight if time allows).

Heat oil in a large skillet or pot over medium-high heat. When sizzling, add chicken pieces in batches of two or three, making sure not to crowd the pan. Fry until browned for only 3 minutes on each side. Set aside and keep warm. (You will finish cooking the chicken in the sauce.)

Melt the butter in the same pan. Fry the onions until soft (about 3 minutes) while scraping up any browned bits stuck on the bottom of the pan.
Add garlic and ginger and sauté for 1 minute until fragrant, then add garam masala, cumin, turmeric and coriander. Fry for about 20 seconds until fragrant, while stirring occasionally.

Pour in the tomato puree, chili powders and salt. Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until sauce thickens and becomes a deep brown red colour.

Stir the cream and sugar through the sauce. Add the chicken and its juices back into the pan and cook for an additional 8-10 minutes until chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thick and bubbling. Pour in the water to thin out the sauce, if needed.

Garnish with cilantro (coriander) and serve with hot garlic butter rice and fresh homemade Naan bread!

I like me a good curry, and I like to cook – but man that’s a LONG list of ingredients. For as many times as I’d actually have time to make it, I think I’ll just go for take out! Seems like a lot of things taking up room in the spice rack.

crawdaddy wrote:

Does anyone have any good advice

There are decent over the counter Curry sauces in jars. I personally would not try to make my own from scratch!

-J.

My issue with recipes like that, is that it would be lost on my audience.

If I knew everyone would love it, I’d make it. Much like the pork and dumplings with gravy I made last night…

There are probably 1000’s of curry recipes. Many are similar, but I think the word curry just means “spice blend”. Thai, Japanese, and Indian curries are all pretty different. One Thai place we go to has a bunch of types, yellow, red, brown, green, all tasting different. Below are my go-tos for Middle Aged White Guy Curry. Definitely need coconut milk, ginger (a lot), garlic (a lot), onion (a lot), hot peppers (serrano or bird’s eye) and about any other protein or veggie you want to add.

I always toast about a tablespoon of each of the spices in oil on medium low until fragrant, then add the garlic, onion, peppers. Add some stock or water if it gets clumpy or darkens too much. If you burn the spices, start over because there’s no saving it. Last thing to do is dump in a can of coconut milk. I buy cases of Thai Kitchen brand at Costco. I also buy a #10 bag of Basmati or Jasmine rice there about once a year.

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Garam Masala is like catnip for humans.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

I like me a good curry, and I like to cook – but man that’s a LONG list of ingredients. For as many times as I’d actually have time to make it, I think I’ll just go for take out! Seems like a lot of things taking up room in the spice rack.

Definitely true but most of them are common things people have in their pantry. Note that there is an ingredient list for the marinade and one for the sauce in the dish so many of the ingredients are duplicated.

Those Indian dishes always have long ingredient lists, I like to leave those dishes to the pros.

picklerick wrote:

Below are my go-tos for Middle Aged White Guy Curry.

lol. love it

crawdaddy wrote:

I would like to make chicken curry at home and have it turn out like it does at India palace. Does anyone have any good advice or recipes for Indian food?

I love Indian food but save yourself a bunch of time and pick this up at the store. Add to chicken thighs and you are good to go with some white rice.
https://www.pataksusa.com/categories/simmer-sauces

Also, gotta have some naan bread on the side. Get from Walmart, Costco, Hyvee, etc.

Original Naan