Easy Chicken Curry for Beginners
on Apr 30, 2021, Updated May 23, 2023
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Easy and comforting Chicken Curry that doesn’t demand too much of your time! It’s not complicated at all but will still remind you of your favourite Punjabi dhaba! This is the perfect homestyle chicken curry for all you beginners!
Craving a good chicken curry? But too lazy to get into the long-drawn process of making it? Here’s my quick fix chicken curry! It’s an easy, everyday comforting home style chicken curry that tastes phenomenal despite all the shortcuts I’ve used.
This curry is weeknight dinner goals for sure because it doesn’t take too long to make. It’s super basic and simpler than Dhaba Style Chicken Curry because we are using store bought meat masala today. There aren’t many technical points that you have to pay attention to either! And though I’ve done some quick fixes in this recipe, I’ve not compromised on the flavours at all!
What Cut Of Chicken Should I Use?
I’ve used curry cuts of chicken. You can do this at home if you’re familiar with how it’s done, or you could even use store bought curry cut. I’ve used small to medium sized pieces with the bone in, so that the chicken pieces don’t dry out when cooked.
Marinade For Chicken
This is a super basic yoghurt-based marinade. The yoghurt acts as a meat tenderizer. And the turmeric and salt are for colour and seasoning. This three-ingredient marinade works really well for a simple chicken curry. The chicken doesn’t need to marinate for long, around 15-20 minutes will do. I suggest that you do this step first, so that the chicken can marinate while you get everything else together.
Ground Pastes – No Chopping Required
I’m not going to ask you to chop anything (except a little coriander in the end). All you have to do is peel and dump the ingredients into a mixie. Let it do all the work!
- Onion Ginger Garlic Paste
This is a rough and coarse paste that goes in right at the beginning. Grind it separately and keep aside. This forms the base for our delicious chicken curry, and we want to turn this into a caramelised golden brown colour when cooked
- Tomato Puree
Pureed tomatoes is what adds body to this chicken curry. Let the puree be rough or coarse.
Whole Spices You Must Add
Whether it’s Chicken Biryani or Curry, Indian food is never complete without whole spices added to the mix. My mum has a spice box filled with all sorts of fragrant spices which are used in different combinations depending on the dish. In this homemade chicken curry, we used bay leaves, cumin seeds, cloves and cardamom. This dish doesn’t have many components, and it’s these spices that bring the dish to life with their aroma.
How To Make Chicken Curry – Steps
- Marinate the chicken
- Grind the two pastes separately
- Toast the whole spices, and then add the ground pastes
- Flavour with meat masala and coriander powder
- Dry roast chicken with the masala
- Add water, allow it to simmer and serve!
Things To Keep In Mind
Don’t stress, this is not at all a technical recipe. But here are a few things you need to look out for!
- Use a heavy bottomed kadai so the components don’t stick to the bottom. If you notice them sticking or burning, stir vigorously until it’s free. You can also add a splash of water to loosen any bits sticking to the pan.
- Lightly sauté the whole spices in hot oil till you start smelling their sweetness
- The onion garlic ginger paste should turn light brown and should not smell raw
- Add a pinch of sugar to the tomato puree, this will help cut the tang and balance the flavours
- Dry roasting the chicken first along with the meat masala is important! This helps lock in the flavours of the chicken
- Finally, the chicken pieces, if cut small, need about 30 minutes to cook. If the pieces are really big, add another 10 minutes to the cooking time
Garnish this chicken curry with lots of chopped coriander leaves – this adds lots of flavour right at the end!
Serve it piping hot with Soft Rotis or Jeera Rice!
More Indian Main Course Dishes
- Vegetable Korma
- Chicken Kori Rotti
- Goan Prawn Curry
- Thai Chicken Curry
- Butter Chicken Masala
- South Indian Egg Curry
- Slow Cooker Lamb Curry
Watch the Video
Easy Chicken Curry for Beginners
Ingredients
- 1 kg Chicken, skinless, bone-in, curry cut (cut into 1.5 inch pieces)
- 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 cup Curd/Yogurt
- 3 Onions, roughly diced
- 8-10 Garlic Cloves, peeled
- 1 inch Ginger
- 4 Tomatoes, roughly diced
- 3 tablespoon Oil
- 1 tsp Jeera
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 2 Cardamom Pods
- 2 tablespoon Meat Masala
- 1 tablespoon Coriander Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 2 teaspoon Kashmiri Chilli Powder
- 2 1/4 teaspoon Salt, divided
- 1-1.5 cups Water
- 2-3 Green Chillies
- 1/4 cup Coriander, finely chopped
Instructions
- Marinate chicken in curd, turmeric and 3/4 teaspoon salt while you get everything ready – about 15-20 minutes is enough
- Grind together onions, ginger and garlic to a rough puree and set aside. Grind tomatoes also to a rough puree and set aside
- In a kadhai or deep bottom pan, heat oil and add jeera, bayleaf and cardamom.
- Once the jeers starts spluttering, add the onion paste and cook for about 12 minutes stirring every few minutes to ensure the paste doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn. The onion paste should become a light brown in colour
- Add tomato puree, meat masala, coriander powder and chilli powder and the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoon salt and mix. Cook this for 3-4 minutes till you can see a little oil separating on the sides and top.
- Add chicken and dry roast it in the masala for a minute or two
- Add water and mix well. Bring to a boil and then lower the flame and cook this covered for 30-35 minutes till the chicken is tender. Add green chillies around the halfway mark. Cover and cook.
- Add lots of chopped coriander – this adds a lot of flavour. Curry is ready!
Video
Notes
- Do not skip the curd chicken marinade. The curd marinade tenderises the meat gently and effectively as compared to acidic marinades like lemon or vinegar which toughens the meat.
- Grind onions, ginger and garlic as well as tomato to a rough blend, do not make it a smooth puree. This is necessary as these ingredients continue to break down while cooking. Keeping it a rough blend will also provide the gravy like texture required for the dish.
- Cook the onion paste till it turns light brown in colour. Remember to stir frequently as it can easily stick to the bottom and burn. Once it turns light brown in colour, the raw aroma also goes away.
- Cook the tomatoes until the oil separates i.e., there is a thin layer of oil on top. The oil separating is an indicator that the spices have combined and are cooked through. It also indicated that the excess moisture has evaporated.
- Do not skimp on the coriander – it really elevates the flavour of the dish!
Made this tonight, very easy to follow all of the instructions in the recipe. Didn’t have any cardamom or bay leaves unfortunately (arriving next week) so substituted 1/2 teaspoon of murgh masala and it worked very well.
1 and a half cups of water may be a tiny bit too much, perhaps stick to just 1.
As with the lamb slow cooker curry recipe, ended up using closer to 1 cup of yoghurt for the marinade, personal preference.
It tasted lovely, many thanks Richa!
Hey Tim, that sounds an awesome, as to how you came up with the idea of trying the recipe, although some items were not in stock. So so happy you liked both the recipes. Thank you.
I, a dutch guy married to an Indian, struggled a bit with the amount of oil, because 3 tbsp doesn’t seem nearly enough when I look at your video, and my onion roasting turned dark grey without really burning (and also salt for chicken marination is missing in ingredients).
However, when I just moved on with the steps anyway, and had the result with my family, it actually was amazing. My first curry! Very accessible recipe and the video was very helpful.
Hey Benny, that sounds awesome. so so glad to know how you continued with the steps and it worked out for you.thanks for leaving a comment.
Salt 3/4 tsp salt for chicken masala from the video is not mentioned in ingredients. The 1.5tsp salt is for later step.
Thanks for pointing that out Benny. Its a typo and I’ll change it.
The result is very tasty but with more heat than I expected. Following the recipe is laborious so I found it time consuming. Getting the timing right meant reading and rereading the steps often. With practice, it would get easier but I find the recipes of Madurai Jaffrey to be easier to follow.
Hey Warner, the spice level of the recipe is moderate. at times there might be a slight variation due to the spice level of meat masala & green chillies used. Thanks a lot for trying the recipe.
you quote cloves in recipe, but not in ingredients, you state green chillies, in ingrediants but don’t mention in recipe.
Hey Peter, I’m sorry about the errors. I’ve fixed the recipe.
Very nice Women day cake recipe
Why does the onion mixture start turning blue or green?
Thats natural with onions. As they cook further they’ll start to become golden brown