#tastythough

Punjabi style chicken curry and pilau rice

A good chicken curry is actually quite easy as long as you have roughly the right spices and a big pot. Pilau rice can be as fancy or as simple as you like! Alternatively you can eat this with chapattis (which is the “proper” way to eat it) but personally I really like using the rice to soak up the sauce.

Chicken curry

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

A bunch of cloves of garlic, 6-8?, minced

Big knob of ginger, minced

1 fresh chilli or 1 tsp chilli powder

1-2 tsp turmeric

1tbs ground cumin

2 tbs ground coriander

1 tin of chopped tomatoes (alternatively use rough equivalent of fresh)

Optional: 1 cup/250ml natural yoghurt

1kg of chicken thighs, bone in, skin off

Whole spices

5-6 cardamon pods

2-3 cm piece of cinnamon or a cinnamon stick

2-3 bay leaves

6-8 whole cloves

6-8 black peppercorns

Fresh coriander, to serve

All spice measurements are suggestions, putting in more by design or accident is never a bad thing!

Pilau rice

1 cup of basmati rice

2 cups of chicken stock

1 bay leaf

4-5 cardamon pods

a few cloves

some cumin seeds

some saffron strands for flavour and colour, soaked in a little bit of hot water (or use turmeric)

small onion, finely minced

optional: small piece of cinnamon

First the curry

Add a generous helping of oil to a big heavy pot and sizzle the whole spices for a little bit then add the onion. Sauté onion, garlic and ginger until golden then add the ground spices. Fry for another minute or two

If using fresh tomatoes, add them here with a pinch of salt and let it simmer for a while to break them down

Add chicken pieces and sauté on high heat, stirring well to lightly brown the chicken.

Add optional yoghurt here, sauté for a few minutes to dry it out

If using tinned tomatoes, add them now

Add a splash of water to make sure the chicken is mostly covered

Put the lid on and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30-40 minutes. While this is simmering away, make the pilau rice:

Second the pilau rice

Add a splash of oil to a pot, add spices except saffron and sauté for a moment to bring out the fragrance, then add onion and sauté until golden

Pour in the rice, stir to coat it with the oil and let it fry for a moment until it turns translucent. Be careful not to burn it.

Add stock, bring to a boil and put the lid on.

Leave it alone on the lowest heat for about 15-16 minutes then take it off the heat. Leave it to rest until the chicken is done which will hopefully be in about 5-10 minutes at most.

It’s worth noting that a nice rice can be made with just some chicken stock and a bay leaf, you don’t necessarily need all the other bits (but they do make it taste nice and if you made the chicken curry you’ll probably have most of them)

Everything is done

Time to eat; a nice portion of pilau rice and/or chappatis/naans with one or two thighs per person depending on how hungry they are, sprinkle some coriander leaves over the chicken and tuck in!

Very roughly adapted from:

https://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe/Punjabi-Chicken-Curry.html