With chicken thigh meat (skinless, boneless) in my refrigerator, I decided to try my hand at some authentic Indian chicken curry. Over a cup of ginger tea in my Indian friend Kunda’s kitchen, I’d asked her if she makes chicken curry the same way she makes lamb curry. Kunda had given me some of her lamb curry a week or so ago and I loved it, but have never made it myself. I will, though – just in a few weeks. She said basically yes, but handed me the book, Royal Hyderabadi Cooking, opening it to the chicken curry recipe she usually uses. The book is written (in English) by two chefs – but Sanjeev Kapoor is the more famous one – he’s kind of like the Emeril of Indian TV, Kunda explained.
She’d loaned me this cookbook before and I’d copied out 8-10 recipes, but not this one. She’d explained to me that the Hyderabadi people are considered the more gourmet of all the Indian cuisine regions. At one time it was a royal cities, hence the traditions of Hyderabadi cooking (for royals) have been handed down. Hyderabad is in southern Indian, kind of in south central, so to speak. It’s very near all the high tech Google and Microsoft facilities, and is more upscale than some Indian cities.
The recipe was in grams for some things and in tablespoons for others (not both sadly, in any case I found it odd), but I just punted my way through it. I added more spices to the recipe, and more yogurt. It called for a kind of nut we don’t have here (chironji or charoli), so I used pine nuts instead. And when I was done, the sauce was too thin for my taste, so I mixed up a little flour and water to thicken it a bit. I don’t think that’s done in Indian cooking, but I didn’t know what else to do. Sometimes recipes will add some ground almonds to thicken, but this already had some ground nuts in it. Usually Greek yogurt will help thicken a sauce, but it wasn’t enough. So the recipe below is my riff on the authentic Hyderabad recipe.
The dinner came together in a jiffy – that I liked a lot! Not a whole lot of chopping required (onions) and just a moderate amount of spice measuring required. The two nuts (almonds and pine nuts) along with the poppy seeds were whizzed together in my spice blender. Ideally it should have been enough to thicken the sauce. For whatever reason, it wasn’t. The addition of saffron gave it an exotic taste, I thought, although there wasn’t all that much saffron. I served it alongside some rice (just plain) which soaked up all the delicious sauce. We ate it all with a soup spoon.
What I liked: the sauce/gravy was delicious especially with all the flavor from the spices. I liked that it didn’t take a lot of chicken (I used less than the recipe indicated because that was all I had on hand). I didn’t add any other veggies to it (like green beans or sugar snap peas) but I could have to make it totally a one dish meal – with rice.
What I didn’t like: nothing, really. I adapted the recipe, which surely isn’t Indian-authentic, but what the heck! I did it anyway.
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Saffron Chicken Curry
Recipe By: Adapted from Royal Hyderabadi Cooking by Sanjeev Kapoor and
Harpal Singh Sokhi
Serving Size: 4
NOTES: If you use low fat or fat free Greek yogurt, don’t bring the mixture to a boil or it will separate – it won’t taste bad, but it won’t look very attractive! I added the flour/water mixture because the curry sauce was just too thin for my tastes. If yours thickens sufficiently, eliminate that step. Or, you can add some nut flour to the curry to thicken it also.
1/4 cup olive oil
14 ounces boneless skinless chicken thighs
1/4 cup almonds
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1/2 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 large onion — chopped
1 tablespoon ginger — smashed or grated
2 large garlic cloves — minced
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder — mild or medium heat
1 cup Greek yogurt, full-fat
1/2 teaspoon saffron, dissolve in 1 T warm water
3 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons flour — mixed with about 4 tablespoons water [my addition]
1 teaspoon garam masala
Rice to serve with or under the curry
1. In a spice blender (or mortar and pestle) grind the almonds, pine nuts and poppy seeds together. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large saute pan and add onions. Cook until onions are golden brown. Add ginger and garlic and saute briefly. Stir in chili flakes, turmeric and curry powder and stir for about one minute.
3. Add chicken pieces to the pan and saute for about 5 minutes, turning the chicken as it browns. Do not allow it to burn.
4. Add yogurt, saffron, ground nut mixture and cook for 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the chicken meat is tender.
5. If using, mix up the flour with water, shake vigorously and stir into the curry. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until thickened. Add the garam masala and stir in. Serve on or next to plain rice. Garnish with some cilantro if you have some.
Per Serving: 410 Calories; 29g Fat (61.9% calories from fat); 25g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 99mg Cholesterol; 1864mg Sodium.
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