The Rajh’s Classic Chicken Curry 

This is the curry to start your adventure into creating some of the best home-cooked curries you will ever have. As a rule of thumb, any meat of veg can be used by slightly adjusting the ingredients to suit your own tastes. Try it 

Shopping List

1kg   skinless chicken breasts cut into 2cm rough cubes or skinless chicken thighs chopped in half and left on the bone or a whole chicken chopped into bits – skin removed

1 large onion    peeled and finely sliced

1 tbsp    mixed masala (equal amounts of ground paprika, cumin, coriander, chilli powder, ground tumeric, garam masala put in a jar and shaken)

2 tbsps  rapeseed oil

1 tsp      fresh finely chopped peeled ginger

1 tsp      fresh finely chopped peeled garlic

1            cinnamon stick (bark)

1            cardamom seed (Black or 2 x green)

1            whole cloves (whole)

300g      tinned tomatoes or 2 chopped fresh tomatoes

2 tbsps  Kit’s Red Chutney 

250g      frozen/fresh peas

1 tbsp    chopped coriander leaves for presentation

salt to taste

Baby new potatoes (optional)

Hard boiled eggs (optional but very tasty)

Method:

Heat the oil on the highest setting in a large pan with a tight fitting lid. Uncovered put the Cinnamon, Cardamom and Cloves into the oil and fry for ½ minutes, add the ginger, garlic and onion and stir fry until the onions are glazed but not brown. Add masala, salt to taste and stir the mixture until all the onions are covered. Then add the chicken, stir so that all the meat is coated, cover with a lid or foil and reduce the heat to ½ full power, stir the mixture again thoroughly and cover with the lid, check every 15mins and if it appears dry, add a little water (1/4 of a glass of cold water). Stir every 15 mins and after about 1 hour add Kit's Red Chutney and the tomatoes and peas, after a further 15 mins stir and add the coriander leaves, serve with boiled basmati rice.

Small new potatoes can be added at the beginning or freshly diced peppers towards the last 15mins, a tin of either chick peas or butter beans, 10mins from the end as a variation, the choices are up to you. Enjoy