Garam Masala, which resembles curry powder but is not the same thing, can be purchased in East Indian food stores and occasionally in the supermarket’s ‘Ethnic Foods’ area. If preferred, serve hot with rice or fried bread.
| Servings: | 5 |
| Yield: | 5 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite size pieces
- 2 onions, chopped
- 4 green chile peppers, chopped
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 pinch ground turmeric
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Rinse chicken pieces and pat dry. Set aside. Grind poppy seeds into a paste.
- In a large skillet, saute onions and green chiles in oil until golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste and continue to saute. Add poppy seed paste and reserved chicken pieces, continuing to saute. Stir all together; after chicken is well mixed with the ‘gravy’, add the red chili powder and pour 2 cups of water over the mixture. Cover skillet and let simmer about 12 to 15 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.
- After chicken is ‘well-boiled’ (the oil should be floating on top of the skillet liquid), add the garam masala and turmeric powder and turn off the stove. Stir all together and serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 266 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 11 g |
| Cholesterol | 53 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 23 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 304 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made this with crushed chillies instead of fresh as it was all I had, I also didn’t have poppyseeds to make the paste, but added 1 chicken stock cube to try to balance out the thickness of the liquids. (I was trying to work with what I had in the kitchen already) Would 100% make this again it tasted great! Next time I’ll be getting a hold of poppyseeds for this recipe, as I’ve never used them before it will be good to see the difference, but I am going to need to get some more crushed chillies now lol Liquid was a little too thin for my liking, but great for having with bread (like how one would use break for a stew or soup) I also didn’t know how much of a difference mixing the spice directly into the floating oil would make, amazing trick, mixed together so smoothly!
Its called Spicy Chicken CURRY and there is NO curry in it. I made it as directed but it was missing a little something. Could it have been the CURRY! Didn’t even realize it until I went back to this app and looked at this recipe. I served it over Jasmine rice. Will try it again.
This should be called fast and easy spicy chicken curry I did add more curry but besides that yum mm thnxxxxx for sharing
Great recipe and so easy. Used curry powder instead of chili powder, and added cooked cut green beans right at the end. Served over saffron rice.
This was great. I used chicken stock instead of water and added frozen baby peas and a handful of golden raisins. I had fresh garlic, ginger and turmeric so used those for the paste and powder. Served with brown rice, and even some non curry lovers liked it. Thanks.
This is a great recipe. It is easy and delicious. I haven’t done a ton of Indian cooking before but this was by far the simplest and fastest Indian dish I have made. I did make one little change to the original recipe, I added a can of coconut milk instead of 2 C of water. It turned out great! I’ll definitely be making this one again.
This was just o.k. for me. I have another recipe from the “African and middle eastern cookbook” By Josephine Bacon and Jenni Fleetwood, called Awaze Tibs that is better suited to be made with lamb. The flavor overpowered the chicken i think. I made my own fresh garam masala with a grinder but it tasted to close to a Berbere to me, Might have been the fresh roasted cardamom seeds, i don’t know. It wasn’t spicy in the sense of a chili pepper as much as it was the fresh spices. Once again i think this is better suited to lamb than chicken. good, but 3 stars.
Between the chili powder and green chile peppers, you have a very spicy dish indeed. My husband and I enjoy spicy foods, especially curries but this one is lacking a little more flavour than most curry dishes – probably because there not as many spices involved in this dish than most curries. And you must enjoy garam masala, if not, this is not a curry dish you will like.
This is an excellent, easy to make chicken curry with great flavor, and better yet, it doesn’t require the laundry list of ingredients that some other recipes do. For those experimenting with Indian cooking for the first time, I have a few tips and suggestions, as one who makes Indian food more often than not: First of all, the poppy seeds are used to achieve a slightly creamy texture. If you don’t have them, use a little more than a tablespoon of unsalted cashews (or use salted and reduce the salt a little) and grind to a coarse powder. You’ll get the same effect, and cashews are frequently used in Indian recipes, so the flavor will be great. Second, ginger garlic paste is a shortcut used in Indian cooking for peeling and chopping fresh garlic and ginger. It can be replaced by fresh grated, pressed, or chopped ginger and garlic in a 1:1 ratio for the same total volume. You’re better off not using powdered spices here. Finally, you’ll get the best flavor using fresh chilies, not canned. If you like a little less spice, use 1-2 jalapenos rather than 4 small hot chilies and reduce the chili powder. Garam masala is not the same as curry powder – it’s a less pungent mixture including cloves, cinnamon, mace, pepper, and other spices. I try to avoid substituting the two, and find that garam masala has a milder, less overpowering flavor. It’s worth the effort to find it, but you can make your own from commonly available spices. I hope this helps! Happy curry making!
soup not curry- not thick and strong, and without putting in extra heat and using a broth instead of water it wouldn’t have been anything at all.
Delicious – easy to make – going to try it with shrimp and some type of firm white fish. My boyfriend loves whenever I make this.
i followed the recipe but did not add as much water, 1 cup should be fine…did not use the poppy seeds, and added potatoes served it with parathas and rice…turned out great!
After spicing it up a bit this recipe is great. As for people trying to find poppy seed paste, I believe that the recipe should read “poppy seed, paste” with the paste referring to the ginger/garlic paste. Thank you for the recipe!
This is good. I would recommend that you do not add water, but maybe use chicken broth and only half a cup and let the chicken cook in its own juice at low heat because it has a tendency to become watery. I used chicken legs instead of chicken breast. I had Achar Massala in the house so I used that. I served it on basamati rice. Expect some members of your family to let you know that the spice while cooking was burning their eyes. I did not use poppy seeds. I used curry powder instead. I will try and use chicken breast next time also. It does need something else in there to make it more tasty, but it is still a very authentic indian curry taste. It was spicy, but it was not burning.
It was spicy, but sauce was too watery. Not much flavor.
Very good. But, because I was only cooking for myself, I only used 2 peppers, and 2 tbsps of oil. I should also have cut the water in half. It ended up a little watery. Also, how does one properly turn poppyseeds into a paste? I had a very tough time with that. Any suggestions?
I had to make some substitutions, but I was amazed how good this was! I only had 1/2 white onion and a whole purple onion and only 1 fresh green chilie pepper – so I added a can of diced green chilies as well. I also had to mix up some ginger powder and minced garlic to get the ginger garlic paste. Also to make a good curry without curry! Who knew? I also thought only 1 lb of chicken wasn’t going to be enough – but it really is. I served it over white rice, which was great and I think it will be great and even more filling over brown rice…
I used one pepper less than the recipe called for and it was too hot. Unless you can handle such heat I would suggest cutting down on the peppers. Otherwise, this dish was delicious!
This definitely calls for too much onion! Next time I will cut the amount in half. It also seemed that the recipe was missing something. Slightly disappointing…
Not quite a 5 stars but a 4.5! We really enjoyed this authentic-tasting Indian dish, even if I didn’t add all the “spicy” ingredients. Thanks for posting!
Used 4 chicken legs instead of breast so cooking time varied , another 15-20 mints of cooking at low. scaled servings to 2, And found that the ingredients are low on spice(we prefer bit spicy and hot), so added 1 jalapeno pepper and more garlic , ginger and red pepper powder. Poppy seeds can not be made into paste as the quantity is much less , I would suggest making it paste with some cashews and increase the quantity to help rotate the grinder add 3-4 tbs of water also, thats the best way to do it . Refrigerate the leftover paste for any other gravy (stays fresh for 2-3 days), Its goes well with Mango Lassi as desert . Best made it with Canola oil , it will still be flavorful.lastly serve with chopped fresh corriander and onion slices.