Chicken Madras

Here is my recipe for chicken Madras, and when in doubt it is always one of my go-to curries of choice. I like a nice spicy chicken phall occasionally, but for the most part I prefer my curries to be of either medium heat or hot. Madras is considered to be a hot curry, but nowhere near as hot as phall, the hottest curry that Indian restaurants and takeaways make, or restaurant style vindaloo, which is always much hotter than the traditional Goan version. Madras curry can be made with vegetables, seafood or meats, such as beef, chicken, lamb or pork. There are countless recipes in cookery books and on the internet for Madras curry, and the one shown below is my version. It's a reasonably hot curry with a rich, clingy sauce and can be served with side salad and plain boiled rice, chips or naan bread.

Chicken Madras

Madras is a very popular curry in Britain and several theories exist as to its true origins. Some people believe it was invented in India during the time of the British Raj, and others believe it to be a British Indian restaurant (BIR) invention. I've written more about this topic on the beef Madras page, if anyone is interested.

Ingredients:

• 3 teaspoons freshly grated coconut or desiccated coconut (see notes)
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (see notes)
• 1/2 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 4 green cardamoms, cracked
• 4 cloves
• 1-inch piece cassia bark
• 400g finely diced white onion
• 3–4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt or salt to taste
• 600–700g chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2–4 fresh finger chillies (red or green), sliced into thin rings
• 12 tablespoons (200g) blended chopped tinned tomato
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 50ml hot water
• 1 teaspoon kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
• 1 whole dried red chilli (optional)
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Method:

1. Place the coconut, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and black peppercorns into an electric coffee grinder and grind until fine. Add the chilli powder, paprika, turmeric and garam masala and pulse a few more times until everything is well mixed. Set aside.


2. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat and add the green cardamoms, cloves and cassia bark. Allow the spices to sizzle for about 30 seconds until they become fragrant.


3. Add the onion, mix well and fry 8–10 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking, until soft and translucent.


4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the garlic, ginger and salt. Mix well and continue to fry for a further 30–40 minutes or until the mixture turns golden brown.


5. Once the mixture has turned golden brown add the ground spices and mix well to ensure they are incorporated into the oil. Next, add the chicken and the fresh finger chillies. Mix well and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking. If at any point the spices start sticking to the bottom of the pot before the meat has started releasing its juices then just add a tablespoon of hot water and scrape them off with your spoon. Do not allow the spices to burn or it will ruin the flavour of the curry.


6. Add the blended chopped tinned tomato, tomato puree, hot water, kasoori methi, whole dried red chilli (if using) and freshly squeezed lime juice. Mix well, cover and then place into a preheated oven at 200C/400F/Gas 6 and cook for 45 minutes.

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Notes:

• The temperatures listed in this recipe are for standard ovens and not fan assisted or convection ovens. Typically, when cooking with a fan assisted oven one would reduce the temperature by 20C/50F, but given how ovens do vary slightly I'll leave it up to you to decide. After all, you know your oven much better than I do.


• The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds to be ground when making the spice mixture. I normally grind whole spices as and when I need them, but if all you have available is fenugreek powder then you can just use 1 rounded teaspoon of fenugreek powder instead.


• The best chillies to use in this curry are Capsicum annuum or Capsicum frutescens varieties.


• You can give this curry an added chilli flavour by stirring in one or two thinly sliced fresh chillies (red or green) at the end of the cooking process.


• I purchase fresh coconuts from the supermarket every year and cut the unpeeled flesh into chunks and store it in the freezer. When double-bagged, fresh coconut can be stored in the freezer for many months. You can peel off the brown skin using a potato peeler whilst the coconut is still frozen. It's also much easier to grate the flesh of the coconut whilst it is still frozen. However, it thaws very quickly, so once removed from the freezer it needs to be peeled and grated straight away. If you don't have access to fresh coconuts then just use desiccated coconut instead.


• Always use the best quality chicken that you can afford. Curries made with poor quality chicken will always have an inferior flavour. I repeat this note in all of the meat-based recipes on the blog because it's true. However, it is especially true for chicken. Nowadays, chicken sold at supermarkets in the UK is vastly inferior to the chicken sold at your local butcher. Trust me; it's worth spending a little extra and buying the chicken breast from your local butcher instead.