An authentic Indian Chicken Curry recipe. This one-pot curry recipe is simple, easy to follow, and tastes phenomenal! This is a tested and perfected recipe for many many years.
Authentic Chicken Curry
Authentic Indian chicken curry is simmered with patience and love. Bone-in meat, Indian ground & whole spices, ginger-garlic, onion, and tomatoes cooked on low heat until tender.
Working-class families in India do not use heavy cream to create thick creamy curry. It is watered down to make it soupy to go with plain rice or cooked down for thicker curry to serve it with Roti(Indian flat bread).
Chicken curry is super easy to make. Anyone with beginning cooking skills can create a comforting curry.
What's in This Recipe
Meat & Produce:
Bone-in Chicken: an authentic Indian chicken curry is cooked with a whole chicken cut into pieces. Bone-in meat is the essence of Indian meat curries. I highly recommend using whole chicken cut into pieces for this recipe. Boneless chicken breast is a good substitute for bone-in chicken pieces.
- Tomatoes: I usually like to use pureed Roma or Vine tomatoes. Remove the seeds before pureeing them so you don't have to sieve them.
- Ginger & Garlic: grate the ginger and garlic or mince them in a food processor. I like to make and store large batches of ginger-garlic paste. It comes in handy in my kitchen.
- Onion: I like to thinly slice the yellow onion for chicken curry. That's how my mother did. You may run it through the chopper if you want.
- Oil: a generous amount of oil is a sign of rich and authentic Indian curry. I am using ½ cup of oil but you may adjust according to your desired quantity.
Whole & Ground Spice:
This recipe calls for all the standard Indian-powered spices like cumin, coriander, turmeric, and Kashmiri chili powder.
- I am using a blend of whole cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, green cardamom, cloves, and black peppercorns. Adding whole spices are optional but I highly recommend them for enhanced flavors. At least use a cinnamon stick, bay leaf, and cardamom if you can.
- Salt: I am using pink salt and measurements are based on pink salt. Use salt per your taste and the type of salt you may use.
- Garam Masala: I only use homemade garam masala for meat curry recipes. My homemade garam masala is the key ingredient in this recipe. Whenever a South Asian has tried my chicken curry, they have always asked for the recipe for my garam masala. It's a game-changer, I promise!
Easy boneless Chicken Curry
- Marinade the boneless chicken breast pieces with all the listed powdered spices, ginger-garlic, and whole spices.
- Heat a heavy-bottom pan over high heat. Add the oil to the pan. Once the oil starts to heat up, add chopped onions, and ½ teaspoon of salt to the pan.
- Turn the heat to medium and sauté the onions until golden. It takes about 5 to 8 minutes.
- Add marinated chicken to the pan. Sauté until chicken is no longer pink.
- Add tomato puree and stir well.
- Cover and cook for 15 to 20 minutes or just until the chicken is tender.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve it with plain rice, roti, or naan.
What to serve with Chicken Curry
Chicken curry is served with plain rice, Indian flatbread, naan, or millet bread.
I like to serve it with plain rice or whole wheat pita bread(making my life easier 😉 ) along with Indian kachumber salad, and onion raita.
More Indian Curries You'll Love:
- Chicken and Potato Curry
- Aloo Palak (Indian Spinach and Potato)
- Palak Paneer-Spinach and Indian Cheese Curry
- Fish Curry
- Meatball Curry
- Dal Tadka
- Eggplant Curry
- Bhindi Kadhi-Okra Curry
Kitchen Tools You’ll Need:
- Food Processor
- Heavy Bottom Pan
- Good Kitchen Knife
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Chicken Curry Recipe | Authentic Indian Chicken Curry
Ingredients
- 2 pounds whole chicken cut into pieces , skin and excess fat removed
- 1 medium yellow onion , thinly sliced
- 4 medium Roma tomatoes , or 3 large vine tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste , or 1 inch grated ginger & 5 to 6 grated garlic cloves
- ½ cup light olive oil , or any other light cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- water , as needed
- 1-2 green chilis like Thai chili, jalapeno or Serrano , optional
Whole Spices
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 4-5 cloves
- 3-4 whole peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
Powdered Spices
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons Kashmiri red chili powder , 1 teaspoon for less spicy
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala , highly recommend my homemade Garam Masala
- 1 ¼ teaspoons pink salt , or to taste
Instructions
- Puree the tomatoes in a food processor or blender, thinly slice an onion, and grate ginger and garlic.
- Heat a heavy-bottom pan over high heat. Add the oil to the pan. Once the oil starts to heat up, add chopped onions, whole spices, and ½ teaspoon of salt to the pan. (Salt helps cook onion evenly and dissolves extra moisture faster.)
- Turn the heat to medium and sauté the onions until golden. It takes about 5 to 8 minutes.
- Once the onion turns golden, add the ginger-garlic paste to it. Sauté ginger-garlic for about 1 minute or just until you no longer smell the raw ginger-garlic. now add chicken to the pan.
- Add all the ground spices and the rest of the salt. Stir to coat the spices on the chicken. Sauté for about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the tomato puree and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Turn the heat down to low. Cover the pan and cook chicken on low for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes check for the water consistency in the curry. Add 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup water if needed. Cover and cook the curry on low for 20 minutes or just until the chicken is tender. Stir once in between cooking.
- Uncover and add garam masala. Taste test for salt. Add more salt if needed. Simmer extra liquid until it dissolves or turn the heat off if you prefer to have the curry slightly soupy.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with plain rice, naan, or roti(Indian flatbread).
Notes
Easy boneless Chicken Curry:
- Marinade the boneless chicken breast pieces with all the listed powdered spices, ginger-garlic, and whole spices.
-
Heat a heavy-bottom pan over high heat. Add the oil to the pan. Once the oil starts to heat up, add chopped onions, and ½ teaspoon of salt to the pan.
- Turn the heat to medium and sauté the onions until golden. It takes about 5 to 8 minutes.
- Add marinated chicken to the pan. Sauté until chicken is no longer pink.
- Add tomato puree and stir well.
- Cover and cook for 15 to 20 minutes or just until chicken is tender.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve it with plain rice, roti, or naan.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is sourced from a third-party application and should be considered as approximate figures for reference purposes only.
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Catherine Sarta says
Love this recipe. Delicious. Would comment on 2 issues with the instructions. One is that it says to add all ground spices over the chicken. So it is a surprise when we are told at the end to add the garam Masada and the rest of the salt. They are listed under ground spices and therefore already in the pot. Still tasted good though.
FeastwithSafiya says
Hi Catherine, thank you for providing your feedback. Glad you liked my recipe :). Adding salt at the end of the recipe is optional. I like adding garam masala in the end, but it can be added along with all the other ground spices. So, either way is fine as long as the final product is delicious. 🙂
Kate says
Hi.
I added the Garam masala along with the other powdered spices but in your recipe instructions it adds it at the end of cooking, so I added it twice (so about 1-1/2 tsp)
It still turned out great cause one can never add enough Garam Masala!!
Thanks!
FeastwithSafiya says
Thank you for your feedback!
Bev says
I've made this twice already. About to make it again tomorrow. By far the best chicken curry recipe I've ever found on the internet
FeastwithSafiya says
Thank you for your feedback, Bev! I am so happy you liked my recipe :).
Amber says
Thank you so much for sharing this!
FeastwithSafiya says
Thank you! 🙂
Emily says
Thank you for this authentic one-pot recipe! The instructions are so easy to follow!
Jill says
Really appreciate the process photos for this chicken. Looking forward to trying it!!
Tavo says
Nothing like a great curry! We had this one for dinner yesterday, and we all loved it!
Mirlene says
Oh wow!!! This chicken curry absolutely delicious and rich. Love it with red beans and rice.
Mahy says
I love how delicious this chicken curry look. I bet it's so flavorful!