“Saturday is Chicken Curry Day“
Chicken curry is a South African favorite. Growing up, this dish was my mother’s specialty (one of the many). We loved the weekend mostly because Saturday meant chicken curry. From the early afternoon, all through the house you could smell the curry cooking. The aromas of the spices would slowly creep out from the kitchen. Each week, we look forward to the same thing – a spectacular supper that leaves us stuffed and looking forward to the next Saturday!
When we started cooking more Indian food, we struggled with replicating my mother’s recipe. We could never get the color and gravy quite right, even after some trickery – brining, adding ghee, food coloring. Nothing worked! After some coaching, we learned the simple steps that make the biggest difference.
Chicken curry is a regular in our house. We especially love making this dish when we have dinner guests since it’s always a big hit, but we can also throw this together fairly quickly for a weekday meal.
Preparation:
Chicken
We use a whole chicken for this recipe. Section the chicken into breast, wings, thighs, drums and discard the skin. Cube the boneless pieces and retain the bone-in pieces whole. You can also add in the chicken rib bones and giblets for added flavor. We prefer to keep the bones, since they impart a lot of flavor but you can also use all boneless meat.
Veggies and spice
Start by preparing all your ingredients. Finely dice the tomatoes, onions, garlic cloves, ginger, chilli peppers. Cube the potatoes into one inch pieces and keep covered in water to prevent browning. Gather the whole spices in a small bowl and the dry spices in another. Some people (us included) prefer to use ground cardamom instead of whole cardamom, since the whole pod can easily hide in the gravy while eating and it tastes strong when eaten whole. If you do use the cardamom powder rather than the cardamom pods, add one half of a teaspoon to the ground spices. The extra cumin, turmeric, coriander, and cardamom powders are optional, and using the mixed masala with the cayenne pepper will work out perfectly fine.
Cook
Aromatics
Now it’s time to cook. Start by heating the oil on medium high in a pot. Add in the whole spices to roast for a couple of minutes. Then add in the onion and cook for a few minutes until it becomes glassy and translucent. Next add in the ginger, garlic, and chilli peppers and cook for another couple minutes. You will soon get the aroma of the ginger and garlic. Reduce the temperature to medium and sprinkle in the ground spices into the pot.
Meats and gravy
Add the chicken in right after the ground spices to prevent them from drying the mixture. Mix the contents of the pot thoroughly to coat the chicken evenly with the spice mixture, and cook for about 5 minutes with the lid on. Next, add in the tomatoes, mix thoroughly, and cook with the lid on for 10-15 minutes or until the tomatoes are mostly broken down. Now add in the potatoes and salt to taste, mix the contents, and continue to cook on medium. After about 10 minutes, reduce the temperature, add in the garam masala, and cook until the potatoes are soft and cooked through.
Serve
Shred the cilantro on top of the cooked curry as a garnish, and serve with your side salads and bread or rice of choice. Our favorites are carrot salad and tomato-onion salad. Our favorite bread with this dish is roti, but it also goes great with naan, paratha, or rice.
Tips
- The amount of oil is the key to getting the flavors to infuse into the meat. If your curry is too watery, try starting with more oil, and let it simmer for longer.
- For thicker gravy, start with more onions, add a little water toward the end, and cook for an extra 10-15 minutes on low heat.
- You may substitute ¼ – ½ teaspoon of cardamom powder for the 4 whole cardamom pods.
- The spice level can be adjusted by varying the amounts of cayenne pepper and chilli peppers.
- Chicken that has not been injected with a brine mix is preferred. If you do use this type of chicken allow extra time for the excess water to evaporate.
- Cutting the potatoes too small can result in a stew like consistency if they break down too much, whereas if they are not small enough, they will simply take longer to cook.
Durban Chicken Curry
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken cut or mix of cubed breast, thigh, and whole drumsticks
- 2 roma tomatoes, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 3 red Thai chilli peppers, finely diced or 4 jalapeno peppers
- ½ onion, diced
- ⅔ cup oil canola or vegetable
- 1½ tsp garam masala added separately from the other ground spices
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 potatoes, cubed
- 1 cup cilantro optional
Whole spices
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cloves
- 1 star anise
- 4 cardamom pods or ⅔ teaspoon of powder
Dry spices
- 4 tsp mixed masala
- 1½ tsp cayenne powder
- ¼ tsp cumin powder optional
- ¼ tsp coriander powder optional
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder optional
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder optional
Instructions
- Heat pot to medium high
- Add oil to pot and heat for 2-3 minutes
- Add whole spices and fry for 2-3 minutes
- Add onion and cook until glassy/translucent
- Add ginger, garlic, and chilli peppers. Cook until fragrant
- Add chicken and ground spices. Cook for 5 minutes
- Add tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes are almost broken down
- Add potatoes and salt. Cook for 10 minutes
- Add garam masala. Cook until potatoes are soft
