Quick Menu


Friday 19 December 2008

Murgh Masala or Fiery Chicken Curry



This is a fiery Chicken Curry fashioned in the North Indian style. Murgh is the Hindi word for Chicken and Massala basically means spices. I first had this dish as a Uni student in Melbourne, Australia. One of my two flatmates used to work part-time in an Indian Restaurant on Tuesday nights. He would often bring home some of the leftover curries from the restaurant. We used to look forward to this and would sometimes stay up past midnight to partake of the food he'd bring home.


One night he brought home this fiery chicken curry and we all enjoyed it immensely. I tried on numerous occasions to get the same flavours and finally got the approval from my flatmates after about a year!



Ingredients
A:
500g Boneless Chicken Breast
250g Plain Yoghurt
2 Gloves Garlic
1 inch Ginger
1 tbsp curry powder
½ tbsp chilli powder
Salt

B:
2 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder
3 Dried Red Chillies
1 Large Onion
1 clove Garlic
2-3 pods Cardamom
5 Tomatoes
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil

Method
Chop Garlic and Ginger finely. Slice Chicken into thin strips. Marinate Chicken with Ingredients A and let rest in fridge for at least ½ hour. Meanwhile, cut dried chillies into four pieces each. Slice Tomatoes thinly. Slice Onions and chop garlic. Heat oil in a wok or non stick pan and fry Chillies, Onion and Garlic till soft. Add in Curry Powder, Chilli Powder and Cardamom and fry lightly till fragrant
Add in tomatoes and cook till a nice paste is formed. Add some water if necessary. Add in marinated chicken mixture. Cook well. Add in ½ cup of water into marinade bowl, scrape the sides and pour into the cooking chicken. Simmer for 20 minutes or until curry becomes thick

You may notice some white flecks appearing when the chicken and yoghurt are first cooked. This is perfectly normal and is caused by the acidic tomatoes separating the yoghurt.



This Murgh Masala remains one of my favourite dishes to serve, especially when entertaining. I served this when my friend Naomi came down from Japan for a visit bakc in August. I paired it with Sambar as well as a few other dishes. But we'll leave those dishes for another day!


8 comments:

Meeta K. Wolff said...

i love this. anything fiery is for me you know that! just brilliant!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

A good chicken curry is quite often what I order at our local East Indian restaurants here in K-town. I don't often prepare it at home...probably never so thanks for passing on the recipe!!!

Cynthia said...

Dharm you had me at firey!

Happy Holidays to you and the family!

Anonymous said...

I love any good hot curry; will definitely try this recipe, as I often have almost everything I need for it in the pantry.

giz said...

This looks alot like butter chicken bumped up a few notches. Fantastic.

Naomi said...

Ah hah!
Thank you. I wondered how this was made.
Now it shall appear for Christmas!
I've tried your satay a few times already. didnt realise how much difference the lemongrass makes. (I substituted the first few times as I didnt find it). Yummy yummy

GFAD said...

Hi Dharm. Came by to wish you and your family a blessed Christmas and happy New Year!

Want to thank you for sharing your cooking and baking experiences with us. It increases my confidence to try out something new whenever I see your successes! Your chocolate cake was a hit!! Thank you!

Naomi said...

Oh wow, I tried this today.
It was so yummy and a bit hit. With all those chilli's Nathan enjoyed it - he said 'I like spicy food' The first time! Thank you Dharm!