Easy Chicken Curry Recipes. Sometimes we just want to chuck some ingredients in a pan and have a quick curry, right?
Maybe you’ve run out of base gravy but still fancy a tasty curry.
Maybe your new to curry cooking and now thinking, “what the hell is base gravy?”
Whatever, don’t panic!
You can have a really tasty curry without a lot of faff and by using just a few ingredients.
Scroll down and take a look. I will keep adding recipes to this page as I go along…
But first up in our selection of easy chicken curry recipes is Country Captain Chicken.
To save the hassle of making your own masalas ‘Ome Made have a selection of curry masalas available on their online store
If you are wanting to create your favourite British Indian Restaurant dish have a look at our B.I.R page here
Country Captain Chicken Curry
Originating from the time of the Raj, this Anglo-Indian curry is so simple to make with just a few ingredients.
Ingredients
- 700 g Chicken skinless thighs, on the bone are good for this.
- 1 tbsp Curry Masala
- 150 ml boiled water
- 50 g tamarind
- 4 tbsp oil
- 2 large onions finely diced
- 6 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 inch piece of ginger finely chopped
- 1.5 tsp salt
Instructions
- Sprinkle the curry masala over the chicken and give a good stir round to coat the chicken.Leave the chicken to marinate for at least an hour or overnight in the refrigerator.
- Put the tamarind in a heat proof bowl or jug and pour over the hot, boiled water. Leave for at least 30 minutes, breaking it up and giving it a squish every now and then. Once you have a nice dark brown liquid, strain the liquid through a sieve into a bowl and discard the leftover pulp.
- Heat the oil in a pan. When hot, add the onions. Cook on a moderate heat, stirring as needed, until starting to brown.
- Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further 30 seconds.
- Add the marinated chicken thighs. Cook on a moderate heat until well-sealed all over. stirring regularly so the spices don't burn. If it looks like the spices are catching add a splash of water as needed.
- Once the chicken is sealed, add the tamarind paste and just enough water to come 1/2 way up the chicken. Turn the heat down to low and put a lid on the pan. Cook very gently for 15 minutes.
- Take off the lid, add the salt and cook for another 15 minutes with the lid off.
- After 15 minutes the chicken should be cooked, and you can serve the curry. If the sauce is a little thin for your liking or you like your chicken falling off the bone cook for a little longer.
- Traditionally there is no fresh coriander added to this dish but as you can see from the photos, I've added some. For me a curry isn't a curry without a handful of coriander!
- This is a curry that's best served with plain rice so that it can absorb the flavour of the tasty gravy. Some sort of bread is recommended too to mop up all the sauce.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Grandmas West Country Chicken Curry
My first memory of having a curry was from going to my Grandmas on a Monday during the holidays. She would regularly make a curry using the leftover meat from the Sunday roast. I used to love it!I never saw how it was made so don't know the recipe she used, but I've created a dish based on it and using ingredients I can imagine any home cook using back in the 70s and early 80s.And yes, I added sultanas! it's an optional extra though!
Ingredients
- 700 g diced chicken thigh or breast
- 3 tbsp oil
- 2 medium onions finely diced
- 1 tbsp sultanas optional
- 6 bulbs garlic finely chopped
- 1 inch piece of ginger finely chopped
- 1 tbsp Raj Curry Masala
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
- ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp fresh coriander chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in heavy bottomed pan or karahi.
- Add the onion and gently fry for 5 minutes.
- add the sultanas to the pan if using and continue to cook, stirring as needed until the onions start to go golden
- Add the garlic and ginger and fry for 30 seconds more
- Add the curry masala and cook gently, stirring for 40 seconds. If it's starting to stick add a splash of water.
- Add the chicken to the pan and stir round to coat with the spices.
- Add enough water to not quite cover the chicken and bring to a simmer.
- Add the salt, tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.
- Cook for gently for 20 to 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
- If using add the coriander, stir through and serve with plain rice.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Bengali Chicken Curry
Bengali Curry is all about the local five spice blend Panch Phoran. A combination of cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, fennel seeds and Nigella seeds or kalonji seeds as they are sometimes know. This spice mix gives a lovely warming, deep, savoury flavour to the curry. ‘Ome Made Bengali Curry Masala takes a basic mild curry Masala and adds these extra spices so you don’t have to mess about making your own blend up. I have also added some Kashmiri chilli which gives an excellent colour. In addition I have added a little Amchur (mango) powder and Tamarind powder for a little bit of a sour tang.
Ingredients
- 700 g Chicken diced (thigh works well, don’t use to bigger pieces unless you want to par-cook first)
- 4-5 tbsp oil sunflower or vegetable
- 2 large onions finely chopped or blitzed in a blender or food processor
- 4 -5 big fat cloves of garlic finely chopped or grated
- 1 inch cubed piece of ginger finely chopped or grated
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp tomato puree stirred in to 800ml hot water
- 12 Fresh curry leaves if you can get them, Waitrose sell them! If you can’t get them, leave out as dry just don’t cut it
- 4 teaspoon ‘Ome Made Bengali Curry Masala
- 2 tomatoes roughly diced
- 4-8 green chillies hot Thai, bird eye or cayenne work well sliced and a few left whole if you like.
- 1 lime juice of
- 2 tsp Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2-3 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
- 1 tbsp chopped fesh coriander.
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a kadai or heavy bottomed pan.
- Once hot add the curry leaves if using WARNING they will splutter!
- Add the onions straight after adding the curry leaves. Add the salt and turn to a low heat. The onions need to cook for 15-20 minutes. The salt will help draw the water out of the onions so they will cook quicker. Once the onions are soft and translucent the heat can be turned up slightly. The onion wants to start to caramelise and turn a pale brown colour.
- After 15-20 minutes add the garlic and ginger. The heat can now be turned up to medium. Fry for 30 seconds or so.
- Add the Bengali Curry Masala and stir in. This wants to cook out for about 40 seconds. Be careful it doesn’t catch and burn. If it looks like it’s going to add a splash of the water/tomato paste.
- After cooking the spices for 2 minutes add ½ of the water/tomato paste mix. Reduce down on a reasonably high heat until your left with a very thick sauce.
- Add the rest of the water/tomato paste. Bring back to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the chicken, stir in and let cook on a reasonably fast simmer so that the sauce continues to reduce.
- After the chicken has been cooking for 15-20 minutes add all the other ingredients.
- Cook for a further 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
- Serve with rice and bread garnish with a slice of fresh lime, chilli squids and a few coriander leaves.
Notes
You can use a base sauce for this curry. Just use less or even no onion and only use 1.5 tbsp of tomato puree in around 200ml of water then use around 600ml of base.
If you want to pre-cook the chicken just add it to a pan with the tomato paste and water or base sauce if you decide to use that and cook gently while you’re frying everything else.
If using chicken breast, reduce the time the chicken is cooking.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!