Murgh Masala Curry Recipe

Murgh Masala Curry Recipe – Tandoori chicken breast cooked in a savoury sauce. Containing caramelised onions and herbs, with minced meat and boiled eggs. This is a popular dish on many British Indian restaurant menus.

Trying to find a recipe for it though is a minefield. As a friend was struggling to find one. I decided to create one for them based on their description and my own recollection of the dish.

I enjoyed the finished result, as did they. I must have done something right!

The Chicken

Murgh Masala consists of chicken cooked with minced meat and eggs. For this version I opted for Tandoori chicken breast. They were marinated and cooked whole and then sliced. You can use whatever chicken you like though. Just remember if adding raw chicken to the sauce, it’s going to need a longer cooking time.

The Sauce

The sauce in a typical Murgh Masala is mild to medium. It is savoury and herby from the addition of plenty of dried fenugreek leaf.

I decided to emphasise this element of the dish by making a ‘green paste’. Using green peppers, coriander stalks, a few green chilies, soaked fenugreek seeds and fenugreek leaf.

I charred the skin of the peppers and removed it. This not only makes it easier to blend and more palatable but also adds a slight smokiness to the dish.

And don’t worry if you forget to soak your fenugreek seeds overnight like I did. You can pour freshly boiled water over of them and leave them for a couple of hours. They won’t be as soft as leaving overnight but they will still blend reasonably well. The soaking not only softens them but also takes away the slight bitterness that you get from the seeds. You may consider leaving them out but they do add to that deep savoury flavour.

Also, don’t be tempted to use anything other than green peppers. The green peppers have that herbaceous flavour. Adding red, yellow or orange will start to make it sweet and it just doesn’t work, well not for me.

It’s All About The Onions!

The Murgh Masala Curry recipe also uses a caramelised onion paste. The onions take a little time to caramelise but it is well worth taking that time. It gives the curry that deep rich flavour. It’s a different way of getting that Indian restaurant flavour, without using a base sauce.

Remember, the spice blends used in this recipe are available to buy from www.omemade.co.uk.

And a big thank you to Paul Walker. He is a fellow moderator on the UK Curry Group Facebook group. His inspiration led to the creation of this recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Murgh Masala Curry Recipe

Jerome Perks

Tandoori chicken cooked in a medium spiced, savoury and herby sauce, with minced meat and eggs. A popular dish found on many British Indian Restaurant menus.

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Prep Time 37 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Servings 6 people

Calories

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Tandoori Chicken

• 750 g of chicken breast leave whole and slash the top 3 times
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp tandoori Masala
• ½ tbsp garlic & ginger paste
• 1 tbsp of oil or ghee
• ½ tbsp yoghurt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp red food colouring optional

Onion & Spice paste

• 3 large onions sliced
• 4 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp garlic & ginger paste
• 3 tsp of hotel gravy Masala or 1 tsp of Garam Masala 1 tsp ground coriander and 1 tsp ground cumin

Green Paste

• 2 tsp fenugreek soaked in water overnight.
• 1 green pepper blister the skin with a chef’s torch or over a gas hob or under a grill. Wrap in clingfilm and let cool. Once cool remove the skin under cold running water then remove the core and chop.
• 1 tbsp coriander stalks roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaf/Kasoori methi
• 2-3 green finger chillies seed and white membrane removed.

Precooked Mince Meat

• 1 tbsp oil
• 500 g of minced meat lamb, beef or chicken
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp Garam Masala

The curry

• 4 tbsp oil including the oil drained from the onion paste
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• 1 small onion finely diced
• 2 tablespoons garlic & ginger paste or the equivalent of freshly chopped or grated.
• The onion paste
• The green paste
• 2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1.5 tbsp of mix powder or mild curry powder
• 1 tbsp tomato puree diluted with 300ml water
• 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes that has been blended smooth or 500ml of passata
• 400 ml water
• The sliced tandoori chicken
• The precooked mince meat
• 2 tbsp plain natural yoghurt that’s been whisked smooth
• 1 tbsp fenugreek leaf
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• 1 tsp dried mint
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 6 boiled eggs
• Sliced green chilli to taste leave out for a milder dish
• 3 tbsp fresh coriander roughly chopped.

Instructions

 

Tandoori Chicken

• Rub all the ingredients into the chicken and leave to marinate for a couple of hours. I f marinating overnight, leave out the lemon juice and add it around an hour before cooking.
• To cook preheat an oven to 200°c (180°c for fan). Put the chicken on a roasting tray that you have pre heated in the oven. Cook for approximately 10 minutes and then turn and cook for a further 10 minutes. You can flash the chicken under a grill to get a bit more char on it.
• Let the chicken cool and then thickly slice. If the chicken isn’t going in the curry within an hour, then refrigerate until needed.

Onion & Spice paste

• Heat a heavy bottomed pan with the oil in it. Add the onions and salt and give a good stir. Turn the pan down to medium low and cook the onions until they are a deep golden colour.
• Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for around 1 minute
• Add the spices and cook for roughly 40 seconds.
• Take the pan off the heat and place the mixture in a sieve over a bowl to drain the oil (do not discard the oil!). Let cool and then blitz the mixture in a blender ‘till you have a smooth paste.

Green Paste

• Place all the ingredients in a blender, food processor or grinder and blitz to a coarse paste.

Precooked Mince Meat

• Heat the oil and add the mince, salt and Garam Masala.
• Cook until well browned.
• Put the cooked mince into a sieve or colander over a bowl to drain off any excess fat, which can be discarded.

The curry

• Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seed, mustard seed and fennel seed. Cook until they start to sizzle.
• Add the onion and cook until starting to turn golden.
• Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for 40 – 60 seconds.
• Add the onion paste and cook for 30 seconds.
• Add the green paste and cook for 30 seconds
• Add the Kashmiri chilli and mix powder/curry powder. Fry gently for around 40 seconds.
• Add the diluted tomato puree. Turn up the heat and reduce the liquid to a thick paste that starts to splatter. Turn down the heat when it does.
• Add the tomato and water and stir to combine. Cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the tandoori chicken and precooked mince and let heat through for 5 minutes.
• Add the yoghurt, fenugreek leaf, Garam Masala, mint, turmeric, salt and sugar. Stir together and bring back to the simmer. Add a little water if the sauce is too thick for your liking.
• Add the eggs either whole or halved and let them heat through for at least 10 minutes before adding the fresh coriander and serving.

Keyword British Indian Restaurant, chicken curry, Chicken curry with egg, egg, minced meat, Murgh Masala, savoury

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