Schuetz

Chicken Madras is a dish that can be found in Indian restaurants all over the world and for many people it is among their choice of top chicken curry recipes. Chicken Madras comes from southern India and the curry is quite hot owing to a fairly large amount of chilli in the recipe although it can be reduced if necessary if it is too hot for your taste.

Below is a version of the Chicken Madras curry I've been preparing for a few years, which is based on that which appears in Pat Chapman's book Indian Restaurant Cookbook. The main difference is in the spice mix, which adds a larger number of spices into the initial spice mix and does away with the addition of garam massala towards the end. Another difference is that this recipe doesn't call for tomato paste to be added, which to my mind makes the sauce taste too much of tomato, and the lemon is added much earlier to be absorbed by the chicken.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
vegetable oil
1 onion sliced into thin strips
1 tin tomatoes
juice of 1/2 lemon

Spices:
4 dry red chillis
1/2 teaspoon black pepper corns
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
teaspoon cumin seeds
teaspoon fenugreek seeds
teaspoon turmeric
2 cardomoms
pinch cinnamon
4 cloves
pinch coriander power
pinch ginger powder
pinch mustard seeds

Method:
1. Fry the chicken in about 3-4 tablespoons of vegetable oil to colour and remove from the frying pan.

2. Add the onion until golden then add the spices. Mix the spices and blitz before adding to the pan and fry for about 5 minutes, adding a little water if necessary.

3. Add the chicken and pour the lemon juice over. Stir well.

4. Chop the tomatoes and stir into the mix. Cook at medium heat for about 10 minutes.

5. Cook in a a medium oven for 45 minutes and serve with basmati rice.

Find out more about cooking chicken curry recipes and information about Indian food from Mark Hazard.