Eat your heart out drop dead delicious Thick Creamy Greek Yogurt curry! Secret is in the long 24 hour slow marination period. However you may go up to 36 hours which I do. Truly a curry made in heaven! This is my Top Best Curry Ever – Trust me! ;)
Per Serving: 417 g Calories Per serving: 1,160 Servings: 6
Note: The marinade penetrates better if left outside of the fridge – Refrigerated it will be much slower.
Black cardamom: Remove seeds and discard pods as they will jam up your coffee grinder! With green cardamoms if you are into the extra fiber you may leave them in their pods which I usually do as they do no harm to my coffee grinder.
You may roast your whole nutmeg – It grates far better this way.
Star anise and Cinnamon sticks: Watch carefully as they do have a tendency to burn a lot faster than the rest your whole spices. So remove them before they do and set aside.
Ingredients:
1.5 kg Chicken thighs, whole on bone with skin
23 ml (28 g) ginger (1 whole lady thumb size), peeled
23 ml (28 g) garlic (1 whole lady thumb size), peeled
2 large onions
2 jalapenos, finely chopped in food processor with onions
A.) 3 Bay leaves
B.) 3 Star anise
C.) 4 Cinnamon sticks
D.) 5 Cloves
E.) 2 black cardamom, seeds removed – Discard pods
F.) 6 Cardamom seeds (Discard pods after roasting – Remove seeds.)
G.) 20 ml Cumin seeds
H.) 30 ml Coriander seeds
I.) 2.5 ml Peppercorns, whole
J.) 30 ml dried red chili flakes (8 g or 1 tbsp cayenne pepper or chili powder)
Salt to taste
Salt to taste
12 – 15 curry leaves
2 ml grated (1/3 of a whole nutmeg )
7.5 ml Turmeric powder
500 ml Yogurt – enough to cover chicken (I use my thick homemade Greek yogurt)
30 ml masala (See below recipe )
30 ml Lime or lemon juice (I omitted as my Greek yogurt was sufficiently tart enough)
500 g rice (ordinary or basmati if you wish) – I just use ordinary
1.5 kg potatoes, peeled or scrubbed and washed if you want to leave the skins on
1 bunch Coriander, freshly chopped to serve (optional) I omitted – never had any
1 bunch Mint, freshly chopped to serve (optional) – I added just a touch dried
388 g water to swish out bowls, added to marinated chicken together with onion jalapeno puree
30 ml garam masala (see recipe below)
548 g tomatoes, freshly microwaved cooked and pureed
94 ml water to swish out tomato jar added to curry
150 ml cream
Method:
Measure spices A – J onto a dinner plate. Place plate in microwave oven on high for 4 x 24 second bursts or a few more on high or just until they release their aromatic flavour and are very hot to the touch but DO NOT burn! – Watch carefully! or heat a heavy frying pan for 2 minutes over medium-high heat. Combine all whole spices (except the mace) and add them to the frying pan. Dry-roast them, stirring and turning them constantly, shaking pan until all the spices are slightly darkened or until they exude their aroma. Allow cooling and grind to a semi coarse powder in coffee grinder which will hold flavours better than too fine a grind but this is entirely up to your own preference.
To your food processor bowl with metal blade attachment placed on scale, weigh in your ginger, garlic – add your whole jalapenos followed by your roughly chopped onions and whizz to a puree.
In a 2 – 3 liter bowl add your roasted freshly ground masala spice mixture (A – J), chicken pieces, turmeric, chili powder if you are using the powder, salt to taste, yogurt, ginger, garlic, jalapeno and onion puree. Mix all together very well with a fork whilst stabbing chicken all over so marinade can penetrate.
To cook curry: To a 5 liter pot or electric wok place your chicken skin side down and with a spatula scrape out every last drop of your marinade on top of chicken. Set heat to a gentle simmer and allow to simmer, covered. Add no oil as there is enough fat in your chicken.
Peel 1.5 kg potatoes and steam them in 5 mm water in microwave until fork tender as the acid and salt in your marinade will prevent them from softening.
When chicken is halfway done, add your curry leaves and freshly pureed tomatoes – Microwaved in skins, whole without the need to de-core – Oval shaped jam tomatoes are best as their skins disintegrate better. Add sugar and salt to taste and when completely softened, puree in container and add to curry. Allow to simmer gently, adding freshly grated nutmeg together with chopped mint leaves (optional), coriander leaves (optional). When ready add your garam masala and gently stir through. Turn off heat and allow to sit. Gently stir cream through before serving. – Enjoy!
Garam Masala
Is always added at the end of cooking to enhance curry dishes and is always best made fresh with just enough for your home needs.
Note: If you feel like an extra heat now is the time to add a little extra chili dried flakes or powder to your garam masala spice mix
Ingredients:
30 ml cumin (Jeera) seeds
30 ml coriander seeds
6 ml cardamom seeds (black or green cardamom pods)
2 whole cinnamon sticks, 1 inch long
2 ml whole cloves
10 ml black peppercorns
1 bay leaf, broken up
.6 ml ground mace (optional) I substitute with finely grated nutmeg
Method:
Follow microwave method see above or heat a heavy frying pan for 2 minutes over medium-high heat. Combine all whole spices (except the mace) and add them to the frying pan. Dry-roast them, stirring and turning them constantly, shaking pan until all the spices are slightly darkened or until they exude their spicy and fragrant aroma. Allow cooling and grind to a semi coarse powder in coffee grinder. Add the mace to the mixture and mix well. Add to curries just before serving, turning off the heat and allow to sit a few minutes before serving.
– Enjoy!