Goan Chicken Curry

StandardApril 21, 2011by Admin16 Comments

I’ve been cooking the same trio of curries for quite a while now, and thought it would be best to do something , if not completely different, then slightly different. Most curries made by myself are tomato based; goan curry, however, contains no tomato and is entirely yoghurt based. This does two things: firstly, it makes the curry a lot smoother; and, secondly, it reduces the cost somewhat over a curry which uses both yoghurt and tomato.

Goan curries originate from Goa, on the west coast of India, and traditionally include coconut milk and seafood. However, it is not uncommon to see chicken in this sort of curry, and to be honest yoghurt is an acceptable replacement for coconut milk, especially if it’s a curry intended intended to be cheap and healthy. If neither of these considerations bother you feel free to replace the yoghurt with coconut milk, in the same quantity. Strictly speaking, this curry takes quite a while to produce because the chicken needs to be marinated for an absolute minimum of half an hour, but it is a case of “the longer the better.” Assuming the minimum half an hour of marinating, the curry should take about an hour and fifteen minutes or so to prepare and cook. It serves four.

Goan Chicken Curry {recipe}

Serves 4

Marinade:

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts divided into large chunks
2 fresh chillies, finely chopped, including seeds
1/2 tsp paprika
1 heaped tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
juice of 1 lemon
couple of shakes of cayenne pepper
slosh of oil
generous seasoning

Method:

Mix the ingredients together thoroughly and add the chicken. Stir until fully coated, put in the fridge.

Curry:

Ingredients:

2 onions, finely chopped
1 pepper, finely sliced
1 tsp mustard seeds, optional
400g natural or greek yoghurt
finely sliced stalks of a small bunch of fresh coriander
oil
seasoning

Method:

In a saucepan fry off the onion until translucent, add the pepper half-way through the process.

To this add the marinade and chicken and cook on a medium heat until the chicken looks done on the outside. This should take no more than a couple of minutes.

Proceed to add the yoghurt and stir until uniform in colour. Cook on a medium heat until the sauce had thickened somewhat, one should expect this to take around 10 – 15 minutes. Around 5 minutes before the end add in the coriander stalks.

Serve with rice, yoghurt and a poppadom and top with fresh coriander.

Cost:

It shouldn’t be too difficult to make this curry for £1.30 per portion, including sides, and that’s using good quality chicken. If you’re willing to “slum it,” this curry could be made for around £1.

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16 comments on “Goan Chicken Curry”

Corina
April 21, 2011 at 9:14 pm #

I love your presentation. Wish I could eat this right now.
- frugalfeeding
  April 21, 2011 at 9:34 pm #
  
  Thanks! But you could… YOU COULD!
Lyndsey @ Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops
April 22, 2011 at 3:05 am #

Yum! This looks and sounds delicious! I could definitely eat some of that right now! : )
Janice
April 23, 2011 at 9:02 am #

I’m a big fan of coconut milk, but this sounds great either way.
alliedale
August 26, 2011 at 4:59 pm #

This looks great! I’ve never made Indian food, but this seems pretty simple and healthy too!
- frugalfeeding
  August 26, 2011 at 5:00 pm #
  
  Thanks. Yeh it was really nice and delicious and very very simple and light.
Nise en Scène
August 27, 2011 at 10:30 pm #

This looks awesome! The colour of this curry is enticing.
- frugalfeeding
  August 27, 2011 at 10:44 pm #
  
  This is the only time I’ve cooked it. I must return to it again, it was delicious.
Jenna
September 27, 2011 at 11:44 pm #

Nice!! The recipe does look very different from mine, but still oh-so-delicious. Love the pictures!
- frugalfeeding
  October 3, 2011 at 10:40 am #
  
  Thanks! I remember it being extremely delicious.
Jenn E.
February 3, 2013 at 2:20 am #

Beautiful. I am looking for some curry recipes to make for my family–this looks like a perfect initiation into curry.
- frugalfeeding
  February 4, 2013 at 10:40 pm #
  
  Thanks! This was lovely.
- frugalfeeding
  February 4, 2013 at 10:40 pm #
  
  It is an awfully delicious and simple curry!
Lori in Maine, USA
September 6, 2015 at 4:18 am #

Hello Nick, I was browsing tonight when I came across your blog for the first time. I am very impressed and excited to try some of your recipes, they sound perfectly lovely. I do have some questions. When you include chilli’s, what type do you mean? And the same for peppers? What type? And “seasoning”? Is this salt and pepper? Thank you and I look forward to trying this curry in the very near future.
- frugalfeeding
  September 20, 2015 at 6:21 pm #
  
  Thank you – I hope you try something out. We’re not so hot on our chilli types here – I’m not sure. Birdseye chillies would work well. Peppers are what you’d call capsicums. Seasoning is salt and pepper 🙂