Chicken Korma

There’s something so comforting about Indian food. Maybe it’s because Indian cuisine is so close to ours yet delivers such a different punch. Our Chicken Korma recipe is rather mild on the heat; korma curries are not supposed to be deadly, but do feel free to add some more chilli powder if you need the chilli kick.

Serves: 5

Ingredients:

• 1200 grams curry cut chicken
• 2 medium onions
• 1 ½ inch piece of ginger
• 4 fat cloves of garlic
• 2 inch piece of cinnamon
• 6 cardamom pods
• 6 cloves
• ½ tsp. turmeric powder
• 2 tsp. ground coriander
• ½ tsp. red chilli powder (or to taste)
• 20 cashew nuts
• 4 tbsp. & 4 tsp. plain yoghurt
• 4 tbsp. oil
• Salt (to taste; the amounts we used are in the instructions)
• Water (the amounts are in the instructions)

Instructions:

1. Roughly chop the garlic and ginger. Place them in your grinder along with 2 tbsp. water and grind until you get a smooth paste.
2. Slice the onions. The pieces can be slightly larger than the size we usually slice onions for Maldivian curries. The important thing here though is to have them all in the same size.
3. Place the cashew nuts, 4 tsp. of yoghurt and 2 tsp. of water in your grinder and grind until you get a smooth paste. If you are using the same grinding attachment as you used for the ginger and garlic, remember to rinse it out before you get the cashews in there.
4. Remove the skin off the chicken.
5. Heat the oil in a large pot. Keep the heat on medium and once you are sure the oil is well heated, add the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and let them sizzle for around 30 seconds.
6. Then add the sliced onions along with ½ a tsp. of salt and cook until they soften and start turning brown. This is going to take something like 10 minutes, and do remember to keep stirring so that the onions can cook evenly.
7. When you see the hint of brown on the onions, add the ginger and garlic paste that you prepared. Keep stirring and cook for another 5 minutes or so until the onions turn a deeper brown. We are not aiming for the biriyani type crispy brown onions; however, we want them to brown a little bit more than what we usually do for Maldivian curries.
8. Add the turmeric, coriander powder, and red chilli powder and mix everything together really well. Keep stirring and cook for something like 3 minutes.
9. Now add the chicken, mix well and cook for another 5 or so minutes. Keep turning the pieces around. The idea here is to get the chicken and the spices really come together.
10. Take the pan off the stove. Add 4 tbsp. yoghurt, mix well and then add 4 tbsp. water. Mix everything together really well again.
11. Turn the heat low and put the pot back on the stove. Put the lid on as well and let the chicken cook for something like 20 minutes. You’ll have to give it a stir every few minutes though.
12. Add the cashew nut paste that you prepared before. Add the salt too, and give the mixture a good stir and let it cook for another 3 minutes. Keep the heat as low as possible. As for salt, we added around 2/3 tsp., but feel free to adjust that to your preference.