Quick & Easy Chicken & Potato Curry

When you need curry in a hurry to feed yourself or your unexpected guests, provided you have all the ingredients knocking around in your kitchen somewhere, this is easy peasy and quicker to cook than regular curries. 

 

It’s a recipe I adapted from Rick Stein’s India programme. He was preparing the chicken curry to add to his biryani and made it look so simple. I tried his biryani recipe and thought the curry element could be a dish by itself. So the next time I cooked his biryani I made two helpings of the curry, one for the biryani and one with potato for anyone wanting to try it with plain rice or roti. Got a thumbs up for the biryani AND the chicken & potato curry. Since then, I’ve adapted the recipe a little to make it even simpler to cook.

 

Try it with any veg or plain and enjoy!

Quick & Easy Chicken & Potato Curry

Serves: approx 4-6 people

Prep & Cooking Time: 40-80 minutes depending on marinade time

Ingredients:

Marinade

500g (or approx 7 pieces of chicken on the bone – boneless chicken doesn’t seem to work/taste as well)
200g yoghurt
garlic and ginger paste (2 tsp) or 5 garlic cloves crushed plus 2 inch piece of ginger chopped
1 green chilli finely chopped (optional)

3/4 tsp haldi (ground turmeric)

1 tsp dhaniya (ground coriander)

1 tsp chilli powder

1tsp salt

Curry
5-6 tbsp oil
1 cinnamon stick approx 6 inches, washed then broken in half

2 bay leaves

4-5 cloves

4 cardamoms

Pinch black peppercorns

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tomatoes chopped into small cubes
1 large potato

Handful fresh coriander chopped

Preparation:

1. Combine all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl, mix well and set aside for at least thirty minutes. If you don’t have time, it’ll still taste good, mix well and move on to the next stage.

2. Chop the tomatoes into small cubes

3. Chop the potato into 1-2 inch cubes

4. Heat oil in a pan over low-moderate heat and add the whole spices for approx 30 seconds, until the lighter coloured spices turn golden brown. Smell that – aromatic isn’t it?!

5. Add the tomatoes and sweat with lid on for 1-2 minutes.

6. Add the marinated mixture to the pan and bring to the boil on high heat (no lid).

7. When the curry sauce begins to bubble, reduce heat to moderate (medium) heat, add the potato and cover with lid. Cook for 20 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally.

8. For the last 10 minutes or less, remove lid and increase heat between moderate and high. Stir continuously until the gravy is the consistency you want.

9. Sprinkle with fresh coriander, stir through and serve!

Enjoy your curry with plain rice, biryani rice or my Cumin & Saffron Rice (see separate recipe under ‘Extras’ or ‘Vegetarian Dishes’. Or try the ‘Curry Guy’ flatbread recipe, as featured in my photo here.

Next time, why not experiment with other vegetables? Spinach works really well with this recipe.