Old Dehli-Style Chicken Curry

Saturday night is curry night! And also fridge-raider night in this case. Chicken from the freezer, tins of chopped tomatoes, some leftover yoghurt and a cupboard full of spices... a root through some old recipe tear-offs I came across something pulled from a newspaper from years ago, no idea which one, it was just stuck there looking at me and had all the ingredients I had to hand. It's called Old Dehli-Style Chicken Curry, but having never (yet) been to Dehli, either old or new, I have no idea what it should be like, but hey, let's give it a try...

Marinade some chicken breast cubes in ginger, garlic, salt and chilli powder, with the juice of half a lemon for about 20 minutes. Mix some garam masala with greek yoghurt and add this to the marinade, for another 20 minutes or so. Heat the oven to about 220 C (gas 6) and lay the chicken pieces in a tray in a single layer and cook for about 10 minutes - they don't need to be fully cooked. Take them out and leave aside for now. 

In a wok, place a tin of chopped tomatoes and some passata with some crushed garlic, ginger, 2 or 3 green cardamoms, 2 or 3 cloves, a bay leaf and a splash of water. Bring to the boil and simmer until the tomatoes have broken down. Here you can blend and strain if you like, but I didn't...

Bring up to the boil again and add quite a bit of chilli powder and simmer until it begins to thicken. Whisk in two small knobs of butter and then after a few minutes add in the baked chicken with the marinade. Simmer this for 5 minutes or so. Next add in some finely chopped ginger and about 100 ml of cream. Simmer this for as long as it takes the kids to get to sleep - you will see some spots of fat appear on the surface. When you're almost ready to eat, and your rice is cooked, add in salt,  two teaspoons of ground fenugreek, and another tablespoon of  garam masala and the end of a jar of mango chutney. 

Sprinkle with chopped coriander (it doesn't matter if it's a few days old, just use it up!)

Serve with lager...

Hot, and nearly curry-house authentic. Try it. 

Old Dehli-Style Chicken Curry