Mouthwatering Homestyle Chicken Curry Recipe

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · chicken thighs marinated in yogurt and warm spices

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The journey of me perfecting this recipe is an interesting one. For over a year, my sister and her friends have kept asking me for a “homestyle chicken curry” recipe on my website. Not only them, but I’ve had some other followers on my Instagram and on my YouTube channel also ask me for this.

Ummm… Well, it was a little embarrassing, but for over a year I’ve been replying “oh I don’t have one yet, I’m working on it!” Yeah, it took a very long time to get this right!

I don’t know why it was so hard just to get a perfect easy chicken curry recipe right! Well, to be fair, part of the reason why I’ve never had a chicken curry in a homestyle recipe on my website until now was because I wasn’t really sure what a “homestyle” chicken curry should be like!

If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that I was raised in a vegetarian household, so there never was a homestyle chicken curry ever prepared to me. I’d only have the lavish chicken curries such as Creamy Chicken Tikka Masala and Restaurant-Style Butter Chicken for special outings. When I arrived in Canada, as part of my cooking journey I dove right in to making the extravagant recipes! Butter chicken was the first dish I made from scratch in Canada!

Now with all these requests for this type of chicken curry, it was a passive objective of mine. I just couldn’t get it right! I tried many variations with subtle changes, such as the use of whole spices, the method of cooking the onions, the marinades… Whatever I did, I just wasn’t happy with it. Until this attempt that I thankfully captured on camera and I’m here to share it with you all today! Make sure to watch the video recipe - I love to share a video alongside the recipe since I find video recipes are more tangible than just reading, and you get the whole picture!

With over a year in the making, I’ve nailed what I think the perfect authentic homestyle chicken curry is! Make this comforting chicken curry on a weeknight, it’s perfect for the whole family! It’s particularly cold in Canada right now, so this is absolutely satisfying on those chilly nights! I could easily gobble this all up!

This Homestyle Chicken Curry recipe features aromatic whole and ground spices and a creamy gravy with tender chicken thighs. Guess what! The gravy is thick without any cream! The magic is all in the yogurt! And I really recommend you use chicken thighs here. I had used breast for pretty much all my attempts before, and while it’s delicious, you’ll really get the best results with chicken thighs.

This chicken curry comes together in one pot and is unbelievably quick to make. This is the go-to recipe for any beginner cooks out there, and even if you’re advanced but want a luscious dinner ready right before your eyes, then this chicken curry recipe is sure to please! Funny story: I perfected this chicken curry recipe by chance! Someone on YouTube had asked me for a curry samosa recipe, and I was in the headspace of making the chicken curry for a samosa filling! As I got into it, I realized that this is actually the easy chicken curry recipe I was searching for all this while, so I went off in a totally different direction!

If you do actually want a curried chicken samosa recipe then let me know in the comments and I can definitely make that! With that being said, let’s get to the recipe!

Tools Needed

• Cutting board
• Chefs knife
• Large bowl
• Wok
• Wooden spoon
• Measuring cups

Ingredients for Homestyle Chicken Curry

This comforting chicken curry recipe doesn’t require too many ingredients. We just need some spices and yogurt for our marinade, and the gravy focuses on onions, tomatoes and a combination of whole and ground spices. Let’s review what we’ll need for the chicken marinade and to make the gravy. Remember, for the full ingredient list with their measurements and the complete recipe instructions, make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD, so you can save this recipe for later!

For the Chicken Marinade

• Chicken thighs: I’m using boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I would totally recommend bone-in and skin-on actually! That would really be so flavorful and the skin would totally absorb the incredible marinade. Furthermore, I would definitely recommend using leg pieces or a whole chicken! I’m using boneless, skinless chicken thighs because that’s all I had on hand, but I really encourage you to use skin-on and bone-in chicken. Let me know how it goes, I definitely gotta try it again that way!
• Ginger-garlic paste: This ginger-garlic paste is an essential component to many of my curry recipes! It really will shine in this chicken marinade! You could buy it from the store, but I really recommend you make your own. Check out the recipe, it’s so easy and you can easily make it in advance and freeze it. It will save you loads of time!
• Yogurt: I’m using 6% fat plain yogurt. I wouldn’t recommend you use Greek yogurt for this marinade since it’s sour and very thick. You won’t get the same results. Any regular plain yogurt will work fine.
• Spices: Kashmiri mirch, ground cumin, ground coriander.

For the Gravy

• Ghee: Used to cook out our gravy and to initially sauté the onions.
• Onions: Thinly sliced.
• Essentials: Green chilies and ginger-garlic paste.
• Whole spices: Bay leaf, clove, cinnamon stick, and cumin seeds.
• Ground spices: Kashmiri mirch, ground cardamom, fennel powder, and salt to taste.
• Tomatoes: Roughly chopped to add a rustic flair to our curry.

How to Make Easy Chicken Curry

For the Marinade

1. Cut the chicken into 1 1/2 inch pieces and add into a large bowl. Add the yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, ground spices and salt to taste. Mix well, cover and let marinate for 20-30 minutes.

For the Gravy

1. Heat ghee in a pan/wok on medium heat and add cumin seeds, bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Cook for 30 seconds or until the whole spices turn fragrant.
2. Add ginger-garlic paste and chopped green chilies and cook for another 30 seconds while stirring.
3. Add sliced onions and stir well. Season with a pinch of salt and continue cooking while stirring until the onions have softened and turned a light golden brown. Around 12–20 minutes.
4. Add marinated chicken to the pan and mix well. Sauté until the chicken is sealed all over and is lightly roasted.
5. Add the wedges of tomatoes and stir well. Add turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, ground fennel and ground green cardamom. Stir well and cook until the tomatoes have softened and have started to turn mush.
6. Add about 1 cup of water to create a thin gravy. Mix well and bring the gravy up to a simmer. Lower the heat, cover your pan/wok and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes or until the gravy has thickened. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
7. Garnish with cilantro and serve with your favorite bread or rice.

Tips for an Excellent Chicken Curry

• Sautéing the onions is the most important step for the gravy. Take the time to cook down and brown the onions for a great gravy.
• Use the ground fennel and green cardamom sparingly, a little bit goes a long way.
• You can use chicken breast or bone-in chicken in this recipe as well. Follow the same steps and for bone-in chicken, make sure the meat is completely cooked before serving. It may require additional time.
• The sliced onions and wedged tomatoes adds to the rustic, homestyle curry. You can, however, puree the browned onions and tomatoes to create a restaurant style creation.

Other Chicken Curry Recipes

• Chicken Nargisi Kofta Curry
• Chicken Kofta Curry
• Creamy Chicken Tikka Masala
• Restaurant-Style Butter Chicken

No Food Processor, No Cream, No Shortcut in a Jar

Nothing in this curry needs a food processor, and that is worth saying because so many chicken curry recipes open by asking you to blend a base gravy. Here the onion is one medium onion, thinly sliced by hand. The tomatoes are 1 to 2 roma tomatoes cut into 1 inch wedges rather than pureed, and they are meant to stay as wedges until they collapse in the pan on their own. The only paste anywhere in the recipe is ginger-garlic, and you can buy that in a jar or mince equal parts of each together with a knife. There is no blender step and nothing to prepare the day before.

There is also no cream, no coconut milk, no cashew paste and no butter. The entire fat in the pan is 1 tablespoon of ghee, which is why a serving comes out at 214 calories and 9 g of fat while still carrying 26 g of protein. Clarified butter swaps one for one and coconut oil makes it dairy-free with a mild change in flavour. And there is no curry powder. Every spice is counted out on its own: garam masala, kashmiri mirch, ground coriander and turmeric go into the marinade with 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt, then cumin seeds, a bay leaf and a 1 inch cinnamon stick go in whole, and ground coriander, turmeric, kashmiri mirch, fennel powder and green cardamom go into the gravy. The chicken is 5 to 6 thighs cut into inch-and-a-half pieces, and thighs are the right call here because they sit through a covered simmer without drying out the way breast would.

The Timings, the Heat, and Getting the Consistency Right

Almost every step in this recipe is defined by minutes rather than by look, so it is worth having them in one place. The chicken marinates for 20 to 30 mins, covered. The whole spices get 30 seconds in the hot ghee on medium heat, just until they turn fragrant. The ginger-garlic paste and the chopped green chilies get another 30 seconds after that. Then the sliced onions go in with a pinch of salt and take 12 to 20 mins, still on medium, stirring, until they have softened and turned light golden brown. That is the longest single step in the recipe and it is the one people cut short. Nothing after it can fix an under-cooked onion.