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Curry in a hurry

Simple Chicken Curry For 1 or 2

Ingredients

  • A tablespoon or two of oil. Ghee would be the authentic thing but I live in Dublin and nobody here can even say the word without sniggering in a juvenile manner.
  • One chicken breast
  • 2 cloves of chopped garlic
  • 1 medium onion finely sliced
  • 1 red chilli finely sliced
  • A heaped teaspoon of minced fresh ginger (just because I had it there, no other reason)
  • 2 heaped tablespoons of medium curry powder
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of cumin
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
  • 300 mls chicken stock made with a cube
  • 100 mls of cream
  • 150 grams of vegetables of your choice. I threw in some sliced carrots and mushrooms and half a red pepper as they were sitting there doing nothing else.
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Some finely chopped spring onion if you want a garnish
  • Some chutney is always nice with a curry
  • Rice or naan or paratha for carbs

Instructions

  1. Heat up the oil in a medium pan. Chop your chicken into cubes and fry them until sealed all over. Season the meat with a little salt and pepper.
  2. Add the sliced onions, garlic, ginger, chilli, curry powder and cumin. I always have cumin powder in the house, it’s my favourite spice and I use it in a variety of dishes, it’s not just for curry. Gently fry for a minute or two. Part of the key to a decent curry is to fry the spices to release their flavour, if you add them to a wet sauce the taste won’t be as deep.
  3. Now add your veg and tomato puree and stir to coat everything with the lovely spice and tomato mix. You could always add some fresh tomatoes here if you have them handy.
  4. Next add the chicken stock, or veg stock if you are going meat free. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Keep an eye on it and stir occasionally until the sauce reduces down to a consistency of your liking. Personally I like a fairly thin sauce but it’s up to you.
  5. After about 10 minutes I added half the cream and stirred it in. I left this on a low simmer while I got the rice ready. You could pop a naan in the oven to heat or gently fry a paratha bread. Whatever you like.
  6. I then added the remaining cream to the saucepan and it was ready to serve. Over rice with some chopped spring onion sprinkled on top, for aesthetic reasons more than anything else.
  7. Remarkably tasty for such a simple thing. You don’t need to worry if you don’t have cumin or ginger or even the chilli. That’s all in the curry powder anyway! Or you could add more spices if you have them. You don’t even really need the cream. The wonderful thing about curry is its infinite variety and versatility.