Chicken Korma

Ingredients

1kg chicken breast or deboned chicken thighs
2 tsp chicken spice 1.5 tbsp of fresh ginger, finely grated
3 cloves of garlic, minced
150g thick plain yogurt
1 dried red chilli
2 onions, chopped
1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp ground coriander
Pinch of black pepper, ground
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp taram masala
75g creamed coconut
0.5 tsp salt
4 tbsp ground almonds
1 lemon Water

To garnish (optional):

Coriander leaves
Flaked almonds

Method

Pre-preparation

Cut the chicken into bite sized chunks.
Mix the chicken spice, ginger, garlic and yogurt in an oven dish.
Add the chicken chunks, making sure that they are well coated by the mixture.
Cover and marinade for 12 hours or leave in the fridge overnight.

Preparation

Liquidise the onions and red chillies blending until smooth. Add a little water if you need to.

Cooking

Liquidise the chopped onion and red chilli. blending until smooth. If you need to, add a little water.
Heat the butter in a large pan.
Add the ground coriander, ground black pepper, turmeric and garam masala.
Stir into the butter and cook for about 1 minute over a low heat.
Add the liquidised onion and chilli. Turn up the heat.
Stir fry for 10 minutes.
Add the chicken chunks and the marinade. Continue to stir fry for another 10 minutes. Add the creamed coconut and enough water to just cover the chicken. Bring to the boil, stirring until the coconut is dissolved.
Add the ground almonds and continue to stir until absorbed.
Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer until the chicken is tender. Around 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove from heat. Add the lemon juice and salt to taste.
Mix well.

Veggie Alternate

Replace the chicken with three tins of chickpeas. Reduce the total cooking time from 40-50 minutes to 15-20 minutes.

Serving

Serve with rice.

Optionally garnish with coriander leaves and flaked almonds.

Storage

I always find that the korma tastes better if it is allowed to cool completely, refrigerated and then gently reheated the next day.

Chicken Korma can be kept in the fridge for 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.