Chicken Madras Recipe

Ok, so if you’re looking for probably the best chicken madras recipe this side of Bombay then you’ve come to the right place. This spicy madras is pretty far from authentic now, although its roots are well and truly bases around the original chicken dish from the Madras region of India.

Basically what I’ve done is tweak this chicken madras recipe, adding yogurt or fromage frais, marinating the chicken, adding in a few vegetables and even a little mango chutney. I’ve made hundreds of this type of curry and I reckon I’ve got this chicken madras about as good as is physically possible, although I’m looking forward to hearing your comments and I’m always open to suggestions to try and improve my favourite dish.

Seriously this blows any Jamie Oliver chicken madras recipe out of the water I guarantee it!

Please have a go at making this choice selecta chicken madras and let me know how you get on with it. So without further ado here is the ultimate chicken madras recipe!

P.S. The secret to this recipe is to get all the ingredients prepped before you start, then it’s a doddle.

Ingredients
About 750 g of chicken breast or thighs depending on what you prefer
Depending on the strength of the chillies, you’ll want 2 or 3.
Five good tablespoons of a quality cooking oil
Three cloves
Half a teaspoon of ground cumin
Half a teaspoon of coriander (ground up)
A single teaspoon of ground up nutmeg
A heaped teaspoon of the amazing spice garam masala
Four cardamom pods (2 for the rice)
Just one teaspoon of delicious turmeric
Salt to taste, but seriously don’t add too much
Half a tin of top notch chopped tomatoes, that you can puree or just let them cook down
A little bunch of coriander/cilantro leaves
A couple of medium sized finely chopped onions
One thumb-sized lump of ginger that you can finely chop
Four medium sized crushed up garlic cloves
One heaped teaspoon of red chilli powder
Mango Chutney
Natural yogurt or fromage frais
Half a red pepper and/or some fresh spinach, raisins
1 cube of chicken stock

Method

1. Cube the chicken and chop up the fresh chillies (2 or three of them) then be sure to give your hands a wash.
2. Get some heat in your pan and then pour in the oil. Put the two cardamom pods and the cloves in and cook them up till they sizzle.
3. Add the onion to the pan and cook them until they get a nice dark brown colour (not burnt though).
4. Add in the garlic, the ginger and the fresh chillies and cook it for about 1 minute more.
5. Nearly there! Put in the coriander, the turmeric, the salt, and the chilli powder, make sure you really mix all this in well, and it should start smelling a bit like a chicken madras!
6. Now, add all the chicken in and coat with the all the flavours in your pan. Throw your veg in at this point and cook for a minute or so then add 50 ml of water and the stock cube.
7. Turn the heat down to just below medium and chuck in the tomatoes and the nutmeg and simmer it all for about 20 minutes. It really depends how you like your sauce and make sure the chicken is nice and tender.
(Meanwhile you’ll want to get your rice on with the other 2 cardamom pods)
8. When it’s ready take it off the heat and mix in the yogurt/fromage frais and the mango chutney.
9. Put the chicken madras into a nice bowl and then sprinkle some coriander over the top as a garnish. Serve it up to the family and enjoy it (I hope).