A traditional dish from India. A dish that brings all the flavours together brilliantly.

I really enjoy cooking traditional dishes as this helps me understand the balance of spice & flavours. You can then bring this to the westernised dishes that I’m trying to perfect. Traditional recipes aren’t as complex as you’d think…if you get chance it’s worth having ago.

Ingredients- 1 heaped tsp of ginger paste, 10 whole cloves of garlic, 4 cardamom pods, 4 cloves, small cinnamon stick, 5 tbsp of vegetable oil, 1 bay leaf, 1 onion finely chopped, 2 whole green chillies, around 600g of chicken, 5 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp of cumin, 1/2 chilli powder, 1 1/2 tsp of garam masala, salt to taste, 3 tomatoes cut into wedges & a large handful of coriander.

Method- using a blender, wiz up the garlic cloves and ginger to make a paste.

Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods. Add them to a bowl and grind them up with a pestle along with cloves & cinnamon stick.

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the bay leaf and onion. Cook until they’ve taken on a nice colour, about 8-10 minutes.

Then add the green chillies, and garlic / ginger paste. If you see I diced my chillies but you should leave them whole.

Add the chicken and brown . Then Stir in the ground spices and salt.

Give the pan a good stir to coat everything. Add the tomatoes and enough water to cover all of your ingredients. Bring to the boil then simmer this for 15 minutes

After 15 minutes or so increase the heat. This will help reduce the stock and increase the flavours. Add the garam masala and the coriander.

Cook for another 5 minutes or so to reduce further and this will combine the flavours further.

Another thing to like about this dish is it’s a simple one pot dish then can be put together if you don’t have much time and it can be left to do it’s magic whilst you do other things.

I served mine with steamed rice. Thanks for reading.