Balti Chicken Khara Masala Food

PERFECT CHICKEN BALTI

Steps:

• Peel the garlic and deseed the chillies, then roughly chop and place into a pestle and mortar.
• Bash to a rough paste with a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Peel, finely chop and add the ginger, then bash to break it down. Peel and finely chop the onions.
• Drizzle a lug of oil into a large non-stick pan over a medium heat, add the cinnamon, bay and cardamom, stir for 1 minute, then add the onions. Reduce the heat slightly and fry for 15 minutes, or until softened but not coloured.
• Chop the chicken into 2.5cm chunks and add to the pan. Turn the heat up to medium, fry for a few minutes, then stir in the chilli paste. Cook for 2 minutes, add the remaining spices and mix well.
• Halve and roughly chop the tomatoes, then stir them into the pan.
• Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for around 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes have softened and broken down.
• Add the yoghurt and cook for a further 10 to 15 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and the sauce has thickened and reduced.
• Pick, finely chop and stir in most of the coriander leaves, season to taste, then serve with a homemade naan, brown rice, a dollop of yoghurt and the remaining coriander leaves scattered on top.

BEST CHICKEN BALTI RECIPE

Steps:

• Grab your pan and heat up the oil, add your sliced onion. Stir fry and cook soft, then add the diced tomato. Cook the tomato soft on medium to high heat.
• Then reduce the heat and add the ginger garlic paste (or chopped ginger and garlic). Then add the spices all at once. turmeric, chili, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, garam masala and stir-fry for a minute or two.
• Now add your pre-cut chicken cubes and stir-fry for another minute on high heat before taking down the heat to slow/medium again. This helps the chicken flavors going!
• Then add the fenugreek leaves, tomato paste and cream, mix and stir cook for another minute on medium heat before pouring in the water.
• Mix all the content well and let cook on slow to medium heat so that the chicken kind of poaches slowly in the spiced curry sauce. Make sure to not turn up the heat too much as this may break down the curry and curdle and high heat can turn the chicken chewy and you don't want that. So, cook the chicken until it's cooked through, juicy but done. That usually takes around 10-15 minutes.
• Take from the heat and serve the chicken balti in the shallow pan. Garnish with a dollop or two of greek yogurt style thick curd, sprinkle some lime juice if you want and some freshly cut cilantro/coriander leaves. Enjoy still hot.

BALTI CHICKEN KHARA MASALA

Steps:

• In a bowl mix together the mustard seeds, onion seeds, fennel seeds, curry leaves, red chillies, cumin seeds, pomegranate seeds, salt, ginger and garlic.
• Heat the oil in a wok and fry the spices with the green chillies and the onions, cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the tomato and chicken and cook over low heat till the chicken is cooked, about 15 minutes.
• Serve garnished with chopped coriander leaves.

HEALTHIER CHICKEN BALTI

Steps:

• Put the chicken in a medium bowl. Mix in the lime juice, paprika, chilli powder and a grinding of black pepper (step 1), then leave to marinate for at least 15 mins, preferably a bit longer.
• Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large non-stick wok or sauté pan. Tip in the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, whole chilli and cumin seeds, and stir-fry briefly just to colour and release their fragrance (step 2). Stir in the onion, garlic and ginger and fry over a medium-high heat for 3-4 mins until the onion starts to turn brown. Add the remaining oil, then drop in the chicken and stir-fry for 2-3 mins or until it no longer looks raw. Mix the turmeric, cumin, ground coriander and garam masala together. Tip into the pan, lower the heat to medium and cook for 2 mins (step 3). Pour in the passata and 150ml water, then drop in the chunks of pepper. When starting to bubble, lower the heat and simmer for 15-20 mins or until the chicken is tender.
• Stir in the tomato, simmer for 2-3 mins, then add the spinach and turn it over in the pan to just wilt. Season with a little salt. If you want to thin down the sauce, splash in a little more water. Remove the cinnamon stick, chilli and cardamom pods, if you wish, before serving. Scatter with fresh coriander and serve with warm chapatis or basmati rice, if you like.