Authentic Karahi Curry (With Base Sauce)

Submitted by John-louvolite

"Ok this take a little bit more effort than something out of a jar, but I garneted the flavour is amazing. This is a tried & tested recipe that I cook for family and friends on a regular basis, I have spent years learning how to make the best curries and this is my favourite. Nothing out of a jar just fresh ingredients, this is honestly better that what you get from most Indian restaurants."

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photo by John-louvolite

Ready In:: 1hr
Ingredients:: 26
Serves:: 4

ingredients

500 g chicken
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large onions
8 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon ginger
500 ml hot water (Aprox Amount)
2 teaspoons curry powder (any good one will do)
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons paprika
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon flour, I use Grama flour but any will do
1 teaspoon chili powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground fenugreek (optional)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
1 (8 ounce) can chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1 stick cinnamon
1 chicken stock cube
200 ml orange juice
4 -8 tablespoons ghee (optional)
2 tablespoons of chopped coriander

directions

Cook Chicken, or other meat.
You can grill, fry or oven cook meat in any way you like. I often fry in oil adding a little turmeric and garlic. Once cooked set the pre-cooked meat aside.
Base Sauce.
Chop onions, ginger and Garlic roughly and fry in oil until cooked, add hot water, just enought to cover onions and garlic, you may not need all 500ml. Then simmer for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes take off heat let cool then blend with either a hand blender or in traditional blender, then set aside.
Spice Mix.
While the base sauce is cooling this is a good time to prepare you spice mix, just put all the spices in one bowl and mix together.
The Curry.
Heat oil to medium heat, and fry garlic and ginger for about 2 – 3 minutes, towards the end of the 3 minutes turn the heat down to very low.
Once the oil, garlic and ginger have cooked and cooled a little add the spice mix a spoon at a time, you want to make a paste when the oil blends with the spices, so you may not need all the spice mix or you may need to add more oil.
Once you have a runny oily paste turn the heat up very slightly, be very careful because if the spices burn the whole dish will be ruined. The trick is not to fry the spices just heat them sufficiently enough to bring out all the aromas and flavours, this should take only a few minutes.
Then add the tomatoes, curry base, orange, salt, bay leaf, cinnamon, chicken stock cube and pre cooked chicken stirring the dish well.
Let simmer for at least 20 mins but can be left for hours.
5 mins before you are ready to serve add the coriander and Ghee then dish up, I would recommend to serve with chapattis or basmati rice.

Questions & Replies

Looks good but I'm a bit confused about the garlic and ginger which seem to get used twice? Also, is the flour part of the dry spice mix? Ta!

Mick B.

Reviews

This is an amazing curry.. used quorn chicken pieces instead of chicken and vegetable stock cube instead of chicken and replaced the ghee with coconut oil and was literally the best curry I’ve ever made x

Rebecca W.
This is a brilliant recipe. Tastes very authentic Indian and much better than you would normally produce using a jar paste. Not too difficult a recipe and a few steps, but easy enough for a cook with limited experience IMO. Signed up just so I could review this one. Thanks

Andrew C.
I cooked this yesterday and I think it was the best curry I've ever cooked. I really would have been pleased with that if I'd been served it in a restaurant. Lovely!

colin_sandall
I had all ingredients on hand so decided to make this curry using thigh fillets cut into cubes. The only change I made apart from cutting the chicken into cubes was to half the chilli. The heat is now perfect and it is a very tasty curry. I was surprised at the sweetness of this curry as I normally have to add extras like fruit chutney or marmalade to sweeten to my liking. A tasty curry and it makes me feel better about myself knowing I made it from scratch rather than opening a jar.

kdive
Absolutely delicious! Went down a storm! Wouldn't say its complicated, but if you don't enjoy cooking probably not for you, however I loved the process, the aromas coming from each pan! A must-try for anyone looking for the perfect Karahi :)

molly_hill

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Tweaks

Add 1 chopped red pepper and 1/4 a head of cabbage to base ingredients personally I double all the base ingredients and make a large soup pot full only use about 200ml for 2 portion of curry freeze the rest of the base in separate 200ml portion freezer bags gives you plenty of portions to freeze saves time when next making curry lasts months frozen

tony l.