This was my first time making and also eating chicken madras. I made it a day before eating it since I like letting the meat rest in the curry and I think it makes it taste even better.
My SO who doesn’t normally like indian curry taste tested it and said it was good and ended up.eating a bowl of it.
I do plan on ordering it at a restaurant soon-ish so I can tell how close I was.
I loosely followed the recipe here: https://youtu.be/3rrDLtUC0Kg
I rarely work with raw chicken and would be nervous about having it sit in the marinade for a day in the fridge, but I’m probably just worrying over nothing much. Glad it came out okay.
What kind of curry mix / base did you use?
Marinading raw meat in the fridge overnight is a pretty common practice.
In this case though, I meant cooking the curry and then letting the cooked chicken marinade in the curry gravy in the fridge.
Here’s what I wrote down for this recipe:
Chicken Madras Curry
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil
- 1.2 kilograms chicken thigh, diced
- 1 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
- 3 bay leaves (dried or fresh)
- 5 grams cilantro root & stem, chopped
- 2 onion (medium sized), thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 35 grams ginger, peeled and minced
- 1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoons ground coriander
- 2.5 teaspoons ground garam masala
- 0.8 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 0.5 teaspoons Kashmiri chilli powder
- 9 fresh curry leaves (optional, 8-10 leaves)
- 800ml canned whole tomatoes (or passatta if you want a less chunky curry)
- 400ml coconut milk
- salt & pepper, to taste
- cilantro, to serve
Instructions
- Place a large, high-rimmed pan or pot over high heat. Add oil and sear chicken thigh for 3-4 minutes or until golden. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Remove chicken and set aside (it’s ok if chicken is not cooked through at this stage).
- Reduce heat to medium. Add whole cumin seeds and bay leaves, chopped cilantro, and cook for 1½-2 minutes until fragrant. Add onion, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper and sauté for 12 minutes.
- Increase heat to medium-high. Add cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, and Kashmiri chilli powder, mix well, and toast for 1 minute. Stir in curry leaves (if using), tomatoes, and coconut milk, season with more salt & pepper, and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, return the seared chicken to the pot, mix, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.
- Taste and add more salt/pepper as needed.
- Serve with rice/naan. Garnish with fresh cilantro.
Yeah, that sounds delicious. Sauteing the seeds and ingredients is absolutely the right way to activate the flavors, and too often I lazily skip that. Thanks for posting all that!


