In this medium-spiced curry, the juicy sweet flavour of mango is wedded with tender chicken and accompanied by the ever-faithful coconut milk/powder, tangy lime juice, and a confetti of chaat masala.
INGREDIENTS
- 3-4 TBSP (45-60ml) Oil
- 1½ tsp Ginger/Garlic Paste
- 1 tsp Kasuri Methi
- 1¼ tsp Mix Powder
- ¼ tsp Garam Masala
- ½-1 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder or ¼-½ tsp ‘Regular’ Chilli Powder (optional)
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 330ml+ Base Gravy, heated up
- 2-3 TBSP fresh Coriander Stalks, very finely chopped
- Pre-cooked Chicken or Chicken Tikka
SPACEHOLDER
- 2-3 tsp fresh Green Chilli, sliced horizontally (optional)
- 4 TBSP Coconut Powder (not desiccated) or 100ml Coconut Milk
- 4 TBSP Mango Pulp (tinned) or 1-2 TBSP Mango Chutney
- 120-150g fresh or tinned Mango, in cubes or slices
- 2 tsp Lime Juice. (Lemon will do)
- 2 TBSP fresh Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
- ¼ tsp Chaat Masala
METHOD
- Add the oil to a frying pan and heat to medium high.
- Add ginger/garlic paste and continue to cook for 30 seconds or until the sizzling subsides, stirring frequently to avoid burning.
- Next, add the kasuri methi, mix powder, garam masala, salt, and the optional chilli powder.
- Fry for 20-30 seconds, stirring very frequently. Add a little base gravy (e.g. 30ml) if the mixture dries out and sticks to the pan. This avoids burning the spices and gives them enough time to cook properly.
- Add the coriander stalks, the pre-cooked chicken or chicken tikka, and the optional fresh chilli. Turn up the heat to high and coat the chicken well.
- Add 75ml of base gravy, stir into the sauce, and leave on high heat with no further stirring until the sauce is reduced a little, and craters form again around the edges.
- Next, add the coconut powder (if using) and a second 75ml of base gravy, stirring and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan once when first added, allowing the sauce to reduce again. The coconut powder soaks up a lot of liquid so add extra base gravy or water (e.g. 75ml) to allow it to dissolve.
SPACEHOLDER
- Add 150ml of base gravy, mango pulp/chutney, fresh/tinned mango pieces, lime juice, and coconut milk (if using).
- Stir and scrape the pan and leave to cook on high heat for 4-5 minutes. Stir and scrape once or twice to mix the caramelised sauce back in, but do this only to prevent the sauce from sticking too much and burning. It’s important to let the sauce adhere to the bottom and sides of the pan, a technique which produces a great flavour.
- Add a little extra base gravy if needed to achieve a final thinnish consistency. (This step may only be necessary if using coconut powder instead of coconut milk.)
- Shortly before the end of cooking add the fresh coriander and the chaat masala.
- Adjust to your taste with extra mango pulp/chutney, chaat masala, and/or jaggery/brown sugar.
NOTES
-
Chaat masala is a powdered blend of spices that is used in Indian food (most often street food, snacks or fruit) before eating to further season it, and has a fabulous tangy flavour which comes mainly from the amchoor (dried unripe mango) powder, salt, and often ‘black’ salt (kala namak), the latter giving a sulphurous taste.
- All spoon measurements are level, i.e. 1 tsp=5 ml, 1 TBSP=15ml.
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