Food and Travel & Food and Travel
A bowl of deep orange chicken curry with charred homemade nigella naan folded alongside
main British-Indian

Curry with homemade naan

Yogurt-marinated roast chicken meets a deeply fried ginger-garlic-onion curry sauce, with soft nigella naan cooked in a ripping-hot pan.

Prep75 min
Cook90 min
Rest240 min
Oven200°C
Servings8
Cook mode

Adapted for the home kitchen from Fallow's curry and naan guide

Ingredients

Written for a 7 L pot

Units
Servings
8

Marinated chicken

  • 16 skinless chicken thighs or drumsticks, about 2 kg total
  • 600 g Greek yogurt
  • 80 g fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
  • 8 garlic cloves
  • 2 g garam masala
  • 2 g ground cumin
  • 1.5 g chilli powder
  • 1 g ground turmeric
  • 14 g fine salt

Curry sauce

  • 150 ml neutral oil
  • 35 g coriander seeds
  • 5 g fenugreek seeds
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 15 g Madras curry powder
  • 100 g tomato purée
  • 80 g garlic, peeled
  • 125 g fresh ginger, peeled
  • 4 large onions, sliced
  • 500 ml reduced chicken stock
  • 100 ml whipping cream
  • 50 g butter
  • 50 ml lemon juice
  • 100 g fresh coriander, leaves and tender stems
  • 15 g caster sugar

Naan

  • 7 g dried yeast
  • 10 g golden caster sugar
  • 125 ml lukewarm water
  • 300 g strong white bread flour
  • 2 g baking powder
  • 8 g fine salt
  • 25 g melted ghee
  • 150 g natural yogurt
  • 12 g nigella seeds
  • 45 g ghee for cooking and brushing

Method

  1. Blend ginger and garlic with a spoonful of yogurt. Mix with remaining yogurt, spices, and salt. Coat chicken and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
  2. For naan, bloom yeast with water and a pinch of sugar for 10 minutes. Mix flour, remaining sugar, baking powder, salt, and nigella; add yeast water, yogurt, and 25 g ghee. Knead smooth, cover, and rise 1 hour.
  3. Heat the oven to 200°C. Arrange chicken on a rack over a tray and roast 25 to 35 minutes, until browned and 74°C inside.
  4. For the sauce, caramelise onions slowly in 75 ml oil until reduced to about 250 g and deep brown.
  5. Grind coriander and fenugreek. Blend with remaining oil, garlic, ginger, and curry powder to a rough paste. Fry cinnamon and the paste with the onions for 5 minutes. Add tomato purée and cook 3 minutes.
  6. Add stock and simmer 15 minutes. Add roast chicken and cream; simmer 10 minutes. Finish with butter, lemon, sugar, coriander, and salt to taste.
  7. Divide naan dough into eight balls and rest covered 20 minutes. Roll thin. Cook one at a time in a very hot dry cast-iron pan for 1 to 2 minutes per side. Brush with ghee and keep wrapped in a towel.

Notes

  • The chicken can be marinated and the sauce base made one day ahead.
  • For less heat, use a mild Madras powder and omit additional chilli.
  • Naan dough should be soft and slightly tacky; extra flour makes it tough.

Sources used

Good with

Sources consulted

Fallow publishes the main quantities; minor spice and seasoning gaps are normalized for an eight-person batch.

From Christoph Mayer

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