Topic: Chicken Bhuna Madras

[blade1212]

This is the best I've made and it had the taste.

Here are the steps - most a mixture of tips/tricks I've picked up from this site. Thank you all.

The most important step is to foillow the fast (full heat) cooking of the final dish to the letter.
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Base - The MarkJ 10 onion version

vegetable oil to cover large pan upto a height of 1/2 inch
3 tbl Garlic & Ginger paste
1 tbl curry powder
1 tbl Turmeric
1 lvl tsp Chilli powder
10 tennis ball sized onions, chopped
2 celery stick chopped
1 green pepper chopped
2 large carrots chopped
1 tsp Salt
1.5 lvl tsp Garamasala
3 tbl pasatta
1/2 tbl tomato puree
handful of fresh coriander ripped or chopped
3 tbl Knorr 'Touch of Taste' liquid chicken stock concentrate.
boiling water

1) Heat oil until hot add the garlic and ginger and fry until light brown, keep stirring
2) Add curry powder, turmeric and chilli powder and stir fry. Add some cold water (few tablespoons) when it starts to stick to the bottom of the  pan. This frees it up instantly
3) Add the onions, carrots, green peppers and celery and fresh coriander
4) add salt and garamasala and mix around
5) add tomatoes then add boiling water to cover the vegetables by an inch
6) once up to the boil, add liquid chicken stock and simmer on lowish flame for 1 hour
7) Liquidise - easiest way is to use a hand blender straight into the pot
Boil hard for 10 mins - the top of the sauce rolls just like the base you may have seen in BIRs
9) cook on low for another 5 mins, then leave overnight.

all measures are rounded spoons unless it says lvl
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Final Dish - Chicken Bhuna Madras

   Cook on full power
   2 tbl veg oil
   Add 2 tbl pre cooked onions and 1 tbl chopped fresh chillis
   Cook for 30 seconds
   Add 1 tbl kethup, cook for 30 seconds
   Add 1.5 TSP curry powder, 2 TSP chilli powder, 1 TSP fenugreek leaves, 1/4 TSP salt, Cook for 30 seconds
   Add 1/2 ladel base sauce & evaporate the sauce
   Add 1/2 ladel base sauce and cook for 30 seconds
   Add precooked chicken, 1 tbl lemon juice, 1/4 whole tomato
   Add 1 tbl chopped fresh coriander
   Add 2 ladels of base sauce and rapid boil until oil floats
   add pinch of Garamasala and rest for 5 mins, then serve
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Precooked Onions -

1. Peel and halve four onions and cut into thin slices.
2. Heat a large pan over a high flame add 2 TBL veg oil.
3. Add the onions and 1 TSP salt.
4.  Stir, coating the onions with the oil. Continue to saut? for about five minutes over the high heat.
5. Turn the flame down to medium-low, leaving the onions to saut? slowly. Stir them often, for about 20  more minutes, until they reach
a golden brown color.

You can freeze the precooked onions in ice cube trays.
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I used the 'Curry House' method for pre-cooking the chicken. it turns out fantastic !!!

[DARTHPHALL]

well done mate !!

    I can see what I'm doing next weekend,i`ll post my results then.

[blade1212]

Go for it Darth. Good luck.

fyi, I used Rajah curry powder in the final dish - not restaurant masala mix.

Oh, And I've used your Rice recipe (turmeric + whole spice version). This is great and it freezes well.

In the freezer I now have 6 trays of base, 4 bags of rice, 8  chapattis,  ice cube trays full of of ginger, garlic, mixed chopped chillies and caramilised onions.........and some chapattis.

Any my wife has forgiven me already.

It doesn't get much better than this

[Mark J]

Superb, Im going to give this a bash

[DARTHPHALL]

I have been wondering if fresh ( Green Birds Eye )Chillies fried & then pureed is the secret, as the Curries Ive made that have the correct taste have had them in. MMMMMMMM !!

[blade1212]

I used a mixture of the big green chillies along with red and green birds eye chllies for this recipe.

[blade1212]

I've now made 4 of these and 3 have had the taste !!. The one I screwed up was by taking longer than the 30secs between frying steps and  using a tiny bit more Garamasala.

so excluding having a fantastic base.......... for me then the top tips I think make a difference to the final dish are :

1. Use shop bought curry powder in the final dish (1 tsp only)
2. Use tomato ketchup - just go with me on this one
3. Don't go overboard on the salt
4. Use a pinch of garamasala only
5. Do use lemon juice
6. Keep to the 30 second timings - this was the biggest difference between my worst and best.

The one I made tonight had no fresh tomato and no fresh corriander and was the best one yet !! (weird, I know)

I'm convinced any good base and a final recipe and method like this will make a BIR quality curry - and this may explain the differences in the various oily & watery versions that taste equally good in their own way.

[DARTHPHALL]

Tomato Ketchup has been an ingredient in some of my most successful Curries.
Including a Curry i shall post in a few days- the Darth Masala ( because i made it up & I'm Darth !! ;D ;D).
It is one of the best Curries Ive ever made & tastes nice, A real triumph when your trying for a Good tasting curry with heeeeet !!!
 ;D ;D

[DARTHPHALL]

Has anyone else tried this ?
What were the results?
I`m going to give it a go today.

[DARTHPHALL]

OK .
Followed recipe to the letter.
Colour = not like my local.Too dark
Taste= Nice savory flavor, but an expected one as the browning of the Onions does produce a distinct & predictable taste.It can turn out a little bitter if you take the Onions past brown to overcooked Black/Brown.
Also sweet enough somewhat like a Take-away Curry.
But this first attempt was nothing like my local Take-away, My post DARTH-MASALA is closer to my home BIR which is totally home made up recipe without our base mix.
This recipe turned out much too thick, i added water after leaving for a while & then pureed the sauce.
I hope more members try this & post their results.
Overall i would say for my goals this is an overpowering Curry, As my BIR makes quite a subtle & gentle flavor Curry, but i must admit that going on what some of you have said my local BIR is different.
If anyone comes to Cornwall on holiday please try them as I'm sure you`ll enjoy their Take-away food. ;D