This is said to be an authentic Balti Chicken recipe obtained from a hotelier by the author Sabiha Khokhar, and included in her 1995 book A Taste of Baltistan.

The book includes a number of interesting recipes that I will try over the course of time, but I would suggest that this particular recipe won’t be one of them without certain amendments . I think that the late inclusion of coarsely ground cumin and coriander would result in a raw “uncooked” spice taste and an unpleasant texture.

I bring it to your attention as a conversation topic and to get your comments.


Balti Chicken

Ingredients
1kg chicken on the bone, cut into 5 cm (2 inch) pieces
3 tablespoons oil
60g grated onion
1 tablespoon grated fresh garlic
750g finely chopped fresh tomatoes
 or 500g chopped canned tomatoes
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons ghee
1 tablespoon coarsely ground cumin
1 tablespoon coarsely ground coriander
2 tablespoons grated fresh root ginger
4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
2 finely sliced jalapeño peppers (optional)
1 teaspoon garam masala

Method
Wash the chicken pieces with cold water and put in a colander to drain.
Heat the oil in a karahi or deep frying pan.
 Add the onion and garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute on high heat.
Add the tomatoes and cook uncovered on medium heat for 10 minutes or until the liquid is reduced.
Add the chicken pieces, turmeric, red chilli powder and salt.
 Stir well and cook, covered, on low heat for 20–25 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.
 On medium heat, allow all excess liquid to evaporate until a thick gravy remains.
Add the ghee, ground cumin, ground coriander, ginger and chopped coriander.
 Simmer for 7–10 minutes or until the fat separates out.
 Add the sliced jalapeños if desired and garnish with the garam masala.

Serve with:
chapattis, tandoori roti, or naan.

There were a lot of Balti books published in the '90s T63. At this time we were led to believe everything was done pretty much from scratch and with fresh ingredients. I still have a copy of Pat Chapman's Balti Curry Cookbook (The exciting new curry technique). He also went down the Baltistan route, and there are some interesting references to the Birmingham balti. All the recipes look like pure guesswork to me; inclusion of Balti lobster and Balti oyster recipes sends any semblance of credibility well and truly out of the window. The real balti is cheap BIR cafe food, always was and always will/should be, no matter how it's dressed up. It's also wonderful, but not so cheap anymore.

Rob

Balti chana masala. With freshly made naan, left over french fries and egg fried rice. Just needed 1L of diet coke to complete the order.

Rob

Homemade Balti chicken (madras). With rice and mango chutney.





Too much pulp in this one. Lost the taste/flavour.

Rob

Think that is quite normal when you freeze and defrost stuff like curries. Just water ice crystals form quicker when freezing and also defrost first, thus leaving water around it. I always reheat frozen food like that in a pan, so you can mix it all back together easier and evaporate some of the water.
Looks really yummy anyway.

Have made another Balti chicken and frozen it. Will be interesting to see what happens after defrosting; may give an idea on how much pulp to use. Also now blending the pulp with blitzed onion and fresh garlic, although I think this will actually need pre-cooking. The idea is I will have two pans to make the curry. The base gravy and the pulp. Dispensing with the pan fry onion/garlic approach at the start. No green pepper either. Also omit the green (and red) pepper from the base gravy. I may change my mind on this last idea, but at the moment am not buying into it, for this balti.

Rob

https://youtu.be/mUphDiTnZ-U?si=jezyJVhVU1R-OrIY

Rob