Topic: Balti Chicken Madras 2 ways

[livo]

The original recipe comes from a book called "1000 Recipes Indian, Chinese, Thai and Asian".  I am using only the ingredients listed from the book with 2 exceptions being a small amount of Mix Powder and Brown Sugar being added since these are required for the Base Gravy I'm going to use.

edit: Not pictured is 4 dried curry leaves on each side.  Also the pre-cooked chicken recipe called for 1 cardamom pod, a tiny piece of cassia bark, 4 black peppercorns and half a dozen cumin seeds so in order to properly compare, I also added the same to the book version by throwing them in with the cooking onions before the chicken was added.

Here are pics showing the prepared ingredients.

[Secret Santa]

Huge pieces of chicken livo! 

[livo]

Huge pieces of chicken livo! 

300grams on each plate cut into 7 pieces.  I don't like tiny pieces as they can become dry, particularly breast. I'll cut these in half once precooked and to be fair I'll also cut the other dish in half as well.

Precooked Chicken.

[livo]

AP's / JV's original Base Gravy.

[livo]

Book method. (part 1)

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Book Method. (Part 2)

[livo]

I have to take a break for an hour or so while I go out.  I'll finish the BIR style when I return.

The book version is delicious and so easy, so the BIR dish has to be real good to make it worth the extra time and effort.  Book version has noticeable chopped onion but that doesn't concern me.

[livo]

BIR Style Finishing off. (Part 1)

[livo]

BIR Style Finishing Off. (Part 2)

[livo]

Well that was fun.  As you'd expect, the two variations are different but I'd not like to say I prefer one over the other.  The Book Recipe is more robust and zingy, while the BIR is smoother and the different flavours come out more individually.  The chicken pieces in the BIR dish are juicier / more moist and have better flavour development as you'd expect by being pre-cooked.

The biggest advantage of the BIR style is that I only used a portion of the Base Gravy and there is enough left to do another 5 the same, so there you have good reason for the shops to do it that way.

As with most curries, I think they'll be even better tomorrow.  Either one is delicious and perfectly acceptable.  Next I'll do one using the Aussie method and compare that as well.

Now dinner is served.