Creamy, Gentle, Everyday Chicken Curry, made with SN1

SPICE CURRY SPICE PACK “Spice Curry Spice Pack Symphony No.1 (SN1)” — a creamy, gentle, everyday chicken curry.

The basic chicken curry is the one we recommend to anyone making a spice curry for the first time. Of all the curry recipes on the site it is consistently the most read, and its flavour, which never tires, has won it a great many people who come back to it.

But.

We have had a steady trickle of comments along the lines of “I found the sharpness of the tomato too strong.” This recipe is our answer: an everyday spice curry to stand alongside the basic chicken curry, for people who do not care for that sharpness.

A recipe without tomato did cross our minds, but we wanted to make one that uses tomato deliberately and still tastes good, with no sharpness to it.

As for how the creamy, gentle, everyday chicken curry tastes — exactly as the name says. It is creamy, with the sweetness of the vegetables and the savoury depth of the chicken dissolved into one gentle flavour, and no sharpness at all. We rather think children will love it.

Do give it a try.

---

If this is your first spice curry, reading the articles below before you start will give you a better result.

When your spice curry turns out watery Thinking about the chicken skin in chicken curry Are the whole spices in the starter spices meant to be eaten? Which spice do you add when you want more heat?

Ingredients (serves 4)

• SN1 / starter spices (the whole-spice sachet): 1 sachet
• SN1 / powder spices (the ground-spice sachet): 1 sachet
• Tomato purée: 150g
• Onion: 1
• Carrot: 1/2
• Potato: 1
• Garlic (finely chopped): about 1 tbsp
• Ginger (finely chopped): about 1 tbsp
• Chicken thigh: 200g (roughly 1 thigh fillet)
• Double cream: 5 tbsp
• Soy sauce: 2 tsp
• Sugar: 2 tsp
• Salt: 2 tsp
• Oil: 3 tbsp (use whichever oil you like. For this recipe we recommend rice bran oil or light sesame oil)
• Water: 200ml
  
  

Preparation

• Chop the garlic and ginger finely.
  
• Chop the onion, carrot and potato as finely as you can.
• Cut the chicken thigh into bite-sized pieces.
  
  

Method

1. Put the “oil: 3 tbsp” into a pan over a low heat, and once the oil is warm, add the starter spices (the whole-spice sachet).
   
   
2. When the cardamom (the green pods) begins to puff up, add the garlic and ginger and fry for about 30 seconds, stirring them through the spices.
   
   
3. Add the onion, carrot, potato and salt: 1 tsp, stir them thoroughly through the spices, then turn the heat to high and cook properly until deep golden brown, adding a splash of water each time it looks as though it might catch.
   
   💡In this recipe the point is to tap and crush the vegetables with a wooden spatula as they fry. Take them almost to a paste, until they have lost their original shape, and the curry will finish with a good body to it.
   
   

   The keys to flavour: a splash of water, and deep golden onions How far you cook the onion changes the finished flavour enormously. When a curry comes out watery, or the tomato tastes too sharp, or the depth feels thin, the single biggest cause is moving on to the next step before the onion has turned deep golden brown. In this recipe, always cook the onion for 12–15 minutes, frying it properly until it is deep golden brown. Keep a glass of water beside you, and each time you feel the onion catching on the base of the pan, add a little water. That carries the savoury depth released by the cooking through the whole pan, and lets you reach deep golden onions without burning them.

   
   
   
4. Once the onion is deep golden brown (below is after about 12 minutes of cooking), turn the heat to medium, add the chicken thigh and salt: 1 tsp, and fry until the meat has taken colour.
   
   
5. Add the tomato purée, double cream: 5 tbsp and powder spices: 1 sachet, stir everything together well and bring it to the boil.
   
   
6. Add the soy sauce: 2 tsp, sugar: 2 tsp and water: 200ml and stir everything together.
   
   
7. Once it comes to the boil, turn the heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes.
   
   
8. Taste it at the end and adjust the salt.

And that is it.

Top it however you like. A fried egg, or deep-fried vegetables. Coriander or another leaf alongside is good too.

Inspice spice curry spice sets contain none of the usual sources of heat — chilli, cayenne pepper or chilli powder — so please add heat to your own taste.