Description
This delicious style Parsi-style recipe for a Chicken Salli Curry pairs tender chicken thighs and apricots with a rice, spicy sauce, topped with either crispy, crunchy pieces of Indian sev snack, or ‘salli’ shredded fried potatoes for that classic crunch.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 1/2 tbsp light oil
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- 2 green cardamom pods
- 1/2 dried bay leaf
- 1 small brown onion
- 2 large cloves garlic
- thumb size piece fresh ginger
- 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tbsp paprika
- 1/2 tbsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 4 x skinless boneless chicken thighs
- 200g (7 oz) fresh tomatoes
- 100ml (scant 1/3 cup) water
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 55g (2 oz) dried apricots
- 1 tsp soft brown sugar
- handful fresh coriander
- pre-made or homemade potato salli, or sev strands, to serve
Instructions
- Heat the oil in the bottom of a medium to large non-stick frying pan or shallow casserole set over a medium high heat. Add the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods – bashed lightly to reveal the seeds – and the bay leaf. Cook until aromatic and sizzling.
- Meanwhile, peel and roughly chop the onion, garlic, and ginger, and blitz into a rough paste using a mini food processor or mini chopper. Add this to the pan and cook for 5 minutes or so until soft, fragrant and only just starting to colour.
- Stir in the spices and the salt, and cook for a further minute, toasting the spices until fragrant.
- Stir in the chicken thighs, cut into bite sized chunks until they’re coated in the thick onion spice mixture. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring a few times, until the chicken pieces have taken on a bit of colour.
- Chop the tomatoes and add them to the pan, cooking and stirring for another few minutes until they’ve started to break down into a sauce.
- Stir in the water and the vinegar, and turn up the heat to bring the sauce to the boil, before reducing it to low to simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Quarter the dried apricots and stir them into the sauce, along with the brown sugar. Cook for a further 5 minutes, before removing from the heat and stirring in the coriander, roughly chopped, and topping with the potato sali or sev before serving.