This is my attempt to replicate one of my mom's recipes and adapt it for the slow cooker. Its a dark roasted thick curry that takes hours to make on the stove - where you roast the masala slowly and keep stirring to prevent burning. I took the recipe from my mom years ago - but each time I tried it, I lost my patience and moved to the next step a little too quickly and never get the depth of flavor she did.
A little story about the curry - A few years earlier my mom visited me and cooked a storm for us when she was here. Unknown to me, she had frozen some of the food. A couple of weeks after she left - I found a box sweetly labeled "Chicken Curry". I was thrilled, I heated it up and served it for dinner. Vinay took one bite and said - "Wow, this is great. You finally learnt how to cook as well as your mom". Aah - if only I could :). I called my mom and told her and it was a story she loved. She took great pride in her cooking and this reinforced it.
In my version of this recipe, I let the slow cooker do the hard work for me on this and while this chicken curry recipe isn't quite as good as my mom's but its a little closer than I was before.
Prep time - 10-15 mins. Cook time in slow cooker (4 hours)
Ingredients -
* Onions - 1 large or 2 small
* Garlic - 4-5 cloves
* Fresh ginger - 1 inch piece
* Tomato paste - 4-5 tbsp (You can use 1 fresh tomato and grind it, but the color and texture is better with tomato paste)
* Chicken curry masala (any brand you get from the Indian store - I used Shan) - 3 tsp
* Turmeric (Haldi) - 1/2 tsp
* Red chilli powder (Lal-mirch) - 1/2 tsp
* Salt - 2 tsp
* Mustard seeds (Rai) or Cumin seeds (Jeera) for spluttering- 1/2 tsp
* Oil - 1 tbsp
* Chicken leg pieces - 2 lb (6-7 pieces)
* Bay leaf (fresh or dried) (optional) - 2-3 pieces
* Heeng (optional) - 1 pinch (It is supposed to help with digestion)
Method -
1> If your slow cooker has a brown/saute setting - set it up. Add the oil and wait for it to get hot. Add the pinch of heeng and splutter in the Cumin or Mustard seeds. If your slow cooker doesn't have this setting, do this in a saute pan on the stove.
2> Grind the onions, ginger and garlic to a smooth paste. Add just a little water so it can be ground to a smooth paste. Put in the hot oil. Let it brown slightly. Add the bay leaf.
3> Change the setting of the cooker to slow cooking (on high - if you have high/low settings on your cooker). Let the onions cook till you prep the tomatoes. If you did this step in a saute pan - transfer the contents to the slow cooker now.
4> Add the fresh or canned tomato paste. Mix it well with the onions in the cooker.
5> In a bowl, put 1/2 a cup of water. Add all the Masalas (haldi, salt, chili, chicken curry masala). Dissolve to make a thick paste. Add this paste to the cooker. Mix all of this well.
6> Prep the chicken - remove the skin & cut in pieces (if using boneless or full chicken). I find that chicken breast gets stringy with slow cooking - so my preference is leg pieces or thigh meat. Add the chicken pieces to the cooker. Mix well.
7> Add water to the mixture (upto 1 cup). Use your judgement, it should be a thick curry consistency - so it will depend on how much water you put when grinding the onions and the tomato paste used. Chicken gives out water when cooking so too much water will make a thin curry.
8> Close the cooker and forget about it! If you need the food sooner than 4 hours - let it slow cook for as much time as you have. If the chicken is not fully cooked when you check on it, pressure cook it for 10 minutes and serve.
Serve hot with rice, roti or bread.
Other notes -
1> Flavors get intensified in the slow cooker. This is the level of spice we enjoy at home. Adjust levels based on your preference. Taste for salt before serving. If you find the dish too spicy or too salty, stir is some yogurt, sour cream or whipping cream to make it milder.
2> If you are making this on a weekday - do steps 1 and 2 the night before. Put the onion in the slow cooker bowl. Continue with steps 3-5 and add the tomato and masala to the bowl. Cover the slow cooker bowl and refrigerate it. Keep the chicken cleaned and cut in a separate box in the fridge. In the morning, put the bowl in the slow cooker, add water to make it a thick curry and turn it on. Add the raw chicken to the bowl and mix well. Set the slow cooker for 4 hours and leave! Most of the new slow cookers will transition to the WARM setting after the cooking time is over.
Do try out this recipe and let me know how it turned out. I would love to hear from you.