Spicy Chicken Vindaloo With Potatoes
Tangy, spicy and immensely flavorful, this one-pot chicken vindaloo recipe is easy and comes in handy when you are craving the heat! We're talking slow cooking juicy chicken and tender potatoes covered in a vibrant vindaloo paste.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb chicken thighs boneless, skinless, cut into 2 inch pieces (You could use bone in chicken too)
- ⅓ cup oil
- 2 medium potatoes peeled and cut into quarters
- 1 cup onions finely chopped
- 5 tablespoon tomato sauce or 2 tablespoon tomato paste, optional
- 6 fresh curry leaves
- 1.25 teaspoon salt divided, adjust to taste
- ½ teaspoon jaggery powder or use brown sugar
To Make the Spice Paste
- 4 tablespoon vinegar I use rice vinegar
- 12 whole dry red Kashmiri chilies broken into small pieces (or use 2 teaspoon cayenne powder,adjust to taste)
- 5 cloves laung
- ¼ star anise break the whole flower and use a quarter piece)
- ½ teaspoon black mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns about 12-15
- 2-3 tablespoon warm water (or as required to grind)
- 5 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 2 inch ginger roughly chopped
- 6 curry leaves
Instructions
Make The Vindaloo Spice paste
- Deseed all or half quantity of the dry kashmiri chilies if you want. Pour hot water over whole red chilies. I soak them in the blender jar itself. Leave for 10 minutes to soften.
- Once chilies are re hydrated, add all the whole spices, curry leaves, ginger and garlic, and vinegar to the blender jar. Blend to a smooth paste.
Marinate the Chicken
- Pour half of the vindaloo paste over the chicken. Add ½ teaspoon salt and coat the chicken in the marinade very well. Let marinate for at least 1 -2 hours. You can marinate for 4-6 hours as well. I dont recommend marinating overnight since the high quantity of sour elements like vinegar and tamarind can change the texture of chicken during long marination. Save the remaining marinade, we will use it when we make the sauce.
Make The Vindaloo Sauce
- To a cooking pot(I use 12 inch stainless steel indian style kadai(wok)), add the oil and let warm up.
- Add potatoes to the hot oil. Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon salt and lightly brown the potatoes on all sides without cooking them through. Using a slotted spoon, take out the potatoes in a bowl and set aside.
- To the remaining hot oil, add the chopped onions. On low medium heat, brown the onions until lightly brown. Takes about 5-6 minutes. Don't brown too much else the taste of onions gets overpowering.
- To the browned onions, add the vindaloo paste that we saved and kashmiri red chilli powder. Fry on medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
- Layer the marinated chicken in the pot. Add the fresh curry leaves. Turn the heat to medium high and let the chicken brown. In about 3-5 minutes, flip the chicken pieces and let brown on the other side. You will slowly see chicken juices releasing.
- Next go in the shallow fried potatoes, tomato sauce and about ½ cup water. Please keep in mind that the chicken will release its juices once we cover. You can add more water at any stage.
- Cover the pot and let slow cook for low heat for 15-18 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and potatoes are tender(but not mushy).
- Uncover, add the jaggery(or sugar), taste & adjust the salt. Another thing to keep in mind is that vinegar will cook off, so if you feel that vindaloo is less tangy, add a splash of vinegar to bump the tangy taste. At this stage, you can add more water to adjust the consistency as per your wish. Let simmer uncovered or another 5 minutes.
- Let sit for 30 minutes before serving.Serve warm with steamed basmati rice.
Notes
- Authentic vindaloo does not have tomatoes, however many indian restaurants add it. We love the taste so I add canned tomato in my recipe. You may skip if you wish.
- Make sure that the potatoes do not turn mushy else they will spoil the sauce.
- Like most indian curries, vindaloo tastes better after resting for few hours or better yet - next day. Plan leftovers.
- You could make the vindaloo paste as part of your meal prep over the weekend. Store for 5-6 days in the fridge.
- Adjust the spice level of vindaloo sauce by reducing or increasing the amount of chilies.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!