Easy Chicken Balti

5 from 1 vote

Love the chicken balti you get in your local curry restaurant? Now you can make it at home with this easy homemade Chicken Balti fakeaway recipe. Better still, it takes just over 30 minutes to make and comes in at just 269 calories - much less than a takeaway!

Course Curry, Main Course

Cuisine British, Fusion, Indian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 30

Total Time 35

Servings people

Calories 269kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
600 g chicken breast cut into bitesize pieces
1 onion sliced
2 cloves garlic crushed or grated
1 cm fresh ginger grated
½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (or to taste, see Note 1)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons garam masala
400 g tin chopped tomatoes
200 ml water (use the empty tomato tin to measure this – ½ tin=200ml/7oz)
1 red (bell) pepper chopped into bitesize pieces
1 green (bell) pepper chopped into bitesize pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh coriander (AKA cilantro) roughly chopped – plus extra for garnish

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Place the oil in a large non-stick frying pan, over a high heat, for 1 minute.
Add the chicken breast pieces and fry for 3 minutes, until nicely browned, but not quite fully cooked. Remove to a plate, together with all the juices.
Turn the heat right down and place the pan back on the heat. Add the sliced onion and gently fry, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes.
Add the garlic, ginger, chilli flakes, cumin, coriander, paprika and garam masala, and gently fry, stirring frequently, for 1 minute.
Add the tinned tomatoes, water, chopped peppers, salt and pepper to the pan and stir.
Turn the heat up high and bring to the boil. Then turn down and simmer for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, add the part-cooked chicken pieces and cook on low for a further 10 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure it’s not getting dry. (If it gets too dry, simply add a splash more water and stir.)
Finally, turn off the heat and stir in the fresh coriander (cilantro).
Garnish with extra fresh coriander leaves and serve with pilau rice and naan bread.

Notes

Balti is usually a medium hot curry. For my tastes, I find that ½ teaspoon of chilli flakes is about right, but it does depend a lot on your brand of chilli flakes and your own spice tolerance! If in doubt, try ¼ teaspoon to start with – you can always add more chilli later! Alternatively, if you know you can take the heat, you might like to start with 1 teaspoon chilli flakes.
Suitable for freezing.
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition