how to cook curry chicken

Over the years I’ve shared many curry recipes, including ones where the main ingredient is poultry of some sort. However I’ve never addressed the mélange of struggles people tend to have in achieving a lovely thick sauce or gravy. This is NOT a Curry Chicken Recipe, but the focus is, getting you that ultimate curry sauce with your curry chicken.

May I recommend that you watch the video below to follow along, as the complete cooking of the curry chicken is covered and should you want a specific Curry Chicken Recipe << Click!

Season and marinate the chicken as you normally would.

On a medium flame, heat your oil (about 2 – 3 tablespoons) then add diced onion (large), garlic (9-12 cloves), 3 Pimento Peppers (diced) and 1 teaspoon black pepper. After a couple minutes, add a tablespoon of Caribbean Green Seasoning and stir well.

Once the onion is soft (about 4 minutes), add your favorite curry powder and cook for a further 3 minutes. In my case I added 3 tablespoons of curry. Be sure to stir so nothing burns. See the video where I share a tip on how to cut back on the amount of oil to use.

That step will bloom the spices which makes up the curry powder. With your heat still on medium, add 1 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. This step is to cook out the ‘rawness’ of the curry.

Add 2 medium tomatoes diced, along with 2 scallions diced. Should you want to make the Curry Chicken SPICY, add your fav hot pepper. I added a Scotch Bonnet pepper.

As this cooks down, add 1 tablespoon of Anchar Masala (see your local or online West Indian supermarket). If you can’t source Anchar Masala, add Garam Masala or extra geera (ground roasted cumin).

The goal now is to burn off all the liquid to created a thick slurry. In the video I explained that you’ll need for it to go until you can see the oil we started with and you can path the curry slurry with your spoon or spatula.

It’s now time to turn up the heat to medium high and start adding your seasoned and marinated chicken to the pot. Stir well! While this will work with white and/or boneless chicken, I get he best results with dark bone-in chicken (leg and thigh).

Bring to a boil (yes it will spring it’s own juices), cover the pot, reduce the heat to med/low and cook for 7-10 minutes.

At this point, add 1 1/2 cups of water (add more if you want even more gravy) and bring back to a boil to finish cooking the chicken. Medium low heat will ensure you have a steady bubble. FYI.. When I marinated my seasoned chicken I included salt.

After about 8 minutes after adding the additional water, I added chopped Shado Beni and 1 teaspoon ground roasted cumin (geera).

Time to personalize things. Taste and adjust the salt to your liking, make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through and decide if the sauce/gravy is to thick enough for you. Do keep in mind that it will thicken further as it cools. If you find that it’s runny, turn up the heat, lid off and cook further.

Tip! Try to use a heavy iron or glazed enamel pot, which will evenly distribute the heat.

By starting with the creation of the thick slurry at the start, you’re guaranteed to have a lovely curry sauce at the end.

Meat & Poultry

Curry Chicken With Butternut Squash.

May 27, 2025February 28, 2021Leave a Comment

You’re about to CHANGE your Curry Chicken game FOREVER! It’s ridiculous how simply adding roasted Butternut Squash (any squash will work) changes everyday curry chicken to something even more comforting and tasty. No, there’s no need to add coconut to this dish IMHO (I know there will be people asking).

You’ll Need…

3-4 lbs chicken
2 medium butternut squash (5-6 cups)
2 tablespoon Caribbean Green Seasoning
4 tablespoon olive oil (divided)
3 tablespoon curry powder (divided)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 3/4 tablespoon salt (divided)
1/3 cup water for cooking curry
1 tomato (diced)
1 tablespoon black pepper (divided)
10 cloves garlic (divided)
1 small onion (diced)
1 scotch bonnet pepper (sliced)
1 teaspoon ground roasted cumin (geera)
1 teaspoon anchar masala
1 1/2 cups water
1-2 tablespoon shado beni (chopped)

Note: use cilantro if you cannot get shado beni (culantro) and adjust the salt to your liking. Also (important) – if doing this recipe gluten free, please go through the full list of ingredients to make sure they meet with your specific gluten free dietary requirements. Especially the Curry Powder you decide on using.

Peel, wash and cube the squash into 1 inch pieces. Then in a bowl, toss them with 2 tablespoon olive oil, 3/4 tablespoon salt, 1/2 the black pepper, 1 tablespoon curry powder, 4 cloves garlic smashed and brown sugar. Then onto a roasting tray (single layer) and into the oven at 400 F.

As the squash roast off it’s time to marinate the chicken (cut, trim off excess fat and skin – wash with lemon juice and cool water – if you wash your chicken). With the chicken in a large bowl, add the remaining salt and black pepper, Caribbean Green Seasoning and tomato, then give it a good toss. Allow to marinate for an hour or 2 for best results.

Heat the remaining oil on a medium flame (heavy pot), followed by the onion, remaining garlic (smashed) and Scotch Bonnet pepper (use as much as you can handle, I like curry spicy). As you start seeing brown edges on the garlic and onion, add the remaining curry powder to the pan and mix well.

It will go darker (normal thing), add the 1/3 cup of water after 3-4 minutes and stir and scrape the bottom of the pot. This step cooks out the ‘rawness’ of the curry. Here’s where we’ll add the Anchar Masala and Roasted Cumin (geera) – stir well.

The goal now is to burn off that liquid we added, until we see the oil at the bottom of the pot that we started with. Can take 3-5 minutes.

It will be a thick paste! Now add the seasoned chicken to the pot (heat high) and stir well to coat each piece with that curry goodness.

Put the lid on, heat to medium and cook. (watch the video below if the descriptive text is a bit confusing)

35 minutes in the oven and the squash is good to come out. Set aside. (watch the video below to know why we roasted the squash)

6 minutes later, remove the lid off the pot and crank up the heat to high. We again want to burn off that natural liquid that sprouted. As its gone, add the water to the bowl you marinated the chicken in and move around to get any remaining marinade. Pour that 1 1/2 cups of water into the pot and bring back to a boil.

After cooking on medium for 4-5 minutes, it’s time to add the roasted squash to the pot. Be gentle as we don’t want to crush it.

Gently stir and cook for 4-5 minutes or until you have a gravy consistency you like. The squash will suck-up some of that gravy! Taste for salt and adjust, toss in the chopped Shado Beni (or cilantro). Turn off the heat as the residual heat in the pot will further thicken the gravy as it cools.

Absolutely one of the best curry dishes you’ll ever make/enjoy – guaranteed! Serve with Rice, Roti or if all fails… even basic sliced bread (smile).

Drop me your comments below, tag me on Instagram and don’t forget you can now get my cookbook – The Vibrant Caribbean Pot, 100 Traditional And Fusion Recipes @ CaribbeanPot.com/CookBook/

Meat & Poultry

Curry Chicken Lollipops On The Grill.

May 27, 2025June 29, 201216 Comments

As our adventure on the grill continues, I thought I’d share a very creative way to do chicken lollipops. If you’re not familiar with chicken lollipops, it’s basically the way the drumette of the wing is shaped to give the appearance of our favorite kid candy, lollipops. With that in mind I decided to make a rub to marinate the chicken lollipops in, using ingredients we would normally use on a daily basis on the islands. The slight heat and smokiness from the paprika, combined with fresh herbs and the earthy goodness of good Caribbean curry powder will certainly make this a go-to dish as you spark up your grill and invite friends over.

You’ll Need…

1 tablespoon curry powder (madras)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon rum
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder

Note: Traditionally the drum part of the chicken wings are used to make the lollipop shape, but I used actual chicken drumsticks. More meat and much cheaper than purchasing chicken wings. I used a madras blend curry powder originating from the Caribbean.. just my preference.

The very first thing we need to do is to shape the lollipops (see the video below). Grab the thin end of the drumstick firmly, then carefully cut through the meat surrounding the bone, using a sawing motion and turning the thing around. Don’t try to force it, let the knife do the work. Once the skin is cut all around, use your knife to scrape down the meat from the bone. You may need to cut through a couple of sinews. Push the meat down to the other end. You should now have what looks like a handle with a ball of chicken meat at one end. * Be sure to look out for the tiny long bone which will be close to the main bone of the drumstick. It can prick you.. try to cut that out. In the pic below you’ll see 4 stages of me doing the lollipop thing. BTW, I removed the skin first.

With all my drumsticks now shaped into chicken lollipops, I washed it with lime juice (you can use lemon juice or vinegar as well) and rinse with cool water. Drain and set aside for marinating.

It’s now time to make the marinade… combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and give it a good whisk.

Pour the marinade over the trimmed and shaped chicken pieces and give it a good mix (get your hands in there). Now cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour (try not to go beyond 3 hrs). Then bring back to room temperature while your grill heats up.

The next step is pretty straight forward, as you’ll just grill as you normally grill chicken. My grill was about 375 degrees and I pretty much cooked them for about 25-30 minutes. Rotating them every 4-5 minutes and basting with the leftover marinade in the bowl I marinated them in.

As they cook and the heat of the grill intensifies, you’ll start getting that lovely aroma of the marinade… especially the curry powder! Do keep an eye on them so they don’t overcook and dry out. But be sure to get some grill marks on them to really intensify the rich flavors we infused them with.

There’s no need for any BBQ sauce on these or you’ll destroy all the work you did to create that lovely exotic flavor from the curry powder, spices and herbs. However, the tamarind bbq sauce I shared with you a couple weeks back would make for an excellent dipping sauce for these chicken lollipops. Here’s a video on how simple it is to make that lovely tamarind bbq sauce…

Before you go, don’t forget to check out the latest cooking videos, connect with me on twitter and join our community on facebook. oh yea! leave me a comment below – it’s appreciated.

Here’s the complete video from preparation to the completed curry chicken lollipops for you to follow along…

How To Get A Rich Thick Curry Chicken Gravy.

Curry Chicken With Butternut Squash.

Curry Chicken Lollipops On The Grill.

Hi, I'm Chris.

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