Quick and Easy Chicken Madras
This Quick and Easy Chicken Madras is a deeply flavored Indian curry that is on the table in about 30 minutes. If you’re a curry fan, this is the dish for you because we all want our curry in a hurry. Traditionally made hot, you can customize this to your liking.
From scratch and could not be easier. Serve with a side of naan bread for curry sauce mopping.
It is made known on this blog that I love Indian food. I mean love! It comes from being British and growing up with a heavy Indian influence in the UK.
When I made my first curry Indian recipe for the blog, back in 2013 it was chicken tikka masala. This was an instant hit and is still one of my most popular dishes to this day.
Madras sauce or Madras curry, originates from the south of India, named after the city of Madras (now Chennai). Always red in color, Madras is typically a hot curry
Spice level
In keeping with tradition, this is a fairly spicy madras curry, as If you like it spicer, add an extra hot red chili powder to taste.
What I love about this Quick and Easy Chicken Madras is that it has a rich, depth of flavor that tastes like it cooked for hours. The garam masala that is the spice base and main flavor for the dish is mild and slightly sweet.
The Indian Spice Blend: Garam masala is complex combination of many spices that include cardamom, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, nutmeg, cinnamon, the list goes on. This is why this is an amazing spice blend and allows you to achieve a wonderfully flavorful curry.
Maximize the flavor of the spices
Whenever I see an authentic Indian dish being made, the cook always toast the spices in a dry pan as the first step of the recipe. This brings out the flavors and takes away any raw taste that they may bring to the dis
The day I made this chicken Madras, was in the store shopping for the ingredients and my husband spotted is favorite squash, the acorn squash. They had them in green and orange. I had no idea they came in orange, look very similar to a pumpkin.
I promised I would make him a side dish to go with the curry and that is when I came up with the really easy roasted acorn squash with Indian spices, that is a wonderful side dish for this curry.
What happens when all the chicken is eaten? You’ll need something to mop it up. I have the easiest naan bread recipe (< click for link).
If you’ve tried this Quick and Easy Chicken Madras or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I love to hear from my readers!
Quick and Easy Chicken Madras
This quick and easy chicken Madras is a deeply flavored, mild Indian curry that is on the table in about 30 minutes. If you're a curry fan, this is the dish for you.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into large chunks
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon Indian kashmiri (hot chili powder) add 1 more teaspoon for extra heat
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 14-ounces (400 grams) diced tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 14 ounces (400 grams) unsweetened coconut milk
- Fresh cilantro/coriander, chopped
Instructions
- To a large sauté pan add garam masala over low heat and toast in a dry pan. Remove and set aside.
- Add 2 tablespoons oil to the pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook until slightly brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- To the same pan over medium heat, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and add the onion and cook until softened.
- Add garlic and ginger, garam masala, turmeric, chili powder, tomato paste, stir. Add diced tomatoes and mix well.
- Add the chicken pieces, salt pepper and coconut milk. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove lid and simmer for 10 more minutes.
- Serve garnished with chopped cilantro.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 243Saturated Fat 9gCholesterol 72mgSodium 455mgCarbohydrates 4gProtein 24g
More Indian Dishes:
26 Comments on “Quick and Easy Chicken Madras”
So good and I like added spice
Thank you, I’m glad you made your own spice level
I am vegan and would love to try this with tofu. I was wondering if you would know if I should pre cook the tofu or just add it to the sauce after I press it. Thank you!
Personally, I would enjoy crisping the tofu in oil after pressing out as much liquid as possible before adding to the curry. You could just follow the recipe as is and treat the tofu as if it was the chicken. I think the crisping will help prevent it from getting soggy and have great texture. I hope this helps and enjoy.
Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it! I’ve been searching for a Tofu Madras recipe after having it at a local Indian Restaurant. Yours sounds delicious and can’t wait to make it!
Take care & Happy New Year!
Wonderful, enjoy.
Hi we in the island of trinidad know how to cook curry with scorpion pepper and your mouth watering like that madras curry duck and dhall and gila rice trini food.
Thank you for sharing. I think the scorpion pepper would be much too hot for me 🙂
I followed the recipe exactly. The end product was very runny. What did I do wrong? How can I thicken it up?
I can’t really say what happened. It could have been there was a lot of water in your tomatoes or something else. The easiest way to thicken it, is to simmer with the lid off until the excess liquid evaporates. This should work but if not, you can mix a teaspoon of cornstarch with 1/2 teaspoon water and stir into the sauce. Simmer until thickened, add more if needed. I hope this helps and you can enjoy the end result.
Love this recipe! I typically substitute the spices with a madras style curry blend, then add some cayenne and sambal for extra heat. Also, I like to finish the dish with a cup of Greek yoghurt, adding a small amount at a time after it has cooled a bit. Thank you for the recipe!
These are all great tips and I cannot wait to try them. Thank you for the feedback and I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe.
I have a lot of experiene of eating Indian food but no experience of cooking it. This was my first attempt. Your directions were simple and straight forward, although it took me longer than 30 minutes.
I used the exact meaurements of ingredients and followed the directions almost exactly only I did blitz the sauce in a blender rather than just ‘mix well’ before adding the chicken but thats just my personal preference. My local Indian Restaurant is not going to be happy, my lads now want ‘Home Cooked’ not ‘Take Away’.
Thank you for the great feedback. I love that you made the recipe your own. That’s what it’s all about, making food how we (and your lads) want it. 🙂
I put more than the recommended chili pepper in as I like a lot of spice and was just perfect. I’m always craving Indian food and that was the closest we’ve had at home!
Thank you so much
Can I add red chili pepper for the heat?
Yes. I haven’t tried this, but I recommend add the pepper with seeds instead of the chili powder. If it is not hot enough you can always add more pepper or powder. I hope you enjoy.
I like it hot so I added Madras sauce and red chili pepper and served on Brown basmati rice. Really enjoyed it.
Curry loves unite!
This looks and sounds absolutely delicious, and it’s got a really short ingredients list too – rare for a curry!
I love Indian food and spices! This is the perfect dish! Easy to make, too! Pinning 🙂
Quick and easy to all that deliciousness! Thank you!
Yummy! This looks delicious and I bet it smells just as great too! I love how simple it is to make and I am going to have to try this ASAP!
OOhh, love spicy dishes like this! Your version looks incredible!
Yum! Talk about a perfect comfort meal! Can’t wait to give this a try on a cool fall night!
This looks like such a warm and comforting dish. Perfect dinner for a cool, fall night!