Vij's Family Chicken Curry

Having read the prior reviews, I felt pretty sure it would be good--it was Great! I used two chicken breasts cut into quarters but left on the bone, a large can of diced tomatoes (good fresh tomatoes being unavailable now) and otherwise followed the recipe. It is an amazingly simple recipe which results in a complex and rich tasting sauce. I like that it is really quite healthy--a small bit of fat from the canola oil and the sour cream, but mostly just good non-fattening ingredients. And the fresh cilantro just makes it perfect--it adds such a lovely freshness to the flavor and it makes it quite pretty.

I must admit that this page in my cookbook is so thoroughly splattered and well-thumbed that the book now naturally falls opened to this page! (Though I have long-ago committed this to memory.)

Vij's Family Chicken Curry is a favourite in our house because it's simple enough to prepare, but it yields divine results. We've often used chicken breasts instead of thighs, and it still comes out tender if you let it simmer very low. We often scale the salt back a bit too. Even the authors say "you don't have to be exact in your measurements" so I don't feel too bad about it!

This is a really good choice for anyone new to cooking Indian food. It's sure to impress your friends and family. Just make sure to save some leftovers since they're always better the next day.

I was determined to make a chicken recipe from here for a visiting guest, and settled on this one for the simple reason that, unlike most of his other chicken recipes, this one doesn't use a grill or BBQ.

Vij describes this curry as the one that is mother used to make in his apartment when it first opened and he didn't yet have his full kitchen license. It's based on a family recipe which is always a good sign.

As he insists, I took the trouble to make his Garam Masala (see p. 26) spice mix the day before...yes, a whole hour, but worth very minute!!

I served it with a range of other recipes from the same book:

• Grilled Asparagus and Corn in Fenugreek Curry (p. 129)
• Grilled Coconut Kale (p. 162)
• Beet and Daikon Salsa (p. 157)

Thesse were served with a cucumber raita that I cobbled together from a few different recipes and some brown rice. And no, since we were only three, we had tons of leftovers. No complaints - the chicken only got better with time.

I followed the recipe to the letter, except that I used yoghurt instead of sour cream, used a combination of fresh tomatoes and tomato passata (strained) from a bottle.

The result was a tangy and not at all hot curry; the flavour was instead deliciously aromatic and complex, and improved with every serving.Definitely the best chicken curry that I've ever eaten!!