Adam Byatt’s chicken curry

Name: Adam Byatt’s chicken curry
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Indian recipes
Ingredients: Cold-pressed rapeseed oil to fry; Plain flour to dust; 1.5kg chicken, cut into 13 pieces (see ‘before you start#); 3 onions, finely chopped; 4 garlic cloves, finely grated; 50g ginger, finely grated; 2 green chillies, 1 finely chopped, 1 halved; 4 ripe tomatoes; 1.2 litres white chicken stock (see ‘tips’); 200ml coconut milk; Cooked rice, mango chutney, raita and lime wedges to serve; For the spice mix; 1 tsp black peppercorns; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 1 tsp star anise; 1 tsp coriander seeds; 1 tsp fennel seeds; 1 tsp black mustard seeds; 2 tsp curry powder; 12g sea salt flakes

4 Reviews

Portion size: Serves 6
Prep time 15 min. Cook time 1 hour 15 min
Difficulty: medium

Dairy-free

Adam Byatt

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Chef Adam Byatt shares his perfect chicken curry recipe, using key culinary skills like jointing the bird and making stock to make a satisfying curry with bags of flavour.

Adam says: “Here I’ve made an aromatic curry, a comforting dish for a cold day. Homemade chicken stock provides the perfect platform for building layers of flavour.”

Before you start

Cutting up a chicken: The 13-piece method

This sounds complicated but you’ll get better with practice. Using this method, you’ll end up with 13 pieces of chicken from one bird. Thighs, breast meat and drumsticks cook at different speeds but with this method you don’t have to worry – all the pieces cook in the same time.
To do this well you need a sharp, solid cook’s knife – a 20cm blade will do you well here. If you can locate the natural seams on the chicken at the muscles and joints, you’ll be able to cut through them with ease. Watch Adam cut a chicken into 13 perfect pieces on our YouTube channel.

Making great stock

Homemade stock is the basis of all my cooking. Yes, a stock cube is so convenient, but I promise you if you make your own stock you’ll never look back. So clean, so healthy and so tasty – and so full of flavour. It’s proper cooking!
When I’m at home I don’t buy meat specifically to make stocks – I generally make them from the cooked bones left over from roasting chicken, lamb or beef. I’ll take the bones and put them in a pan with a few vegetables (carrot, onion, celery, leek, a couple of garlic cloves, a bay leaf and some thyme). I then add a few peppercorns and cover with water. Make sure you adapt the veg depending on the meat: more onions and some star anise if you’re making beef stock; less carrot in a chicken stock.
I simmer my stocks for around 4-5 hours. After that, the liquid needs passing through a fine sieve, then chilling as quickly as possible to retain flavour and give it a longer shelf life. Standing the stock in a bowl sitting in another bowl of ice will do this well. You can then chill the stock or freeze in large ice cube trays.
Michelin-level tip There’s a knack to knowing when your stock is ready. Taste the stock after an hour. You’ll taste water first, vegetable second and the meat protein last. After a few hours this will move to vegetable first, then protein, followed by water. What you want is for the stock to taste first and foremost of the protein, followed by the vegetable– at this point you’re done. Don’t go any further – nothing good happens beyond this point!

See ‘tips’ below for Adam’s homemade stock recipes.

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Ingredients

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil to fry
Plain flour to dust
1.5kg chicken, cut into 13 pieces (see ‘before you start#)
3 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely grated
50g ginger, finely grated
2 green chillies, 1 finely chopped, 1 halved
4 ripe tomatoes
1.2 litres white chicken stock (see ‘tips’)
200ml coconut milk
Cooked rice, mango chutney, raita and lime wedges to serve

For the spice mix

1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp star anise
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp curry powder
12g sea salt flakes

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Method

Put all the ingredients for the spice mix (except the curry powder and salt) in a dry pan over a medium heat. Stir for 1-2 minutes or until they smell aromatic, then put in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar with the curry powder and salt and grind/pound into a powder.
Put a large pan or casserole over a medium heat with a dash of oil. Dust a plate with flour, then season it with a pinch of salt and a few generous pinches of the spice mix. Add the chicken pieces to the flour, turning them so they’re fully coated, then add to the pan. Cook, turning, for a few minutes on each side until well browned all over, then transfer to a plate and set aside.
Heat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/gas 3½. Add a dash of oil to the pan/casserole over a medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, ginger, chillies and remaining spice mix and cook, stirring often, for about 8 minutes until softened.
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Meanwhile, boil the kettle, put the tomatoes in a heatproof bowl and set up a bowl of iced water alongside. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, wait 10 seconds, then transfer to the iced water. The tomatoes should now be easy to peel; remove the skins, halve them, then scrape out and discard the seeds. Chop the flesh into small pieces (this is called a concasse).
Add the tomatoes to the pan and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the stock and coconut milk, bring to a simmer, then add the chicken. Cover with a pan-sized circle of baking paper cut to sit on the surface (a cartouche). Cook in the oven for 45 minutes.
Divide the curry among serving plates, then serve with the rice, chutney, raita and a lime wedge.

Nutrition

480kcals Calories
32g (11g saturated) Fat
37g Protein
9.7g (7.4g sugars) Carbs
2.6g Fibre
3g Salt

Quick wins & tips

For 2-3l white chicken stock Put 1 whole chicken carcass, 2-3 smaller carcasses or 1.5kg chicken wings in a large pan with 1 peeled and roughly chopped carrot, 1 sliced onion, 1 roughly chopped celery stick, the roughly chopped white part of half a leek, 1 halved garlic bulb and 6 litres water. Add 10g thyme, 2 bay leaves, 10g rosemary and 1 tsp black peppercorns. Bring to the boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 4 hours, using a ladle to remove any impurities from the surface every now and then. Taste and simmer for longer if needed. Strain, cover and cool – it’ll keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.

For 2-3l brown chicken stock

Follow the method above but first roast the carcass or wings at 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7 for 1 hour 20 minutes and the veg, garlic, herbs and peppercorns for 30 minutes. Drain any excess fat/oil, then put in a pan with the water. You’ll need to skim away more excess fat and impurities during the simmer.

Make Ahead

The curry will keep in the fridge, covered, for up to 3 days.

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Reviews

Jack Organ

22nd Feb 2025 a 1:06 am

Way too much chicken stock. Next time I will do 300ml instead. Put in oven for an hour and was still so watery.

Phoebe Stone

4th Mar 2025 a 3:02 pm

Hello, our food team advise that it is a loose/light sauce – quite different to the thick masala of some curries and more like an Indian-style spiced braise/casserole. You can of course use less stock if you like, but our food editor says it’s important to make sure the chicken is submerged during cooking. Thanks for you feedback on the recipe.