Chicken balti
50 min · 46 g protein · 366 cals / serving
Birmingham's own curry: chicken charred hot and fast, then tossed through a thick, glossy tomato and onion masala with big pieces of red and green pepper, plenty of garlic and ginger, wilted spinach and a fistful of fresh coriander. Bold, fragrant and on the table in forty minutes.
Ingredients
- 700 g chicken breast, cut into 3 cm chunks
- 3 tbsp nonfat Greek yogurt
- 4 tsp garam masala, divided
- 2 tsp paprika, Kashmiri chilli powder or paprika
- 1 tsp salt, divided
- 2 tsp canola oil
- 2 large onions, 1 finely chopped, 1 cut into chunky wedges
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- thumb-sized piece ginger, grated
- 1–2 green chili pepper, finely chopped
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tin (400 g) diced tomatoes
- 150 ml water
- 1 large red bell pepper, cut into large chunks
- 1 large green pepper bell pepper, cut into large chunks
- 3 large handfuls baby spinach
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- a small bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
Steps
- Toss the chicken with the yogurt, half the garam masala, the chilli powder and half the salt. Leave for 15 minutes, or up to a day in the fridge.
- Heat half the oil in a large wok or karahi over a high heat. Add the chicken in a single layer and sear for 5–6 minutes, turning once, until charred in places but not yet cooked through. Tip onto a plate.
- Add the rest of the oil and the chopped onion and cook over a medium heat for 8 minutes until golden. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, cumin, coriander and turmeric and fry for 1 minute, then stir in the tomato purée and fry for another minute.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, water, onion wedges, peppers and the rest of the salt. Bubble for 10 minutes, until the sauce is thick and the peppers are just tender. Return the chicken and any juices and simmer for 5–6 minutes, until it is 165°F in the thickest piece.
- Stir in the spinach until it wilts, then the rest of the garam masala and the lemon juice. Take off the heat and scatter over the coriander. Serve straight from the pan.
Good to know
What makes it a balti?
Speed and a hot pan. A balti is cooked fast in a wide, thin pan, so the peppers and onion wedges keep some bite and the sauce is thick and clinging rather than soupy.
What to serve it with?
A warm naan or chapati to tear and scoop is traditional. Basmati rice is good too, and a cucumber and red onion salad keeps the plate fresh.
Hotter or milder?
For more heat, keep the seeds in the green chillies and add a pinch of chilli flakes with the spices. For a mild balti, use paprika rather than chilli powder and leave the green chilli out.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 81
- Protein
- (53%)
- 10 g
- Fat
- (23%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (24%)
- 5 g
- of which sugar
- 3 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 170 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1465 kcal goes into the pot and 2302 g of ingredients comes out as about 1800 g of food: 81 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.