Quick chicken thigh and coconut curry

Name: Quick chicken thigh and coconut curry
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 3-4
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 2 tbsp mustard oil; 1 tbsp ghee; 1 tbsp yoghurt; 1 tsp fine white sea salt; 5 cloves; 2 dried bay leaves; 5 chicken thigh cutlets; 5 small tomatoes; ½ tsp fenugreek powder

Skip the two-hour simmer – this clever appliance is the secret to achieving deep, spice-heavy flavour and succulent chicken in under 60 minutes.

Sarina Kamini

May 11, 2026

Using bone-in chicken gives this aromatic coconut curry a lift.Patricia Niven

This recipe, from my book What We Call Masala, isn’t traditional. But it is delicious. You can replace the thigh with curry-cut chicken, the gold standard among Indian butchers, in which the chicken is chopped into pieces, keeping the skin and bone intact.

It uses pungent and earthy spices. When using significant amounts of spice, the masala (spice blend) will need to be cooked through at different stages so as not to end up unbalanced or raw.

A pressure cooker is your best friend here, getting this on the table in under an hour. No pressure cooker? No worries – I’ve included stovetop instructions for those who don’t mind a longer simmer.

Ingredients

2 tbsp mustard oil
1 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp yoghurt
1 tsp fine white sea salt
5 cloves
2 dried bay leaves
5 chicken thigh cutlets
5 small tomatoes
½ tsp fenugreek powder

MASALA

2 tsp fennel powder
1 tsp fine pink salt
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp ajwain (carom) seeds
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp ginger powder
½ tsp kala namak (Himalayan black salt)
½ tsp turmeric powder
scant ½ tsp mace powder

TO FINISH

250ml (1 cup) coconut milk
8-10 fresh curry leaves

Method

Step 1
Heat the mustard oil, ghee and yoghurt with the white sea salt, cloves and bay leaves in a large cast-iron kadai or heavy-based saucepan over high heat, stirring constantly. Once the yoghurt starts to spatter and split, add the chicken thigh cutlets and begin browning. Keep browning over high heat. Cook until the chicken is very well browned, about 20 minutes.
Step 2
As the yoghurt evaporates, the base fats will become oil-like. At this point, you need to pay attention, stirring almost constantly to prevent the chicken from sticking too much.
Step 3
Meanwhile, combine all the masala ingredients in a katori or small bowl and keep it by the stovetop.
Step 4
While the chicken is browning, place the tomatoes in a bowl of hot water to soften the skins. Leave a few minutes. Drain, skin and core the tomatoes, then puree them using a hand-held blender. Stir in the fenugreek powder.
Step 5
When the chicken is browned, remove the pan from the heat briefly to prevent spatters and add the tomato puree. Add a little water to the puree vessel and swish it around to get as much of the tomato out as possible. Stir through, return to the heat and deglaze the cooking vessel, then immediately add the masala. The chicken will become rich and the oils will split the tomato. Cook together for 2-3 minutes.
Step 6
Transfer the chicken and tomato to a pressure cooker, making sure you scrape out every last bit of sauce. Set the pressure cooker to high and cook until it emits one or two jets of steam. Lower to a medium putter, then continue to cook for 8-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pressure cooker depressurise on its own.
Step 7
If you don’t have a pressure cooker, continue cooking in the saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 45-60 minutes, adding more water if necessary, to stop the chicken from drying out.
Step 8
Open the pressure cooker. If yours is flameproof, place it over low heat. If not, transfer the chicken and sauce to a large heavy-based saucepan over low heat. Stir in the coconut milk and cook for 10 minutes for the masala to thicken.
Step 9
Just before serving, stir the fresh curry leaves through. The final sauce will be rich and creamy but also deep and strong, with a tail pungency courtesy of the ajwain seeds leading a marching band of charismatically pungent spices.