Easy Chicken curry with yogurt (Chicken Kalia)

Chicken kalia is a typical Mauritian dish. I’ve been trying to know its origin but it turns out that Chicken Kalya is one of those authentic Mauritian recipes! It is basically some kind of yogurt chicken and like the post title suggests, it is an easy chicken curry recipe. Chicken kalya is absolutely delicious and left-over chicken kalia tastes even better!

Note:

1. When cooking the chicken, there is no need to add too much oil in the pot because the chicken thighs have skin-fat. This skin-fat will provide the needed oil when cooking as it will “melt”. If you are removing the skin-fat before cooking, then you can add a little more oil. I didn’t remove mine, so I didn’t add so much oil when cooking.
2. You can buy fried onions at your local grocery store, or you can make them yourself in home. Take 1 medium onion, THINLY slice and fry them in 2 tbsps oil until dark brown and smelling nice.

Easy Chicken curry with yogurt(Chicken Kalia) recipe

Ingredients:
5 chicken thighs + 1 chicken breast cut in bite-size
3 potatoes peeled – cut in big cubes
1 tsp saffron threads, mixed in 2 cups of hot water
turmeric powder
oil for frying
1 cup yogurt
1 cup coriander leaves, chopped
1 cup mint leaves, chopped

A
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp onion paste
1/2 tsp chilli paste or 2 red chillies, chopped
1/2 cup fried onion
1/2 tsp pepper (optional)
2 tsp salt
3 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
1 cinnamon stick or 1 tsp cinnamon powder
4 cloves
3 cardamoms
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

Steps:

1. Add list A to chicken, mix well to coat the chicken with the spices and let marinate for at least 1 hour.
2. Add salt and a pinch of turmeric powder to the potatoes. Mix and deep-fry the potatoes over medium heat, until golden brown.Drain on kitchen paper and set aside.

3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil (from the oil used to dee-fry potatoes) in a non-stick pot. Add the marinated chicken, stir and cook over medium heat for 5 mins. Stir every 1-2 mins.

4. Add the 2 cups saffron-water( by now the water should be yellow). Cook for 2 mins over medium heat, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

5. Add potatoes and mix.

6. If you want more sauce, add some more water. Add yogurt and mix.
7. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes.
8. Add coriander-mint leaves. Mix, cover and turn off heat. The leaves will wilt from the hot curry, so no need to cook it more.
9. Serve with rice or bread(I had mine with chinese bread-mantou!)