Chicken Pathia

Chicken Pathia is a traditional British Indian Restaurant (BIR) recipe for a classic curry of chicken in a base curry sauce flavoured with a spice mix with sweet and sour provided by jaggery and tamarind paste. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Chicken Pathia.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

25 minutes

Total Time:

45 minutes

Serves:

Rating:

Tags : Curry BIR Curries Spice Recipes Chicken Recipes British Recipes

Also spelled pathia, this is another Parsee (ie Persian) dish that entered India about 1500 BCE. Traditionally it's cooked with fish (or prawns as a substitute) but in BIR versions, chicken and lamb based dishes are almost equally as common. You can find a more traditional fish-based recipe on my Fish Pathia recipe page. Note that instead of fish you could use prawns (shrim) for a prawn pathia, paneer for a paneer pathia or pre-cooked lamb for a lamb pathia.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced (or 1 tsp garlic paste)
600ml Base Curry Sauce (either base curry sauce or Indian restaurant curry base)
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into 2cm chunks
1 tsp garam masala
Small handful of coriander (chop up the stems to add to the curry and keep a few leaves aside for the garnish)
Salt, to taste
800g Indian cooked chicken or tandoori chicken
1 tbsp jaggery (or brown sugar)
1 tbsp tamarind paste/tamarind chutney (or lime juice)

For the Spice Mix:
1 tbsp curry powder eg madras curry powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

Method:

Place a large pan or wok over medium heat then add the oil and when hot add the garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute. In the meantime, blend the spices for the spice mix with a little water to form a paste. Stir this paste into the pan or wok and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the base curry sauce and bell pepper then bring to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes before adding the chicken and coriander stalks. Cook for 5 minutes then add the jaggery, tamarind and garam masala. Continue cooking for 5 minutes, until the chicken is heated through.

Turn into a serving dish, garnish with the coriander leaves and serve.