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.
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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.