Keto Chicken Curry
Home style Keto Chicken Curry
You can never have too much curry can you? In the early days of Headbanger’s Kitchen I did a creamy chicken curry recipe. I even did a curry week on the show in 2017 (I think). These have largely been creamy or coconut based curries. I was inspired by a recently beef dish I made for my wife (which I will make on the show soon as well) and decided I wanted to do a chicken curry that was simple, easy and delicious. Something that has a decent amount of fat but is dairy free and also free from coconut milk or cream. Honestly this is a simple home style curry. It’s something you will will served in the home of an Indian family.
Having said that I must also point out that curry is a very generic term and each state of India has it’s own cuisine and it’s own way of making ‘curry’. I guess this would be the most basic and generic form of a classic chicken curry. Anyway enough jibber jabber. Enjoy!
Bhunao the onions, bhunao it all
The cooking down of the onions and tomato is the most important part of this recipe. It’s all about developing loads of flavour into the dish. Most versions of this country would have a sort of reinforcement of flavours by adding more ginger garlic paste and dry powder spices into the tomato and onion mixture. I decided to skip this because it’s additional carbs that we can avoid and I think when cooked properly you can extract the same kind of flavour. I also avoided using any dry spices like cloves, bay leaves etc which are normally fried along with the onions. My main motivation was to make this curry recipe as simple as possible. You all know how much I love simple recipes.
Nutrition Info (Per serving of sauce)
- Calories: 121
- Net Carbs: 4g
- Carbs: 5g
- Fat: 11g
- Protein: 2g
- Fiber: 1g
This recipe makes 4 servings. Get this recipe on myfitnesspal.
I can see that you are wondering as to why I would only give you the macro information for the sauce. There is a method to this madness. It’s very hard to calculate the calories and macros for an entire chicken. You might eat a breast piece, you might eat the leg, you might eat the neck and back. The macros and calories for each piece is different. So what I recommend doing is based on what you eat just add the information of just ‘boiled chicken’ in the app you use to track calories or macros. Alternatively you could make this recipe with say chicken thighs only and then add the macros for the number of thighs you eat. I leave that up to you to figure out. For now I think the macros for the ‘gravy’ are more important.
How are my photo skills?
You might have noticed a slight change in the photo styling of this recipe. I’m trying some new stuff. Let me know what you think. Here is another photo of the curry to admire.
Keto Chicken Curry
Ingredients
- 1 Full Chicken (Curry Cut)
- 100 grams Onion Finely diced
- 120 grams Tomato Finely diced
- 10 grams Ginger Garlic Paste I recommend this
- 60 grams Full Fat Greek Yogurt
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Tumeric I recommend this one
- 1 Tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder I use this
- 1 Tsp Coriander Powder I recommend this one
- 1 Tsp Cumin Powder I recommend this one
- 1/2 Tsp Garam Masala Powder I recommend this one
- 2 Tbsp Ghee I recommend this one
- 1 Tbsp Butter Try this one
- 1 Green Chilly
- Coriander for Garnish
- Juice of half a lime
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix the yogurt, salt, turmeric, chili powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder, cumin powder, ginger garlic paste and lime juice. Marinate the chicken in this mixture and set aside
- Heat the ghee in a heavy bottom saucepan and once it's nice and hot add in the onions. Cook the onions slow and slow till they turn brown. As they start to turn brown add a tbsp of water, cook it out, repeat this process till the onions are broken down into a nice mushy goop.
- Then add in the green chilly. Make sure you prick the skin with a knife or chop it up (if you want is spicier). Also add in the tomatoes.
- Cook the tomatoes low and slow with the onion till they break down. Use the trick of adding a tablespoon of water, cooking it out and repeating the process. This ensures everything comes together nicely.
- Once you have a nice pastey mixture then add in the chicken and give everything a good mix. Make sure you waste none of the marinade and get everything into the pan.
- Cook the chicken for a few minutes of a high heat and then rinse out the marinade bowl with some water and add that to the saucepan. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to medium and cover and cook for 15-20minutes till all the chicken is fully cooked.
- Mid way through the process open the lid and give everything a good stir.
- Once it's done cooking finish with a tablespoon of butter and some fresh coriander and give it all a final good mix.
- Serve with cauliflower rice or Keto naan.
Was sitting here thinking the water addition was weird. But stepped away from the pot and came back, and the onion and tomato chunks were simply gone. Replaced by a brown gravy, very nice technique. Couldn’t find Garam masala, so used Pav bhaji masala from a previous recipe. Finished mine off with a dollop of sour cream.
Overall: Very Tasty
Just had this for our dinner – fantastic recipe. Yum, yum, yum. Thank you, Sahil, from So0hie and Elaine k; the South Coast of England…
Btw – the photos are great, mouthwatering
Have this on the stove now – smelling good! Please could you do a video on how to cut a chicken in a way that makes it “curry cut”. I just hacked my bird into small pieces but it looks untidy!
It’s rare that I leave a comment on a blog, but in this case, I must do so!
I’m an Englishman exiled in Taiwan, and finding great Indian food here is not easy.
There are so many recipes online and in books., and I have tried in vain to make anything that resembles a restaurant dish. That is until now. Sir, I salute you!
Thank you for the kind words.
Sahil! This recipe is legit. My husband found this on your YouTube channel and immediately showed me this last night. We had it for dinner tonight over some cauliflower rice and it’s seriously one of the best keto dishes we’ve made! I think we have a new staple, thanks to you. Keep on keeping it keto and metal, my dude!
Hi Sahil,
This is simply the VERY BEST curry ever! I made it with your cauliflower rice recipe. TERRIFIC!!
It was so delish I could have eaten to whole pot!
This was gorgeous we absolutely loved it and will definitly be making this recipe again, thank you
Hi, I have ginger paste but only garlic cloves… can you suggest how much I can use of each if I can’t find ginger garlic paste in my small town? 🙂 Thanks.
It’s 2 parts ginger to 1 part garlic.
I made this over the weekend and it was great, my 2 y/o son and I both loved it. I may lose some authenticity points as I left the skin on because I love chicken skin plus I felt eating it skin on would help minimize the risk of having the Keto police kick in the front door interrupting our delicious dinner. I have always been afraid to attempt cooking any Indian food until I found your youtube channel, your channel has expanded my cooking repertoire tremendously.
haha it’s absolutely fine to cook with the skin, the authenticity is more in the the actual curry itself and less in the chicken pieces. 🙂
Your food tastes AMAZING!!!! I never thought I could make these bad ass recipes. You ROCK.
Hi sahil, i love your recipes! Can you please let me know the approximate weight of the chicken you used. I live in the US and chicken sizes are a bit bigger and vary .
Normally a full chicken here is 1kg-1.2kgs
Just had this for tea and wow! The best home made curry we ever had and one of best keto meals too. Absolutely love it ?
This was simply the best Chicken Curry I’ve ever tasted and I’ve tasted curry from the UK and all across the US (I live in Florida). I had it with lime, spring onion and cilantro cauliflower rice. Absolutely delicious…. my new go to recipe!!
Glad to hear that 🙂
I love this recipe. Have made it yet again today. Marinaded it all night in the fridge and cooked it in the slow cooker all day. It was deeeeelicious. Thanks Sahil. 🙂
My hubby of twenty years has just said “that’s the best curry you’ve ever made” and I totally agree so thanks for posting the video and recipe! My new go to curry recipe 🙂
Oh wow! So glad to hear that! 🙂
This was one of the best dishes I’ve made and had my family going back for seconds. Three or four times this evening they commented how good it was unprompted. You are proof that the Internet makes the world a little better by bringing folks together.
that is so good to hear Tom!! Thank you! 🙂
i love this recipe. Delicious. Can you freeze it ?
Yes, it freezes beautifully
I do not have ginger paste here, can I use powder instead?
Sure!
I am so mad at myself. I made this amazing curry but obviously put way too much water in there. I think I literally cleaned my bowl. But even so, the flavors were absolutely incredible and I CANNOT wait to do it again, without stuffing it up. Will have to watch my portion size, wanted to scoff down the lot. Btw, I used just chicken thighs, cut up into chunks, lovely. Thank you so much, please keep posting, I am new to this and already an avid fan!
Fantastic recipe! My partner said that the dish was restaurant quality? But considering that we are not Indians, I doubt that he knows real restaurant equality ? Thanks and cheers.
Hi Sahil, I have a confusion. So you have mentioned that this recipe makes 4 servings and on the bottom it says servings for 5 people. I didn’t quite get that. Do I divide the total by 4 or 5?
Sorry it’s 4 people I fixed it.
Could not find this on my fitness pal 😕
Just made this and it was delicious! I am so happy I came across your recipe, as I have found it hard to find a good curry recipe. I would make this even if I wasn’t on keto! Great flavor and simple to make. Will definitely be eating this again! Thank you Sahil!
Hello Sahil,
Can I sub yogurt with sour cream?
Looking forward to trying out this authentic chicken curry!! ☺️ Thank you.
You could.
Hi Sahil. I’ve never left a recipe review. Having just cooked this, all I can say if WOW. With the spices and a medium green chilli cut up it was the same heat as a madras, nice and thick and not oily. Better than a restaurant. I salute you. I used a mix of red and white onions. The white reduced more than the red.
Thank you so much!
Is this a hot curry or a mild curry? My husband can’t take anything too spicey but I love it both ways.
it’s not spicy at all. If you want it spicy use regular red chilli powder and add chopped green chillies when you sautee the onions. Otherwise use as it is. Kashmiri red chili powder is what I use because that’s not spicy.