Chicken Vindaloo
Serves 4 Time 1 hour Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 15 Steps 19
Vindaloo is a hot and spicy dish from the Goa region of India. Its heavy use of vinegar and the traditional meat of pork are due to the Portuguese influence on the area. Vindaloo is a popular Indian restaurant meal, where it is often made with pork, beef, chicken, lamb, prawns, or vegetables such as mushrooms.
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breast fillets
- 2–3 large onions
- 2 fresh chile peppers (any color)
- 6 cloves of garlic (or 6 tsp minced)
- 2 cm cube of fresh ginger
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp dried coriander powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp cinnamon powder
- 1½ tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp black mustard seeds
- ½ tsp rock salt
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves
- ½ cup water
Steps
Make the onion sauce
- Pour enough vegetable oil into thick-based frying pan to cover base with a little excess. Heat on stovetop.
- Slice onions into thin slivers. Add to very hot oil.
- Turn heat to low. Sauté gently; after around 3 minutes they should start to caramelize.
- Gradually turn up heat. Stir continually until heavily browned without burning.
- Add white wine vinegar. Keep stirring until it evaporates. Fry several more minutes until very brown, not burnt.
- Remove onions to bowl, letting as much oil as possible drip back into pan.
- Put onions in blender or food processor with around 1 tablespoon oil. Process around 1 minute into fairly thick, dark brown sauce.
- Remove sauce from blender. Set aside.
Make the garlic/chili paste
- Coarsely chop garlic cloves (and ginger if using). De-seed chili peppers and chop likewise. Add garlic and chillies to food processor.
- Blend into fairly grainy, liquid sauce.
- Add turmeric, coriander powder, garam masala and cinnamon. Stir until well mixed. Set aside.
- Crush black peppercorns in mortar and pestle until coarse. Add mustard seed and rock salt. Continue until all spices form coarse powder.
Cook the paste and meat
- Pour a little oil into saucepan. Add spiced garlic and chili paste, slightly floating on oil, not touching pan bottom.
- When sauce is hot and bubbling, add chopped meat. Stir until meat absorbs spice mix and is browned and mostly cooked.
Add onion sauce and simmer
- Add onion sauce. Stir 1 minute. Add a little water. Stir 2 minutes. Turn heat quite low. Sauce should be quite runny and orange/tan.
- Add vegetables if desired, such as half a cup of frozen peas.
- Cover. Cook around 30-40 minutes. Stir every 5 or 10 minutes to prevent sticking or burning.
- In last 15 minutes, boil 2 cups pilau or basmati rice in a pan.
- Spoon curry over rice. Sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves. Serve immediately.
Notes from the original
- Powdered or dried ingredients can be substituted for fresh, but at the expense of taste.
- If you don't have fresh ginger use 2 cloves garlic + 1 tsp dried ginger powder.
- Double the amount of each of these ingredients:
- chosen chilies (if you like very spicy curry)
- garlic
- ginger
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Chicken Vindaloo” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-02-03, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Chicken Vindaloo.jpeg by Carpathia at English Wikibooks, Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.