Chicken and Pepper Curry (Chicken Jalfrezi)
Chicken Jalfrezi is a classic chicken and pepper curry made using a stir-fry technique. If you like bold flavors and a bit of crunch from fresh vegetables, this is the dish for you.
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 45 min
- Yield
- 6 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1.5 pounds boneless chicken. (I usually use skinless and boneless chicken thighs.)
- 2 medium-sized bell peppers.
- 1 brown onions.
- 3 cloves garlic.
- 1- inch ginger
- 1 teaspoons ground cumin.
- 1 teaspoons ground coriander.
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder.
- 1 teaspoons cayenne pepper.
- ½ teaspoons ground or coarse black pepper.
- 1 teaspoon salt.
- ½ can tinned tomatoes (see the note.)
- 1 cup water.
- ⅓ cup cooking oil.
Instructions
- 1
Clean and cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Set aside.
- 2
Peel and slice the onions.
- 3
Peel the garlic and ginger then grind them into paste OR chop them as fine as possible. Set aside.
- 4
In your cooking pot, heat the oil then put the chopped onions in. Fry until the onions become light golden.
- 5
Add in the ginger-garlic paste to the onions. Continue frying for a minute then put all the spices and salt in. Stir well and cook further until you can smell the aroma from the spice.
- 6
Then put the tomatoes in the spice mixture, give it a stir and cook further with a lid on at low heat. Keep checking and stirring every now and again. Try to mash the tomatoes every time you mix it.
- 7
When you see the liquid evaporate from your spice mix/ masala, put ½ cup of water in and give it a good stir and mash the tomatoes. Your mixture will look like a thick sauce by now.
- 8
Give another ½ cup of water to your spice mixture and keep stirring until all blended well. And let it cook further at low heat until the sauce becomes thick and the oil separates from the spice.
- 9
You can now put your chicken pieces in. Give a good stir until all chicken pieces coated with the sauce. Put the lid on and cook at medium-high heat.
- 10
Take care of your curry and keep checking and stirring every now and then.
- 11
The chicken releases quite a bit of juice that it will make your curry very runny. If this happens, you can slightly open the lid and put heat on high. Just make sure you keep checking and stirring so that the chicken won’t get burned.
- 12
When all the liquid evaporates, and the oil separates (again), you can put your peppers pieces in.
- 13
Give your curry a good stir, put the lid back and let it cook.
- 14
The regular chicken and peppers curry that most people or restaurants make always have softened peppers. Because they cook the peppers until fully and thoroughly cooked. So if you like softened cooked peppers in your curry, you can let your pepper chicken curry to cook for about 10-15 minutes more after you put peppers in.
- 15
Just make sure you keep checking because the peppers release their juice as well. And that can make your curry a little runny. Although there is nothing wrong with that. It’s just that this pepper chicken curry is supposed to have thick masala and not runny.
- 16
My family and I prefer to have the vegetables crunchy. So I only cook the peppers for about a minute or two after I put them in the pot. I leave that to your personal choice, ok?
- 17
When your chicken and pepper curry are ready, you can enjoy it with chapati/ roti, naan bread, pitta bread, or plain Basmati rice.