Chicken Curry with Black Cardamom

12 Comments / Chicken / By Shilpa

Last December when I was pregnant with Ayaan, I had invited few of my friends and their parents (who were visiting them) to dinner. I told aunty that I love chicken and she told me she will make something for me. She had only 1-2 weeks until she returned to India. She was very sweet to take out time in the busy schedule to cook and send a big batch of chicken curry.

If there is one spice that is commonly used in Indian cooking that I cannot stand, it is black cardamom. I have tried it in different ways and somehow I never liked the aroma of it. But that cardamom did something magical to this chicken curry. It reminded me the chicken curry that I used to love eating in restaurants back home. I won’t lie, I did not want to share it with V or Ishaan. Yes, I was very mean. Comeon, I was 7 months pregnant and someone had sent me something that I really loved. I must have given them just few spoons of curry and I pretty much finished everything else. Then I asked aunty for the recipe and she was very kindto share it with me.

I have tried this couple of times. I did not want to buy black cardamom for this one dish, so I prepared it without that few times. But it never came out like aunty’s. Then I bought a small pack of black cardamom and tried again and it made such a huge difference to the curry.

Pictorial:
Half cook the chicken in spices.

Heat oil and fry whole spices, ginger-garlic paste.

Add the powders, fry for few minutes. Add chicken and cook.

Flavorful chicken curry spiced with black cardamom and other whole spices.

4.34 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Servings 7 -8

Ingredients

1 kg Chicken
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup roughly chopped onion this will go into paste
1 cup of dry coconut
2 tbl spn poppy seeds khuskhus
1 tbl spn sesame seeds til
2 tbl spn ginger garlic paste
A pinch turmeric
2 tbl spn coriander powder
1 tbl spn red chili powder
1 tbl spn spn garam masala
1/2 tea spn cardamom powder
Salt

Whole spices :

2 " cinnamon
2-3 cloves
3-4 black cardamom masala velchi/moti elaichi
3-4 peppercorns
2 bay leaves

Instructions

Dry roast poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dry coconut, cool them and grind to powder.
In a pan, heat oil and fry the roughly chopped onion till they are golden brown and grind to a paste.
Heat oil and add finely chopped onion, 1 tbl spn ginger garlic paste.
Fry till the onions are translucent.
Add turmeric, coriander powder, red chilli powder, fry for a minute.
Add the chicken, salt and cook till chicken is halfway cooked.
In a separate pan, heat oil and add whole spices.
Add remaining ginger-garlic paste, ground coconut, poppy seeds, sesame seed powders, onion paste, cardamom powder, garam masala.
Fry for few minutes and then add the half cooked chicken.
Add water to bring it to required consistancy. Adjust salt.
Serve hot.

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12 thoughts on “Chicken Curry with Black Cardamom”

Nina Mehta
November 12, 2014 at 9:11 pm

Shilpa,
I am very keen to try this out, but am a little confused about the roasted onion paste – when do we add it to the chicken?
Nina

Reply
1. Shilpa
  November 13, 2014 at 9:43 am
  
  Nina, thanks for pointing out. Updated.
JayanthiSindhiya
November 14, 2014 at 3:43 am

Fantastic curry with chappathi,awesome

Reply
MariKo
November 14, 2014 at 7:24 am

This looks like a quick recipe to make. I’m always looking for varieties of chicken gravy dishes with some dramatic difference in flavours. Thanks for this post.

Reply
rajeev
November 20, 2014 at 1:21 am

hi,
what is the need of the poppy seeds in the dish?

Reply
1. Shilpa
  November 21, 2014 at 10:46 am
  
  It gives thickness to the dish
Anju
November 21, 2014 at 5:28 pm

Hi Shilpa, long time reader here. Can I use fresh coconut instead of dried?

Reply
1. Shilpa
  November 22, 2014 at 6:00 pm
  
  Yes
Dave
November 9, 2019 at 12:22 pm

Hey Shilpa dark & smokey just love black cardamom just finished it off with a bit of coconut cream & fresh coriander – hope you don’t mind adding just a little bit of sweetness but this is great thx

Reply
Victoria
April 11, 2022 at 10:29 pm

Great flavor, I added some coconut milk since I didn’t have dry coconut

Reply
Laura
December 28, 2022 at 10:17 pm

Hi Shilpa,
The 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder on the ingredient list, is green or black?
Thank you, I’m so looking forward to make this dish.

Reply
1. Shilpa
  January 1, 2023 at 4:54 pm
  
  That is green cardamom powder.