Chicken Vindaloo Recipe
Chicken vindaloo recipe is tangy, sweet and hot curry with gravy. Vindaloo curry recipe is from Goan cuisine and also very popular in Maharastra state of India. Vindaloo recipe was originally created by the Portuguese. The word vindaloo itself comes from popular Portuguese recipe for “carne de vinha d’alhos” which means meat, wine and garlic.
The dish was brought to India in the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers came to India. Then it was customised to suit local customs. Wine was not available in India so it was replaced by palm wine which local people fermented on their own. People adjusted the curry to their local taste and added ingredients such as vinegar, sugar, fresh ginger, tamarind, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom and significantly, fiery chillies.
Recipe was further influenced by British during British Empire in India, they took added variations to the dish such as adding beef etc.
Today I am sharing authentic chicken vindaloo recipe. It is simple to prepare at home. The one reason to prepare it at home can be that you can adjust the pungency level according to your taste.
You do not need any store-bought spices. I have prepared it from scratch and so can you.
Preparation of Chicken vindaloo is divided into four main steps.
1. Marinating chicken in spices and vinegar
2. Preparing (vindaloo curry powder) dry spice mix
3. Preparing spice paste
4. Cooking chicken
Let’s jump to the recipe
Meanwhile check other chicken recipes –
Indian Butter Chicken Curry, Murgh Makhani
Ingredients
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon salt
7 whole black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 cardamom pods
7 dried red finger chilies
7 whole cloves
2 fresh hot green chiles, roughly chopped
7 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (1/2 inch) piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon tamarind paste
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil or clarified butter
2 red or white onions, finely diced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Salt to taste
Step by step on chicken vindaloo recipe
Step 1. Marination
Marinate chicken by adding above six ingredients chicken cubes, rice vinegar, ground cumin, turmeric powder and salt in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes. If you are not in hurry, marinate for longer as it will add more taste.
Step 2. Prepare vindaloo curry powder
Place a pan over medium flame. Add next 5 ingredients whole black peppercorns, bay leaf, cardamom pods, dried red finger chilies, whole cloves and dry roast them for about 1 minute.
Now put all the roasted ingredients in a grinder and grind to a fine powder.
Step 3. Prepare spice paste
In a grinder or blender add garlic, green chilies, ginger, tamarind and cinnamon powder. Blend mixture to a smooth paste.
Step 4. Cooking chicken
Place a pan over medium heat. Add two tablespoon of oil (I prefer ghee). Add the chopped onions. I like to use chopped onion instead of onion paste because sometime paste turns vindaloo gravy taste bitter.
Saute till onion caramalize or changes colour to golden brown.
Add spice paste prepared in step 3. Saute for 1 minute.
Add dry vindaloo curry powder prepared from step 2. Saute again for 20 seconds.
Add chicken cubes and saute.
Add salt to taste. Remember that we added salt previously while marinating so adjust salt quantity.
Add 1/4 cup water, sprinkle brown sugar and cover the lid. Let the chicken simmer on low heat until it’s cooked. It will take 8 to 10 minutes.
Chicken vindaloo is ready to serve. You can serve it with naan, chapati or plain basmati rice.
Recipe card – Chicken Vindaloo recipe
Vindaloo recipe is tangy, sweet and hot curry with gravy. Vindaloo curry recipe is from Goan cuisine and also very popular in Maharastra state of India.
- 1 pound 450 grams boneless chicken thighs cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 7 whole black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cardamom pods
- 7 dried red finger chilies
- 7 whole cloves
- 2 fresh hot green chiles roughly chopped
- 7 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1.5 inch piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
- 1 Tablespoon tamarind paste
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil or clarified butter
- 2 white or red onions finely diced
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- Salt to taste
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Marinate chicken by adding above six ingredients chicken cubes, rice vinegar, ground cumin, turmeric powder and salt in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes. If you are not in hurry, marinate for longer as it will add more taste.
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Gather ingredients whole black peppercorns, bay leaf, cardamom pods, dried red finger chilies, whole cloves.
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Place a pan over medium flame. Add 5 ingredients (whole black peppercorns, bay leaf, cardamom pods, dried red finger chilies, whole cloves) and dry roast them for about 1 minute.
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Now put all the roasted ingredients in a grinder and grind to a fine powder.
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In a grinder or blender add garlic, green chilies, ginger, tamarind and cinnamon powder. Blend mixture to a smooth paste.
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Place a pan over medium heat. Add two tablespoon of oil (I prefer ghee). Add the chopped onions. I like to use chopped onion instead of onion paste because sometime paste turns curry taste bitter.
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Saute till onion caramalize or changes colour to golden brown.
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Add spice paste prepared in step 3. Saute for 1 minute.
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Add dry vindaloo curry powder prepared from step 2. Saute again for 20 seconds.
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Add chicken cubes and saute.
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Add salt to taste. Remember that we added salt previously while marinating so adjust salt quantity.
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Add 1/4 cup water , sprinkle brown sugar and cover the lid. Let the chicken simmer on low heat until it's cooked. It will take 8 to 10 minutes.
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Chicken vindaloo is ready to serve. You can serve it with naan ,chapati or plain basmati rice.
Oliver Hutton says
Wicked recipe, very tasty, will be making again for sure.
One small niggle; you state the locals added chillies to this dish, I would imagine it was rather the opposite as it was the Portuguese who introduced the chilli pepper to the Indian sub-continent bringing it from South America.
Edward says
Do you add the marinade to the pan when sauteeing the chicken, or would that be too much liquid? Thanks.
Sheila says
This was delicious… nice hot, spicy and tangy… the breakdown of the process really helped ?
Oliver Medla says
Absolutely loved it. Just adjusted it slightly and added more chilies. Highly recommend this recipe.
Natalie Vaswani says
I see brown sugar mentioned in the list of ingredients but it doesn’t show up anywhere else. Is this a mistake? If not, at which step is it added?
rachnaskitchen says
Hi Natalie,
Thanks for letting me know. It would be added in last step no. 7 where water is added to cook chicken. Hope his helps you.
Stephen W Collins says
Is the spicy paste really tamarind paste? Can store bought tamarind paste be substituted for the spicy paste?
rachnaskitchen says
Hi Stephen,
Apologies for late reply. Spicy paste is made up of garlic, green chilies, ginger, tamarind and cinnamon powder grinding together. But if you want to make it mild just don’t add chilli and use rest of it. Spicy paste is not available in groceries. Have to be prepared from scratch at home. Thanks
Sarah Lang says
This looks good! Can’t wait to make it! Are jalapeno peppers the same as “hot green chilies?” Also, what are “dried red finger chilies?” I always have a hard time figureing out the different chili peppers.
Sunam Ellis says
If I want to add potatoes to the recipe, would I double the powder and paste to allow for it? What are your suggestions? Thank you!
Kellee Cropley says
This recipe is delicious! I followed the recipe exactly as written and it came out perfect, but, too hot for my husband. Will leave out the chilies next go round to ease the heat. This is a new favorite for me. Will be making it a lot!!!
Helen Jack says
This was amazing! I had 1 kg of chicken that I wanted to cook, so of course I doubled the recipe. As much as I like hot, it was super super hot!. Double all the other ingredients of course, but not the chilies! I used red dried Thai ones… 14 of them and 3 fresh green ones. Absolutely gorgeous flavour though. Will definitely make it again!! Thank you for this lovely recipe.
Helen Jack says
This was super delicious! I doubled the recipe as I needed to use up a kilo of chicken. Take a top tip from me- don’t double the chilli! I like super spicy, but we used dried red Thai chillies and they are super hot. Apart from the added heat, the flavour itself is awesome and will defiantly use again. I am assuming that this will be ok for beef and pork also?
Larry Singer says
I grew up with vindaloo in London. Where is the potato? I have never been served vindaloo without potato and London has the best vindaloo on earth.
rachnaskitchen says
Thanks for commenting and your question. Apparently potatoes are optional.
I did a quick search and this summarise it pretty well.
Should vindaloo have potatoes?
Even though the word aloo (आलू) means potato in Hindi, traditional Goan vindalho does not include any potatoes, as the name is a corruption of a Portuguese phrase with no Hindi etymology.