Chicken Dhansak
My Latest and Favourite Chicken Dhansak Recipe is in my New Hardbound Cookbook!
I published a similar chicken dhansak recipe in my first ebook “How To Make British Indian Restaurant Style Meals”. In that recipe, I left the pineapple out as I wasn’t a big fan.
Here I’ve added the pineapple and guess what… I actually quite like it! This curry always goes down well and I often make an extra large batch. I then split it and make a fiery hot version by adding more chillies and a mild version.
I used chicken here but you could add anything to your dhansak sauce you like. Paneer goes quite well.
Forward Preparation
Curry Sauce
Each of the authentic British Indian restaurant (BIR) recipes on my blog requite a base curry sauce. There is a link to the recipe in the recipe below. Once this is made, you can make many different curry house style curries in about ten minutes.
PRE-COOKED CHICKEN
I pre-cook chicken in two ways. Most Indian restaurants use this method to prepare their chicken for this curry. In this recipe, the chicken pieces are slow cooked in a spiced broth. You could add a couple of tablespoons of the cooking juices to your curry for extra flavour.
You could also add tandoori style chicken tikka to this recipe if you’d like to create tandoori Chicken Dhansak.
Frying the garlic and ginger paste with the turmeric
Adding the rest of the spices.
In goes the heated base curry sauce.
Adding the cooked lentils.
Add the chicken and pineapple, check for seasoning and serve.
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- 800 – 1000g pre-cooked chicken
- 2 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons garlic and ginger paste
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon Madras curry powder
- 1 ½ tablespoons cumin & coriander powder
- 1 tablespoon chilli powder (more or less to taste)
- 1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 250ml red split lentils (rinsed and cook until soft - about 30 minutes)
- 700ml heated base curry sauce
- 3 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander
- salt and pepper to taste
- 100ml pineapple juice
- 3 – 4 pineapple rings - cut into pieces
- Heat the ghee/oil over medium heat. Spoon in the ginger and garlic paste along with the turmeric and let sizzle for about 30 seconds. The turmeric will become darker as you do this.
- Now add the cumin, curry powder, chilli powder and tomato paste.
- Stir to combine before adding the base curry sauce and let it simmer for about a minute.
- Add the cooked lentils and stir it all up. Be careful as lentils will burn to the bottom. Stir often and reduce the heat if necessary.
- Now add the chicken pieces and the pineapple juice and pineapple pieces. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Top with the chopped coriander and serve.