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.
This is my favorite curry and this recipe was great. I’ve never made it before, in fear of it not being as good as it is in restaurants, but it was!! All my friends loved it too.
Great to hear that it worked out for you. I make this all the time and love it too.
Made this for the first time this evening and I was very pleased with the results and just how fast it was to make.
My local takeaway produces a Dhansak that has a distinct fruity taste but no fruit pieces so I was interested to see the mention of pineapple juice in your recipe.
The taste and texture of your recipe is almost identical to my local which is what I wanted but its clearly not pineapple juice they are using. I suspect they are using orange juice so I will give that a try next.
Thanks for your hard work.
Hi Ken
I’ve found that a lot of the better restaurants mix in papaya pulp or juice. This works really well. I’ve never tried orange juice with a dhansak so I look forward to hearing what you think.
Cheers.
Dan
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Regards, Adrian
I moved to CANADA 3 tears ago and miss my favourite Chicken Dansak. Will try this but my cooking skills are very limited hope my BIR curry sauce is as good as hours to complete the Dansak…
Just let me know if you have any recipe questions Noel. Good luck. 🙂
Dan
I have been looking for a recipe for this for ages and am keen to try it, I have been cooking curry fir a long time but have never come across curry gravy?!
Hi Lauren
It’s often called a curry sauce or base sauce. Base sauces aren’t used in authentic Indian cookery so if you purchased an Indian cookbook, you wouldn’t have seen it. This recipe is for British Indian restaurant style food. The recipe is very close to what you’ll find at a curry house.
Hope you get a chance to try it.
Dan
Will try this. Just curious about the pineapple juice though, is this the type of pineapple juice that you would use as a drink mixer, or the juice from a tin of pineapple rings? Two different things or does it matter?
Thanks
Hi Dave
Use fresh pineapple juice. The juice in the tin of pineapple rings will do the job just fine. 🙂
Dan
Could you clarify something for me please? Is it one cup of cooked lentils or one cup of raw lentils, cooked? One cup of raw lentils once cooked, seems an awful lot.
Love the BIR recipes, by the way. Garlic chilli chicken is a favourite!
Hi Adam
I better have a look at my wording. It is a cup full of pre-cooked lentils. As with more curry house food, the food is almost always pre-cooked and then assembled again when ordered.
Dan
A few tablespoons of lemon juice and some sugar achieves that sweet and sour flavour of a good Dhansak.
I have seen Dhansak described as Sweet, Sour and Hot.
I made this recipe and followed it exactly but it seemed to be lacking sweet and sour. It was plenty hot with the 1 TBSP of Chili Powder.
I did add more pineapple juice but the heat still over powered the dish.
Do you have any advice how to add more sweetness? And should it have a bit of sour?
Thanks for this great website.
Hi Ryan
If you want the curry to be sweeter, add more pineapple juice. That will work fine. For the sour, add lemon juice or even a little citric acid or tamarind.
Hope this helps.
Dan
Hi You say 3 cardaman pods how many seeds is that can’t get whole pods in Cyprus.
is there a substitute for fenugreek in sauce
Hi Julian
1/2 teaspoon should be fine. Good luck.
Dan
Hi dan , just a quick query if you use the chicken from the ” pre cooked method ” do you use the WHOLE of the broth as well and combine that into the. Base sauce or just the chicken from the broth ? and would you blend that broth mixture as you do with the base sauce cheers terry
Hi Terry
I usually add just a little bit of the broth for flavour. There is no need to blend it. Perhaps a tablespoon or two of the broth. Hope this helps. I’m updating this recipe soon with step by step photographs.
Dan
Making this tomorrow. Just finished my base sauce. Dhansak is by far my favourite curry and can’t wait to eat this.
Great to hear Harvey. I’m just about update this recipe. Hope you enjoyed this version.
Thanks
Dan
I’ve done the base sauce but would prefer to cook chicken in smaller batches. Is there an alternative method without making a broth ?
Hi Lloyd
You could actually just add the chicken raw if you want. The pre-cooked method gives a little more flavour but that isn’t really important as there are so many nice ingredients in the sauce. You could also use leftovers from a chicken roast or simply fry up some chicken before adding. Hope this helps.
Thanks
Dan
Wow! Used the basic curry sauce, and this recipe, to make one of the best curries I have ever cooked. As close to a curry house dish as I have managed to create in 25 years of trying. I varied it slightly by using raw chicken thigh fillets which I fried up with the garlic/ginger paste and turmeric at the start.
Thank Mark. I’m really glad you liked the recipe. It’s great to have this kind of feedback. 🙂
Dan
Hey Dan,
I am a first timer, I actually hate cooking, but found your recipes quite interesting, might try to cook 1 of these days, howerve in your chicken dhansak recipe you mentioned Check for seasoning, kindly do forward the recipe for the same, I have no clue what it means, thnx
Hi Carol
Thanks for stopping by. All that means is try it. If you think it needs a little more salt, chilli powder etc, add it at that stage. Hopefully you will not need to add anything.
Thanks
Dan
Love curry, when I ask people to the house for dinner, I am always being asked to make curry! I make two or three so they can try different flavours, now will try even more with you on tap to guide me. Many thanks
Great Stephanie. Thanks for stopping by and happy cooking.
Dan
what is base curry sauce? and how do I make it please?
Hi Arron
Looks like there is a problem with the link on the page. I’ll have to look into that. Here is the link to the sauce. https://www.greatcurryrecipes.net/2013/12/31/make-indian-restaurant-style-curry-sauce-large-batch/
Thanks
Dan
I’ve noticed that this recipe is slightly different to the one in your book I downloaded from amazon. Which one would you say is better.
Hi Gavin
They are only slightly different. I tend to change my recipes often. I wouldn’t say that this one is any better than that in the book. 🙂
Thanks
Dan
Hi Dan
I’m about to make a chicken Dhansak for the first time after reading lots of good reviews about your curry recipes and the curry base, on looking through the ingredients it mentions 1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves but when reading through the steps on cooking the spices it doesn’t say when to add the fenugreek leaves, could you lease advise.
Regards
Davey
Thanks for noticing Davey. Just add them at the end. I’ll have to fix that.
Cheers
Dan
Dan
Thanks for the recipes – we cook often and eat a lot of asian food. Indian and Bangladeshi recipes never turn out as expected, still delicious, but different. Your base curry sauce really helps.
The dhansak was brilliant – exactly like a takeaway one, which is EXACTLY what we wanted.
Paul
Thanks Paul
Great to hear you liked the recipe!
Dan
Hi Dan,
I use my dad’s curry base and follow your other added ingredients to make your curries. I love this technique as it allows me to use mixture of my dad’s (who sadly passed away) recipe and help from you to make all these delicious curries.
Thanks
Pete
Hi Peter
Really glad you like the recipes. Sorry to hear about your dad. It sounds like a good way of remembering him.
Dan
Dan can you please tell me how many garlic I should use to make the 9 tablespoons of paste . Also the size of ginger please?
Hi Saf
It’s about 100g or each. Hope this helps.
Dan
Hi, the recipe calls for 1 and a half tablespoons of cumin and coriander powder, is that three quarters of a tbs for each one or one and a half of each?
Hi Sally
It is really to taste but I always do a 50/50 mix.
Dan
Hi,the curry tastes lovely ,but the colour was wrong ,it was quite a pale more like a korma look
Hi Liz
Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you liked the recipe. As for the colour, it is probably down to me using more chilli powder or tomato paste than the recipe calls for. I’m really not sure but I rarely use exact measures. The measures in the recipe are there as a guide. I like my curries quite spicy so it is probably down to the chilli powder I used. If you like a redder colour but not hot spice, try a sweet paprika.
Cheers,
Dan
i am working bengali curry house ,
up northern england the dansak recipie for us is of more creamy consistancy .
you recipe is near but we make a spiced lentil pulp by slow cook lentil in water and spices then allow to dry putting in fridge
then making dansak similar to korma but adding pinapple must be from tin 1 ring
also add lemon and yes uht cream at the end after cooking high with gravy
less lemon used up north
further south they prefer more sour
the samba curry very similar
Hi Abdul
Where are you? I live in North Yorkshire. I would love to stop by and watch you cook and perhaps learn a few recipes. What is the name of your restaurant?
Cheers,
Dan
Hi Dan,
The Dhansak is my favourite curry. And I have been trying to master it for a few years now. I don’t use a base sauce(yet) and recently have been experimenting with a slow cooker. I’m finding my sauce to be on the thin side however. Any tips for thickening without compromising flavour? Instead of pineapple I use mango chutney which helps thicken a little but not enough. Maybe the base sauce is the way forward!!
Darren
Hi Darren
The base sauce is definitely the way forward. It is thin like water but it thickens up when cooked in the curry quickly because of all the other ingredients. Give it a try. That’s how it’s done at the curry houses. 🙂
Thanks,
Dan
Hi Dan.
I’m deciding between and chicken and lamb dhansak to cook this weekend. I read both your recipes and they are quite different. The lamb dhansak is much simaplerr and doesn’t have the garlic/ginger paste. Can you elaborate on the differences ?
Btw I have the app and o am loving the recipes. Dopiaza and especially the Madras are stand outs for me. !
Andy
Hi Andrew
Thanks for stopping by. I always say, adjust the recipes to your own personal taste and tweak them if you need to. Hope you enjoy those other recipes.
Thanks,
Dan
Just about to have my first try with your recipes! When you use paprika, is it sweet or smoked?
Thanks.
Hi Steve
For this one I usually use sweet paprika but there’s no reason you couldn’t use smoked. If it sounds good, do it.
Thanks,
Dan
Hi
Great recipe,
So first of all thanks for sharing!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it already but for extra flavour I saved the chicken poaching liquor to cook the lentils in.
I won’t be spending out for take away any more as this is absolutely delicious!
Thanks
Dan
Great to hear Dan. Good idea too. Lots of great flavour in the stock.
Cheers,
Dan