Skip to Content

BIR Jalfrezi Turkey Curry

Sharing is caring!

This turkey curry is so easy to make.

If you’re looking for a good and healthy turkey curry recipe, look no further.

This curry house style jalfrezi turkey curry offers a delicious way to use up leftover turkey or you could cook it tandoori style and add it to the sauce.

I think you’re going to love this one.

jalfrezi turkey curry

Make this with tandoori turkey tikka or leftover turkey. Both very good.

A bit about this turkey curry recipe…

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know that I am a big fan of British Indian Restaurant (BIR) style cooking.

I have many recipes for BIR curries and also have a curry sauce recipe that makes cooking BIR curries faster and easier.

Curry house style cooking is perfect when you just want to whip up a turkey curry like this quickly. You will need to make the essential base sauce but that’s easy.

You can also use it in all of the BIR recipes on my blog.

Does this curry have to be made with turkey?

Absolutely not! But if you want to cook with turkey meat, you will love it.

This turkey curry recipe can be used with any meat or fish. try it with chicken tikka or lamb tikka and you won’t be disappointed.

Remember though, if you are using other types of meat such as lamb, goat or beef, you will need to cook the meat a lot longer so that it is tender and nice before serving.

Tandoori turkey tikka vs leftover turkey…

I developed this turkey curry recipe to be used with leftover Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey.

I didn’t have any leftover turkey when I wrote this so I used tandoori turkey tikka. You can find an easy recipe for that here

Using marinated and grilled turkey tikka adds another layer of delicious flavour but you won’t be disappointed with plain old leftover turkey.

This turkey curry can be made with either and it’s a great way to use up leftovers and give them new life. 

Step by step photographs…

Frying mustard seeds and curry leaves

Heat the oil and then add the mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add the curry leaves.

Adding onions and peppers to pan

Add the onions and peppers and fry for about 5 minutes or until about 80% cooked.

Adding chillies to pan

Then stir in the chopped green chillies.

Adding ground spices to pan

Stir in the garlic and ginger paste, ground spices and then the tomato puree.

Adding basse sauce to curry

Follow this with one or two ladles of base sauce. Bring to a simmer.

Adding the meat to the pan

stir in the tandoori turkey or pieces of leftover turkey.

Finishing the jalfrezi turkey curry

Add the quartered tomato, the fenugreek leaves and salt to taste. A good twist of lime juice is also good!

If you like this turkey curry, you might like to try some of these recipes too…

Peshwari turkey curry
Leftover turkey soup
Chicken tikka masala
Chicken korma
Lamb rogan josh
Chicken chilli garlic
Lamb vindaloo

You’ll find all the curry house favourites on my blog and in my cookbooks. Turkey can be used in any of them.

Turkey curry

Dig in!

Yield: 2

Turkey Curry With An Easy BIR Homemade Curry Sauce

Jalfrezi turkey curry
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil
  • 1 tsp black mustard seeds
  • 10 fresh or frozen curry leaves
  • 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 each yellow, red and green bell peppers, thinly sliced
  • 2 green bird's eye chillies, thinly sliced
  • 1 tbsp garlic and ginger paste
  • 4 tbsp tomato puree
  • 300ml (1 1/4 cups) base curry sauce (approx.)
  • 1 tbsp mixed powder
  • 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 1 tomato, quartered
  • 1/2 tsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
  • Salt to taste
  • Juice of one lime

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the black mustard seeds. When they begin to crackle, add the curry leaves and fry for about 30 seconds.
  2. Add the sliced onions and bell peppers and fry for about 5 minutes or until about 80% cooked through. Then stir in the green chillies.
  3. Stir to combine and the add the garlic and ginger paste and fry for about 15 seconds. Add the ground spices and tomato puree.
  4. Now add about 1 or 2 ladles of base curry sauce and bring to a simmer. No need to stir the pan unless it is sticking. Be sure to scrape any sauce that is caramelising to the side of the pan back in for even more delicious flavour.
  5. Simmer for a few minutes. For a saucier curry, add more base or just cook it down for a drier curry.
  6. To finish, add the kasoori methi (dried fenugreek), the quartered tomato and salt to taste. Squeeze over the lime juice and serve.

Did you like this recipe?

Please join me on Facebook where I share all my latest recipes and videos. Just click that Facebook icon on the left and let's get to know each other!


 

I hope you enjoy this jalfrezi turkey curry recipe. If you do try it, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

How To Cook The Perfect Curry

Thursday 7th of June 2012

Hi Dan I have just cooked and eaten this curry.Firstly let me say I loved it,I was a little sceptical at first as it was quick and basic and restaurant style while'st cooking I was tempted to add other ingredients but I resisted and stuck to the recipe.The only change I had to make was green cadamom's instead of black as I had none in the cupboard,I added 1 tsp of garam masala at end of cooking and more fresh coriander. I will certainly be cooking this again and recommend others to also try it. A fruity slightly sweet medium heat curry made in under 30 minutes

Dan Toombs

Thursday 7th of June 2012

Thank you very much for trying the recipe. I'm really glad you liked it! Dan

How To Cook The Perfect Curry

Thursday 7th of June 2012

I have some turkey steaks left over from yesterday will give this a try today as it's a quick recipe and sounds good.

Skip to Recipe

Sharing is Caring

Help spread the word. You're awesome for doing it!