Name: Restaurant Style Chicken Chaat
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: BIR
Ingredients: 2 - 3 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil; 1/2 onion - finely chopped; 1 tbsp garlic and ginger paste; 1 tbsp chaat masala; 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder; 1 tbsp mixed powder; 70ml (1/4 cup) tomato puree; 300ml (1 1/4 cup) approx. base sauce; 500 to 700g Tandoori Chicken; 1/2 cucumber - roughly chopped; 1 tomato - quartered; 1/4 red bell pepper - roughly chooped; 4 tbsp chickpeas; Salt to taste; 1/2 tsp garam masala

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Making restaurant style chicken chaat is both quick and easy.

This is the chicken chaat from my cookbook 'The Curry Guy Bible' but done in a curry house portion.

My books mostly feature curry house recipes in family sizes but so often I get asked how to make them in Indian restaurant portions.

It's not rocket science! Just halve the recipes.

That said, this restaurant style chicken chaat recipe will save you having to do that.

The Base Sauce

Curry house curries require a base curry sauce. It's the liquid required to cook the curry. Here is one of my many recipes.

This base sauce is also a very important ingredient because it gives the curry it's curry house flavour and smooth sauce texture.

The sauce on its own doesn't taste of much. It's quite bland actually.

The magic happens when it hits the pan.

Although I have given a guide amount to use in the recipe below, it really is down to the chef. If your curry is looking too dry, add more base sauce. If it's too saucy, cook it down.

Working ahead...

Curries often have a lot of different ingredients. That's just the way it is.

You will make things a lot easier on yourself if you get all of your ingredients prepared and lined up in the order they are added before starting to cook.

Although you could add raw chicken to this recipe and cook it in the sauce, I highly recommend making tandoori chicken tikka.

One of my 'go-to' recipes is right here.

This not only makes this restaurant style chicken chaat taste more like those you find at restaurants, it also speeds up the cooking time and adds another delicious layer of flavour.

Ingredients for restaurant style chicken chaat — Get your ingredients together before starting. It makes things a lot easier.

What exactly is restaurant style chicken chaat?

Delicious! You might know that already if you have ordered it when dining out.

Chaat mean snack. There are many authentic chaats that come from India.

This restaurant style chicken chaat is different though. It has a real curry house flavour that is so good.

One thing that is common in Indian chaats is the use of chaat masala. This is a spice blend that contains black salt, giving it a unique flavour.

You can purchase chaat masala. It's readily available at Asian shops and online but you might like to try my homemade recipe here.

If you like looking at step by step photos of what you're about to cook, here you go...

Frying onions — Heat the oil over medium high heat and fry the onions for about 5 minutes until soft and translucent.

Adding garlic and ginger paste — Stir in the garlic and ginger paste and fry for about 30 seconds.

Adding ground spices — Add the ground spices which in this case are chaat masala, chilli powder and mixed powder.

Stirring in tomato puree — Add the tomato puree and stir well.

adding base sauce — Add the base sauce a little at a time.

Adding tomato puree, base sauce and chicken — Add the tomato puree followed by a ladle of base sauce. Top it up when looking dry. Stir in the chicken.

Adding vegetable — Add the tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumber and chickpeas. Season with salt to taste and sprinkle with garam masala.

Restaurant style chaat is just one of the many curry house favourites you can make at home. Try some of these too...

Madras sauce
Korma sauce
Dhansak sauce
tikka masala sauce
chilli garlic sauce
Bhuna sauce

Yield: 1 - 2