This Homestyle Boneless Chicken Handi is a must-try dish for curry lovers. It features boneless chicken cooked in a rich, tomato and yoghurt base gravy, finished with a touch of double cream. Chicken Handi’s most delicious looks and flavour-packed gravy is a perfect treat at a weekend dinner, potluck or get-together. Many restaurants and takeaways recreate and modify this dish according to their liking. Here is how to make Chicken Handi at home and enjoy the applause it brings to you from your family and friends.

Table of Contents:

1. About the recipe

2. Ingredients

3. Step-by-Step method

4. Tips

 1. About the recipe

Chicken Handi, which means chicken in a clay pot is a traditional Northern Indian Curry. Its distinctive flavour comes from being cooked in an earthen clay pot. Home cooks like me can use any heavy bottom pan or pot instead of the traditional pot. This recipe flaunts a decent fan base and is served in all Indian restaurants worldwide. It is an easy curry recipe of succulent chicken pieces dunked in a rich tomato base creamy sauce. In the UK, British Indian Restaurant style Chicken Handi is cooked in a pre-cooked curry base. In this blog, I am sharing my recipe for making Chicken Handi from scratch without using a pre-cooked curry base.

Here is my Chicken Handi recipe below.

Reasons you will love this Chicken Handi ❤️ 

• Takes less than an hour to make from start to finish, making it a perfect choice for easy dinners.
• The recipe comes with step-by-step instructions making it accessible for novice cooks.
• It is a make-ahead dish, you can cook the gravy, grill or fry the chicken in advance and store it. When it’s time to serve, combine them all cook for a few minutes, and come up with the most delicious surprise for your family.
• This dish comes with a thick and creamy sauce, perfect with Naan or Basmati Rice.
• It is a comforting dish that brings absolute solace to any meal.
• Being a pot recipe, you will have fewer dishes to wash.
• Any leftovers can be enjoyed the next day, the flavours tend to deepen and improve over time.
• Leftovers can also be used for pizza topping or stuffing for sandwiches or wraps.

  Let’s start cooking!

  Serving Suggestions: 3 to 4 

  Preparation time: 10 minutes 

  Cooking time:  30  minutes 

2. Ingredients 

     For Chicken Marinade 

• 500 gm boneless chicken(thigh or breast part,cut into bite-size pieces)
• 1 tablespoon fresh yoghurt 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 
• 1 teaspoon garlic paste 
• 1 teaspoon ginger paste 
• Salt
• ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder.
• ½ teaspoon garam masala powder 

   For Chicken Handi Gravy    

• 1 large onion (finely chopped)
• 4 medium tomatoes (chopped)
• 1 teaspoon ginger paste 
• 1 teaspoon garlic paste 
• 1 teaspoon chopped green chillies 
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 
• 1 teaspoon  Kashmiri red chilli powder 
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder 
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder 
• 1 teaspoon garam masala powder 
• 1 teaspoon of kasoori methi (Fenugreek leaves)
• 2 tablespoons thick yoghurt 
• 1 tablespoon fresh cream 
• Handful of fresh coriander leaves 
• 3 tablespoons of ghee or butter or replace with the same quantity of vegetable oil 
• Salt

3. Step by Step method 

• First, let’s start with the Marination of Chicken pieces. In a medium-sized mixing bowl add chicken pieces and all the ingredients mentioned for chicken marinade. Boneless chicken works best for this recipe, however, you can use curry-cut chicken too.

• Once the marinade is done, cover and refrigerate it for 15 to 20 minutes. The longer chicken marinates the better they taste.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the heavy bottom pan/pot on a medium flame. Add marinated chicken pieces and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and keep aside.

Preparation of Chicken Gravy

• Now add the remaining oil to the pan.
• Add cumin seeds, chopped green chillies and chopped onion.
• Fry until onions are translucent in colour.
• Add ginger garlic paste and mix. Saute for a few seconds.

• Now add chopped tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and salt.
• Cook on medium flame until tomatoes get soft and the water dries up.
• Add thick yoghurt and cook on a medium flame for 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add the chicken pieces back in, Close the lid and cook for 15 to 20 minutes on low flame or until the chicken is tender. Stir occasionally and add a tablespoon of water if needed.
• Add fresh cream, kasoori methi and a little garam masala powder. Combine well with all the ingredients and cook for another 2 minutes.
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and ginger strips. Serve with Basmati Rice, Pulao, Naan, flatbread or Paratha.

 4. Tips

• Soak the chicken breast pieces in salty water for 10 minutes. They will be juicier when cooked.
• Use ghee or butter for making Chicken Handi it enhances the dish’s overall flavour and takes it to another level.
• Marination of Chicken is very important. Each piece needs to be coated with the marinade to work upon them and turn them into most juiciest and flavoursome pieces.
• Lemon juice is added to the chicken pieces as it is known to tenderise the meat. 
• Adding red chilli powder to the gravy may turn it overly hot. Using Kashmiri red chilli powder for beautiful red colour the gravy with the required hotness to make it irresistible.
• To make this dish dairy-free you can replace cream with coconut milk and yoghurt with plant-based yoghurt.
• Quintessentially this recipe is subtly spicy and warming but you can adjust the spice level according to your preference.