Kadai Chicken

About this recipe

Kadai chicken is dhaba cooking—the kind of food truck and roadside restaurant fare that tastes so good because every spice is given its full respect. Hand-pounding whole spices in a mortar and pestle (coriander seeds, dried red chillies, cumin, black pepper) releases their essential oils in ways that pre-ground spice powder never can. Tossed in a kadhai (the thick-bottomed wok) with cubed chicken and chunky pieces of onion and capsicum, each spoon delivers a burst of individual spice notes rather than a blended blur. The hero ingredients are those hand-pounded spices (coarsely crushed, not fine) and the kadhai itself, which distributes heat unevenly and creates crunchy, caramelized edges on the vegetables and chicken. Tomato puree adds body and slight sourness, while kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) adds an almost medicinal, complex depth at the finish. This is restaurant-style cooking done at home, and it tastes like it. The technique requires high heat and aggressive stirring. Brown your chicken in batches over high heat—don't crowd the pan—so you get good caramelization on the outside. Set aside. Fry your onion and capsicum cubes in the same pan until the edges are charred but the insides stay crunchy. This is about building texture and flavour through good colour, not about cooking everything soft. Add your ginger-garlic paste and the hand-pounded spices, then tomato puree with salt. Cook until the oil separates, then return the chicken and let it gently bubble covered for 15 minutes. Add the vegetables back in, toss for 2 minutes, then crush the kasuri methi between your palms and scatter it over. Finish with a swirl of ghee and garam masala. Serve on a bed of rice or with naan, straight from the kadhai if possible—the hot metal keeps everything sizzling. This is a show-off dish that tastes like you've spent all day cooking. Store in the fridge for three days.