Baked Chicken Curry - Washington Post

Chicken, marinated in a blend of black pepper, lemon, ginger, garlic, yogurt, onion and five spices, gets put in a baking dish and sent to the oven. That’s it; that’s the dish. Dinner is served. It’s a quidditative recipe from “At Home With Madhur Jaffrey”: It showcases the power of spices, in tandem, and edits out a bunch of steps from a traditional preparation without sacrificing flavor. You don’t need to precook your wet aromatics separate from your dry, or brown your meat. If you want a hint of sweetness, Jaffrey suggests adding 2 tablespoons of golden raisins.

This recipe is from Week 2 of Voraciously's Essential Cookbooks newsletter series. For more recipes like this one, sign up here. It appears as published by Jaffrey in "At Home With Madhur Jaffrey," with minor edits for clarity.

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Servings:

When you scale a recipe, keep in mind that cooking times and temperatures, pan sizes and seasonings may be affected, so adjust accordingly. Also, amounts listed in the directions will not reflect the changes made to ingredient amounts.

Tested size: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds chicken pieces, dark and white meat

• 1 teaspoon table salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons peeled, finely grated fresh ginger

• 1 large clove garlic, crushed

• 1/3 cup whole milk plain yogurt

• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground coriander

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin

• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 6 green cardamom pods

• A little canola or plain olive oil for basting

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion or shallots

Put the chicken in a casserole-type dish so it fits easily in a single layer. Add the salt, lots of black pepper and the lemon juice. Mix well and set aside for 20 minutes.

Combine the ginger, garlic, yogurt, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne and cardamom in a bowl. Mix well. Rub the chicken with this mixture, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let stand for about 30 minutes. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.

Brush the top with oil and scatter the onions over the top. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces over and put back in the oven. Cook an additional 40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with the juices.

Tested by Olga Massov.

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