British Indian Chicken Balti Curry

A Chicken Balti is the pride of Birmingham and a curry not of Indian but Anglo Indian heritage dating from the late 1970’s and went global!

A chicken curry in a well spiced gravy with plenty of vegetables and of course it most be served with a naan bread.

The Original Brummie Curry.

This Balti Curry recipe probably says more about where and when I was raised than any other recipe here on Krumpli.

I was born in the mid-1970’s in Birmingham. If it were to be a Country its national dish would almost certainly be a Balti!

As with many foods, there are arguments about the origin and I will stay away from most of that nonsense.

However, the Balti is ‘officially’ credited as being ‘created’ in a place called Adils in 1977.

A place now noted as the Balti triangle, a place I remember very well indeed.

A place where classic Indian curries like chicken saag and lamb rogan josh are second on the bill!

What is a Balti Curry?

The name Balti actually refers to the bowl or karahi that the curry is cooked and served in rather than the curry itself.

I cook mine in a frying pan, because at home we use frying pans and not fierce gas burners with rounded bottom pans.

A Balti follows a common theme of either meat or vegetables in a thick tomato-based sauce or “gravy”.

That thick heavy balti sauce left in the bottom of your dish must be cleared with a naan bread.

Ordering anything else in an Indian Restaurant in Birmingham would have resulted in raised eyebrows.

Apart from that the flavour of your curry will vary massively depending on where you eat it.

There is no such thing as an Authentic Balti Recipe! Anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something that simply ain’t true.

Recipe Variations.

This recipe is very simple to tweak and change.

That is because this balti curry recipe is prepared using the curry house tradition of preparing the sauce separately and adding to “stir-fried” ingredients.

One of the most common variants of this recipe is a chicken tikka balti.

You may not be shocked to know that it is identical to this recipe but it uses chicken tikka rather than raw chicken.

If you want to try it then just use the chicken tikka part of my chicken tikka masala recipe.

As for the vegetables, knock yourself out, chuck in anything that is good!

You can easily turn this into a vegetarian balti by dropping the chicken.

Go with par-cooked potatoes or cauliflower, maybe even chickpeas, or all of them!