Mild Indian Chicken Pasanda Curry

A chicken pasanda is a relatively mild curry loaded with yoghurt and almond and it has become one of my absolute favourite curry recipes.

Commonly made with lamb this chicken variant of one of the curries that are a permanent feature on the menus of the British Indian curry houses that inspired my love of Indian food.

This is the perfect place to start for those new to cooking curries at home.

Mild, Creamy & Delicious.

This recipe was born out of a rather disappointing visit to an Indian restaurant in Budapest. A trip of all things, to get a broken tooth fixed.

My reward for being a brave little soldier was a belly full of beer and a curry. This is a true British treat!

I went for a Vindaloo, which to be honest was a little disappointing. I’d much rather have either my beef vindaloo or pork vindaloo.

My wife ordered a chicken pasanda, sometimes called a passanda and it was fantastic. Yes, we share, don’t you?

Creamy and with a tart edge from the yoghurt but fragrant with spice and just a hint of heat.

It must have been good because I pulled over on the way home to buy the ingredients to begin work on this recipe. 

What is a Pasanda Curry?

It is a triumph of a dish, loaded with fragrant spices and a lovely mellow hint of almond and punches of fresh coriander.

It is much more commonly associated with lamb and that is a glorious dish. But lamb is expensive and chicken much more frugal.

As a result, the flavours have been scaled back a little and not work perfectly with the much gentler flavour of chicken.

We have cumin and coriander leading the way on the flavour stakes. This is supported by turmeric and cinnamon.

Then coriander and it is by no means a garnish on this dish, it is integral to the recipe.

So if coriander isn’t your thing then maybe consider something like a chicken korma, another curry at the milder end of the heat spectrum.

This is very much one of the mildest curries that I make.

Serving Suggestions.

As ever with a curry, I very much favour a plain boiled rice as a side dish.

Then I typically add some Indian flatbread.

I usually refrain from my love of naan bread and go with chapati instead.

This is because this is not a particularly “saucy” curry and I much prefer chapati in dishes like this.

But if you wanted something different, Bombay potatoes work wonderfully. Or how about some “real” vegetables in the form of this green bean poriyal?