Mild Indian Chicken Pasanda Curry
Chicken pasanda is a relatively mild curry loaded with yoghurt, almonds and coriander, and it has become one of my favourite curry recipes.
Simple techniques and a relatively small number of spices make this quick 30-minute curry a wonderful introduction to cooking Indian-inspired food at home.
Mild Chicken Curry with Yoghurt, Almonds and Coriander
This
My reward for being a brave little soldier was a belly full of beer and a curry. This is a true British treat!
My wife ordered a chicken pasanda, sometimes called a passanda, and it was fantastic. I went for a Vindaloo, which, to be honest, was a little more disappointing. My beef vindaloo or pork vindaloo is hands down better.
However, the pasanda was so good that I pulled over on the way home to buy the ingredients to begin work on this recipe.
It is a triumph of a dish, creamy with a tart edge from the yoghurt but fragrant with spices and just a little heat.
It is traditionally associated with lamb, and that is a glorious dish; you should definitely check out my lamb pasanda recipe.
The creamy yoghurt sauce is thickened with ground almonds and then finished with loads of fresh coriander and some toasted almonds.
In many ways, this dish is similar to other yoghurt-based curries like my chicken korma and chicken rezala.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use chicken thighs?
Yes, and as a bonus, they do deliver more flavour. But you cannot cut them into large chunks, which I like in this curry.
Can I use low-fat or fat-free yoghurt?
I personally would not because it increases the chances of the sauce splitting. We do stabilise the sauce a little with ground almonds, but the richness is still there.
My sauce has split. Can I rescue it?
First of all, do not throw away your dinner, it will still taste great!
The first thing to do is remove the chicken, scraping off as much of the pasanda sauce as possible. Then remove 3-4 tablespoons of the sauce and whisk it with double the amount of yoghurt.
Return it to the pan and give it all a whisk, then re-add the chicken and gently warm it up. It will not be perfect, but it will be much more presentable and no less delicious!
How spicy is a pasanda curry?
It is very much at the milder end of the spectrum! However, we all have different levels of tolerance to chilli spice; one person's mild tickle is another's raging inferno.
If you are worried, feel free to skip the addition of the green chilli pepper at the start of the cooking process. You can always add more chilli pepper when you add the garam masala at the end.
Serving Suggestions.
Curry has an affinity with rice, and I have served this chicken pasanda with some plain white rice in these pictures. A good pilau rice would work equally well!
Of course, you then need some flatbread, something like a tandoori-style naan bread or a chapati or two would be perfect.
If you wanted something different, my roasted Bombay potatoes work wonderfully, as does my aloo methi recipe.
If you are after some "greens", how about this green bean poriyal or even cabbage poriyal?
Equipment Used
I only name-check brands of equipment if I think they make a material difference to a recipe. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section below the recipe.
- Hob/stovetop.
- 30cm or 12" frying pan.
- Chopping board.
- Kitchen knife.
- Stirring and serving spoons.
- Grater.
- Quick-read meat thermometer. This is optional but recommended due to the low cooking temperature.
- A combination of weighing scales, a measuring jug, measuring cups and spoons.
Easy Creamy Chicken Pasanda Recipe
Ingredients
- 400 g Chicken Breast 14oz
- 2 tablespoon Cooking Oil (I prefer to use mustard oil for this recipe)
- 1 Small Onion 100g
- 15 g Ginger ½ of a thumb-sized piece
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- 1 Green Chilli Pepper
- 3 Green Cardamom Pods
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Ground Coriander
- ½ teaspoon Ground Kashmiri Chili Powder
- 1 teaspoon Ground Turmeric
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
- 25 g Ground Almonds ¼ Cup
- 250 ml Full Fat Natural Yoghurt 1 Cup
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 75 ml Water ⅓ Cup
- 1 Handful Fresh Coriander
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala
- 20 g Toasted Flaked Almonds 3 tablespoon
Instructions
- Cut the onion, peel it and then cut it into a 2-3mm (⅛") dice.
- Peel and grate the ginger.
- Peel and mash the garlic cloves into a paste.
- Cut the chilli pepper in half lengthways.
- Bash the cardamom pods with the side of a knife to crack them.
- Cut the chicken into large 3-4cm (1½-1¾) chunks.
- Heat a 30cm or 12" frying pan over a medium heat, and when it is hot, add the oil. Add the chilli pepper, cardamom pods and onion and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further 1 minute.
- It is now spice time, throw in all of the spice powders, cumin, chilli powder, coriander, turmeric and cinnamon and cook out for 30 seconds, stirring continuously.
- Add the chicken and stir to coat in the spicy mix.
- Turn the heat down to low and add the ground almonds, salt, water and yoghurt, then stir and simmer for 15-20 minutes, taking care not to boil the sauce. Make sure that the chicken has reached 73°C or 165°F before serving.
- Remove from the heat and stir through the chopped coriander and garam masala, then let sit for 3-4 minutes; this will thicken up the sauce.
- Then finish with the toasted almonds and serve.
I’m not a fan of yoghurt any suggestions as to what else would maybe work?
Hi Anita.
The obvious substitution would be coconut milk, it would result in a sweeter curry and you amy want to add either lime juice or tamarind to counteract that sweetness but it would work well.
Enjoy.
Brian
What about using goats yoghurt or coconut milk for those not wanting cows dairy? Or making a cashew cream ?
Coconut milk would be fine although it would change the flavour of the dish considerably. I have never cooked with goats milk yoghurt so I can't be super specific, but so long as it has reasonable fat content it should be stable as we have ground almonds that will help prevent it from splitting.
I'm not sure about cashew cream, I think it would make the whole thing a little too sweet.
Hi Brian, me and the other half made this on Friday and both really enjoyed it, I was a bit sceptical because I like a bit of heat in my curries and I´ve not got a sweet tooth, but I didn´t need to worry, my plate defenetely didn´t look as nice/posh as yours, but id didn´t last long on there anyway :). Already printed out another recepi from you that I will try soon, mackerel fish cakes. Thank you, Rakel & Jarvo x
So glad you enjoyed it, is in indeed an outlier among curry recipes, particularly mine, but I love it as do so many other folk that have made it. It is one of the most popular recipes on my site.
I hop you like the smoked mackerel fish cakes, I have a real thing for fish cakes 😀
All the best
Brian
Thank you for the recipe, we had it last night. It was very nice plus simple to do. I did add a couple of teaspoons ofhoney at the end because I saw other pasanda recipes seemed to include something sweet. The honey definitely brought out the flavours without making the dish taste sweet
Hi Jenny...
Glad you liked it, I noticed a lot of pasanda recipes adding some form of sweetness and tried it and it wasn't for me which is odd as I am rather partial to a bit of sweetness in my curries. But we all like different things and that is why cooking for yourself is pure magic 🙂
Brian
Tried this today - the first of your recipes I've done and I was very impressed. I like the simplicity of your recipes and even more importantly, the taste - at least as far as this one is concerned. I will definitely be trying some of your other recipes. Cheers!
Glad you enjoyed it Colin, I have a real diverse mix of stuff here, I like to think a little bit of something for every taste 🙂
@Brian Jones, Thanks Brian, since then I've also tried the chicken Korma and I enjoyed that too.
Regards.
Colin
Glad you enjoyed it!
I do something like this with lamb. I always share my food with my dog (who loves curry), so I use peanut or coconut instead of almond.
I love that your dog loves curry, how cool is that!? Pasanda is very much a dish closely associated with lamb and I love it that way but lamb is a difficult meat to source here in the Hungarian countryside.
I’ve made this before and it was lovely. However thinking of making it for a dinner party and one of the guests is coeliac. Is this gluten free?
LizzyMajB
Hey Liz...
I am not a nutritionist so take this as my thoughts rather than a definitive answer!
I believe all of the individual ingredients that are in this recipe are naturally gluten-free, although I would double-check that with a professional if you are at all worried.
But you should always check the packaging of individual ingredients, for instance I am aware the some chilli powders are cut with small amounts of wheat flour to prevent clumping.
Sorry I can not provide more of a definitive answer.
Brian
Hi,
Before I explain my issue, I'm about as novice as you can get when it comes to cooking. Although I whip up a mean Cheesy beans on toast....
I decided to try out your recipe as we love this curry, however, despite the end result being pleasant enough, it didn't have the distinctive Pasanda taste. This may seem like a stupid and obvious question but could it be down to the fact I couldn't get hold of Kashmiri Chili Powder so used normal Mild chili powder off the supermarket shelf instead?
Thanks!
Andy
Hey Andy... That's a tough old question, I have eaten curries all over the UK, heck all over Europe and the one thing that I have learned is that the flavours and subtleties vary massively.
For me the base flavours of a pasanda are almond and coriander. For me in this recipe they are at the perfect level for the mild flavour of the chicken breast. This is the mildest curry that I cook and it is meant to be that way, you can "however" beef up those flavours by increasing the spices to your personal preference. I scale back the ground almond in my recipe to replace it with toasted almonds on top.
Pasanda is traditionally made with lamb and as such the sauce is a little bolder. But I find that boldness overwhelms the chicken and makes it a lifeless piece of protein, this dish aims to taste of both chicken as well as the curry.
All of my recipes are jumping off points for people to play with, I would however not worry about the mild chilli powder thing though. It will have changed the flavour subtly but not massively.
Have Fun...
Brian
Thank you so much for this recipie, the only thing I changed and I think it was a mangor plus was chicken breast, I swapped in chicken thighs as the have so much more flavour and a better texture. I cooked this for 6 people and just times threed everything. It was the perfect warmth and heat.
Thank you again
P.S. I used no fat yougurt because I had your recipie before that update and it was perfect so I am not sure what went wrong with Jac's but mine was fine, I can only imagine the pan was too hot?
I don't think that low fat or no fat yoghurt will always split, it just has a greater likelihood of splitting. Likewise, it is not impossible to split full-fat yoghurt, it is just less likely. I am sure you are right that the pan temperature plays a huge part in this, as you can see from my video my pan is pretty hot and had no issues.
Glad you liked it Chris, I tend to buy whole chickens so use the breasts in the milder curries that I cook and then the thighs in the ones with heavier spices, it works great with both 🙂
Tried the recipe again, using full fat yoghurt. It was perfect! Thank you so much for your help, we'll definitely be having your recipe again.
So glad you had another crack and that you enjoyed it... No one is a good cook, it is all about learning, I have spent 20 years as an almost fanatical cook and still have "those moments". I am so grateful that you took the time to write to me, all to often something goes wrong and people put it down to a bad recipe.
Your message has taught me something and I will be slowly going through and updating many of my recipes that use sour cream and yoghurt to mention the low-fat thing. You have helped make my site better and that helps both me and my 1m+ readers cook a little bit better next time 🙂
When I put the yoghurt in the pan it curdled, it looks inedible. What did I do wrong?
I've never had anyone report this problem before, did you use low fat yoghurt?
You can possibly get things to emulsify again by removing a little of the sauce and whisk it into some more yoghurt, remove the chicken and add this additional yoghurt mix to the sauce and whisk off the heat.
Thanks. Yes, I did use low fat yoghurt. After it curdled I lowered the heat then added more yoghurt. That curdled too. I kept it on a low heat hoping it would thicken, but it went to water. It smelt nice but was awful. We had to throw it away.
Bugger I am so sorry, I had to Google what was happening when I got your email, I will update the post to say avoid low fat yoghurt, it is apparently much less stable and prone to curdling, I'm a greedy chap so have never tried it.
You can apparently whisk arrowroot into low fat yoghurt to help stabilise it before you cook with it, although it is not something I have ever tried!
I hope you give the recipe another try, it is one of the most popular on my site and one of my personal favourites too 🙂
I will try again, thanks so much for your help. I'm a terrible cook, I'll keep on though.
I am looking for something nice to do with lamb leg steaks I have in the freezer. Would this work with lamb? Keeping it on file for the chicken anyway 🙂
Lamb is often associated with pasanda, so absolutely yes it would work. A couple of things to consider, "beef" up the spicing lamb has much more flavour than chicken and as a result, can handle more flavour before it just becomes a "texture".
I would personally leave the chilli where it is, this is a mild curry and then increase the other spices by 25%, maybe even a little more cumin than that.
Cooking wise you could either braise the legs in the pasanda sauce or fry off the lamb legs in ghee and garlic and then nap the sauce over for later, I would probably err towards the latter.
Have fun!
I really, really dont like coriander at all (devil food) will it ruin it if I leave it out??
lol, ruin is a strong word... I don't think it would make the recipe inedible but it will fundamentally change it. If I were to omit the coriander I would consider adding a citrus edge with either lemon or lime juice to taste, tamarind would also work well.
Let me know how you get on 🙂
Oh, this chicken passanda looks amazing. I’m actually off to make a curry now. I have to say that for me nothing compares to a nice home cooked made from scratch dish and when it comes to curries homemade is by far the best! ??
Talking about dentist, ? I’ve got an appointment tomorrow. Wish me luck as injection is inevitable.
Congratulation on your bravery, my reward for early morning blood test is always a croissant. I am glad you were able to compensate your bad experience with your own chicken passanda, home cooking is always the best. Sooo, as tomorrow is the start of 6 Nation, I am going to the shop to buy the ingredients for this passanda.....Italy vs England I will remind you !!!!!
I like the sound of loads of coriander - and that it's integral to the dish. Sounds delicious and I luckily have all those spices on hand.
I have to confess, I don't think I've ever tried chicken passanda! It sounds amazing though, and I actually have all the ingredients! It looks so warm and comforting!
I made this tonight. The flavors are excellent and I love th spice balanced with the yoghurt. Th almonds compliment it beautifully, both ground in the sauce and on top with the coriander. Two thumbs up!
I made this tonight. The flavors are excellent and I love th spice balanced with the yoghurt. Th almonds compliment it beautifully, both ground in the sauce and on top with the coriander. Two thumbs up!
I'm so glad you liked it Helen, I love this recipe and wish I could cook it more often.
Oh, this chicken passanda looks amazing. I’m actually off to make a curry now. I have to say that for me nothing compares to a nice home cooked made from scratch dish and when it comes to curries homemade is by far the best! ??
Talking about dentist, ? I’ve got an appointment tomorrow. Wish me luck as injection is inevitable.
I do hope that your appointment was not too bad and that you have recovered... You defo deserve a curry as a reward 😀
Congratulation on your bravery, my reward for early morning blood test is always a croissant. I am glad you were able to compensate your bad experience with your own chicken passanda, home cooking is always the best. Sooo, as tomorrow is the start of 6 Nation, I am going to the shop to buy the ingredients for this passanda.....Italy vs England I will remind you !!!!!
I'm not a fan of the oval ball I am afraid, sends me to sleep. That and cricket really, apart from that I'm pretty cool with most sports, so long as I can have a beer and a curry after 😉
I like the sound of loads of coriander - and that it's integral to the dish. Sounds delicious and I luckily have all those spices on hand.
So often corriander is used as a garnish and really serves no purpose but here the citrus flavour is there to sit along side and counteract the richness of the almonds.
I have to confess, I don't think I've ever tried chicken passanda! It sounds amazing though, and I actually have all the ingredients! It looks so warm and comforting!
I think of it a an interesting version of a korma, everyone knows a korma but it is pretty dull, this is much more interesting.
For once I actually have all but one of the ingredients in your recipe 😛 I am looking for some new ways to enjoy chicken this summer and just added this one to the list!
Hehe, it is strange how common place ingredients change from one geographical location to another. Most of what I cook with I have been cooking with as a regular ingredient for nigh on 20 years yet I read some recipes on US based sites and I have to Google what many things are, it is even worst when it comes to Mexican recipes 😉
Love all of the fresh coriander here. I need to make more Indian food, this looks so so yummy!!
I think everyone needs a bit more Indian food in their life, even me and I eat it at least once a week 😮
First, this has made my "must try" list because I love Indian flavors, especially when I already have all ingredients except the yogurt at home. Second, I completely agree with you regarding garnish and don't understand unnecessary garnishes on plates, neither in restaurant presentation or photography...
Totally with you on Indian flavours, so much vibrance and complexity of flavour for relatively little work and yay to a fellow 'if I can't eat it get rid of it' supporter 😀
I love the sound of this - I'm putting passanda on my list of dishes to make at home soon!
Enjoy Corina 🙂
That sounds fabulous and those warm curry seasonings are some of my favorites! I will have to try this soon! I'm pinning it so I don't lose it! ?
Thanks Lisa, it is definitely a good 'un! I hope you enjoy.
Love me some SPICE! And you definitely got it going on right here. This would be a great recipe to try out . Pinning
Thank you, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do 🙂
What a vibrant looking curry! Yum!
Thanks Eileen.
I'm not sure I've ever had a passanda before, but the flavours sound absolutely delicious. Will definitely be trying your sauce recipe!
Thanks Becca, the sauce could be put to a lot of uses, I particularly love it as a dip for roasted broccoli, the almond flavours really work so well 🙂
Would you please be my next door neighbor? Please. This looks AH-MAZING!
Thank you 🙂 Hehe, is that just a neighbour or a neighbour that shares 😉
This chicken looks absolutely incredible. Sorry about your poor restaurant experience. This sounds like it would be a favorite of mine as well.
Thanks Tara, it wasn't really that poor just average... Not what I was aiming for as a reward for doing 'grown up things' 😉 Definitely a great curry though 🙂