Main dish

Patak's Sweet and Sour Madras Chicken Curry recipe

Name: Patak's Sweet and Sour Madras Chicken Curry
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 2 h 55 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: ½ Patak's Madras paste pot; 2 tbsp cornflour; 1 tbsp dark soy sauce; 1 tsp water; 500g skinless, boneless chicken thighs (diced into 3cm cubes); oil (for roasting, I use vegetable); 3 bell peppers (different colours if possible, sliced into 3cm squares); handful of cashew nuts; 1 tbsp oil (I use vegetable); 1 large red onion (sliced); 1 tbsp ginger (chopped); 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped); ½ Patak's Madras paste pot; 50g ketchup; 1½ tbsp dark soy sauce; 100ml water; 100g pineapple (cut into small chunks); 1 spring onion (sliced); 1 red chilli (sliced)

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A gorgeous Indian-Chinese dish from Patak’s. A cross between a Madras curry and sweet and sour chicken, and a fail-safe dish to make for others.

Prep30m
Stand2h
Cook25m
Total2h 55m

chinese curry indian

Sweet and sour madras chicken curry with peppers, pineapple, chilli and cashew nuts

My brother is a big fan of Patak’s curry pastes and he makes a mean curry so I checked out the Patak’s website and found a treasure trove of exciting recipes. The one I most wanted to try, and have cooked at least a dozen times since my first attempt, is their Indo-Chinese Chilli Chicken curry. It’s such a clever recipe; marinating the chicken in cornflour makes the dish incredibly silky and the curry paste, soy sauce and ketchup combine to make a delicious sauce.

I’ve made a few changes to suit my palate. I add pineapple and cashews, griddle the peppers and increase the amount of onion. As pineapple is quite sweet I decrease the amount of ketchup. If I double the recipe (it makes a fantastic packed lunch) I use the same amount of chicken and bulk it out with mushrooms or other vegetables. The only change I made that didn’t work was swapping chicken thighs for breasts. Chicken breasts just don’t have enough fat and can’t cope with the cooking time so the curry loses its silkiness.

The chicken is cooked separately before it’s combined with the sauce. I love how the original recipe suggests to deep fry the chicken and I bet this would taste incredible but I don’t own a deep fat fryer. Instead, I roast the chicken in the oven and it still tastes amazing.

Recipe credit

The Patak's website

Recipe

Patak's Sweet and Sour Madras Chicken Curry

Prep30m
Stand2h
Cook25m
Total2h 55m

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Marinade for chicken

½ Patak's Madras paste pot
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp water
500g skinless, boneless chicken thighs (diced into 3cm cubes)
oil (for roasting, I use vegetable)

Curry

3 bell peppers (different colours if possible, sliced into 3cm squares)
handful of cashew nuts
1 tbsp oil (I use vegetable)
1 large red onion (sliced)
1 tbsp ginger (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
½ Patak's Madras paste pot
50g ketchup
1½ tbsp dark soy sauce
100ml water
100g pineapple (cut into small chunks)
1 spring onion (sliced)
1 red chilli (sliced)

Method

Add ½ a Patak’s Madras paste pot, 2 tablespoons of corn flour, 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of water into a medium sized bowl and stir until the corn flour dissolves. Add 500g of diced chicken thighs and mix until fully coated. Marinade in the fridge for at least two hours.
When the chicken is ready, preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan) and line a baking tray with foil. Drizzle over a little oil.
Pour all of the chicken and marinade onto the baking tray and roast for 15 minutes.
Optionally griddle 3 bell peppers until nicely charred.
Heat a wok or large frying pan over a medium heat and dry fry a handful of cashews for a few minutes until they colour. Remove the cashews and set to one side. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the wok.
Add 1 sliced red onion and fry for a few minutes then add 1 tablespoon of chopped ginger and 2 chopped garlic cloves to the wok and fry for another minute.
Add ½ a Madras paste pot and 50ml of water to the wok and fry for 2 minutes.
Add 50g of ketchup and 1½ tablespoons of dark soy sauce to the wok along with the roasted chicken. Use a spatula to scrape all of the excess marinade into the wok.
Add 3 sliced bell peppers (from step 4) and 100g of pineapple chunks to the wok and once the sauce starts to bubble, simmer for 5 minutes. If you didn’t griddle the peppers earlier, simmer until the peppers soften. If the sauce looks dry add a little more water (I use around 100ml in total).
Transfer the curry to a dish and top with 1 sliced spring onion, 1 sliced red chilli and toasted cashews. Serve with rice.