Healthy Chicken Korma Curry with Yoghurt

This healthy Chicken Korma curry uses natural yoghurt and is a lighter lower fat version of a traditional korma made with coconut milk or cream. The yoghurt still gives it a nice creamy texture. I also stir in some ground almonds which helps to thicken the sauce. A Korma is a mild curry but still full of flavour. Like all my recipes, I've kept things simple. This is an easy chicken korma recipe and ready in just 30 minutes.

I write all my recipes with busy people in mind and this is no exception. Rather than have you grind together half a dozen spices, I use a Pataks Korma paste. You can use other curry pastes, but I use Pataks as it is so widely available. Curry pastes give a good depth of flavour and are also good value for money.

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Recipe Tips and Variations

• A curry is a great opportunity for using up leftover chicken from a roast. If you don't have quite enough, you can cook it with fresh chicken as per the instructions and then add the cooked chicken at step 4. Just remember to heat it until it is piping hot. If you are using any leftover chicken, remember you should only reheat it once.
• To reduce the spice in the curry, perhaps for smaller children just stir in some more natural yoghurt
• I also like to use fresh spinach in my curries. It not only adds some lovely colour, but is nutritious and needs no additional cooking. This is an added extra so feel free to leave it out.
• You often have to buy more fresh ginger than you need. To stop it going to waste, you can peel it and freeze it in chunks. Ginger is easy to grate when frozen.
• Once opened, a jar of curry paste should be stored in the fridge. To stop it drying out and help it last longer, pour a little vegetable or sunflower oil on the top to form a seal.

How to make Chicken Korma

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1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a low heat and fry the onion for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and the grated ginger to the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes.
2. Add the curry paste to the frying pan and stir for 1 minute. This helps release all the flavours.
3. Stir through the fresh chicken and ground almonds. The ground almonds will help thicken the sauce as well as adding extra nutrition.
4. Pour over the chicken stock, season with freshly ground black pepper and simmer for 10 minutes until the chicken is properly cooked through. If you are using leftover chicken, add it here and heat it thoroughly.
5. Stir in the mango chutney, natural yoghurt, garam masala, sultanas & spinach and heat through for 2 minutes.

Serving Ideas

Serve with rice or naan bread, or both. The most common rice to serve with a curry is a basmati rice. Basmati is a long grain rice and the grains stay separated after cooking making it nice and fluffy. You could also use a more fragrant rice such as Jasmine rice. For a homemade 'Naan' bread, you might like to try my simple Flatbread recipe. Made with just 3 ingredients, this is a very simple bread you can make at home and it only takes 10 minutes.

Sustainability

When buying chicken, try to buy from a local source and preferably free range. Buying local will help minimise your carbon footprint. It also helps support local farmers who are key custodians of our local countryside and environment.

Several of the ingredients here are also available as Fairtrade. You can now buy Fairtrade rice as well as mango chutney, garam masala and of course black pepper. Buying Fairtrade products is a direct way to help some of the world's poorest farmers. Fairtrade products are also produced to good environmental standards.

Storage

Store chicken korma in the fridge for 2-3 days. Remember, if you've used leftover chicken, you shouldn't re-heat it. It will keep well in the freezer for 3 - 4 months. After that time, the quality and texture may start to deteriorate a little, but it will still be safe to eat.

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