Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Today is my 45th birthday, and I’m celebrating with one of my favorite cuisines. I utterly adore Indian food, and this Indian Tomato-Cilantro Chicken sounds recipe like it was written just for me and my husband. This might not be authentic Indian cuisine, but it uses lots of flavors found in Indian food, and I’m pretty stoked to try it. It promises bold flavors with a silky sauce and it’s made with chicken breasts. Getting the hubs to eat dark meat can be tough, and he’s very averse to bones and skin. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are his jam. So we’re celebrating at home with something we both love, lots of Indian food. And he’s totally doing the dishes because it’s my birthday, and birthday girls don’t do dishes, damn it!
This Indian Tomato-Cilantro Chicken is full of flavor from tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, Serrano chilies, onion, ginger and several spices that will make your mouth water before you even taste this deliciousness!
The Ingredients
The list of ingredients for this recipe is on the long side, but you should be able to find everything at a good-sized grocery store. I had all the spices, sugar, and vegetable oil on hand, but I did have to buy several things. The chicken, produce, and coconut milk were all on this week’s shopping list.
The Process
Most of the time I prep the first step or two of a recipe, start cooking, and finish the prep work as I cook. This recipe didn’t have much time between steps, so I had to prep everything before I started cooking.
There were 4 main parts to the prep work, and you can see the prepped vegetables and spices below. I broke the prep work down as follows:
- Chop and marinate the chicken
- Make the cilantro paste (you’ll need a food processor for this step)
- Chop the onions and add the brown sugar and spices
- Dice the tomatoes, mince the ginger, and add spices
I ran into a question about the spices while I was prepping the onions. That step says to add cumin, but I had already used it in the cilantro paste. It also says “cumin” in both steps, but the ingredients list “cumin seeds”. I used a 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds in both, but I have doubts. Using ground cumin in the cilantro paste would have made more sense to me.
I also ran into another question when I began cooking. The ingredients list “vegetable oil”, but the instructions say “grapeseed oil”. I used vegetable oil, but I have the feeling either would have worked just fine.
The total time listed for this recipe is 30 minutes with an optional 1 hour to marinate the chicken. It took just a little longer, but not by much. Here is how my time was spent:
- 5 minutes to prep the chicken
- 1 hour to marinate the chicken*
- 29 minutes to cook
- 1 hour 34 minutes total
* I finished the prep work while the chicken was marinating and didn’t include it in the total time. It took me 17 minutes.
Finally, I used a deep saute pan for my tomato-cilantro chicken. It had plenty of room for all the ingredients and to stir without spilling.