Dry, curried chicken drumsticks (fancy meal)

An old one. Been a long time since I last made it. It's not as cheap as my other ones (I tend to stay beneath £4), but it shoudn't be too much, either.

My mum used to make this when I was a kid. She'd either roast it, or curry it. This is the curried version intended for when people would be over. I have many a fond memory of this meal.

What you'll need (substitutes listed at the end)

• Chicken drumsticks (skin off): £5 (I get 7 drumsticks for this amount, three per meal is more than enough), effective cost £2.50
• Plain yoghurt: £1 per 500g (you'll need 1/4th per three drumsticks) effective cost £0.25
• Onions (half chopped finely, half sliced finely), a large potato (cut into 2" chunks), a few leaves of coriander (chopped), garlic and ginger (chopped and crushed, retain a few whole garlic cloves), chillies (sliced - optional), and lemon/lime: in total this should all come (rounded up) to about £3
• Oil, salt and pepper, Rajah's Tandoori masala, turmeric (a pinch; optional), chilli powder (I used four types here, feel free to use whatever), a bay leaf (optional), garam masala (a pinch): costs negligible
• Garlic and ginger paste (optional, you'll need only two spoonfuls -- just use the ginger and garlic you crushed earlier) effective cost £.10
• Tomato/tomato puree/ketchup/Sriracha/Hot sauce (optional, and you'll only need a bit -- I'd recommend just crushing up a tomato) effective cost £.10
• Chicken stock or water (or, just use a stock pot) -- I'm marking this one as negligible, since water will do the job just fine)

Total cost: about £6 per meal if you round up. That's about US$8.50. Not the cheapest thing, but not particularly pricey, either. Think of this more as a fancy meal on the cheap.

Substitutes

• Spices

Rajah's tandoori masala is by far one of my favourite spices. It's great for curries, roasts, and so many other things. If you can't get a hold of it, you can use any other flavouring spice of your choice. I just noticed that the original Rajah website is down, so here's an alternate. Tandoori masala contains:

Ground Coriander, Iodised Salt, Ground Cumin, Ground Cinnamon, Sugar, Ground Chilli, Lemon Juice Powder, Ground Celery, Ground Cardamom, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Ground Black Pepper, Ground Ginger, Ground Bay, Acidity Regulator: E330, Ground Clove, Ground Fenugreek, Natural Colours: E160c & E100, Natural Lemon Flavour

... yeah, this is going to be hard to replicate, but not impossible. However, use any flavouring spices of your liking if you can't grab a hold of this spice.

Cumin, pepper, salt, chilli, and garlic would be a nice start if mixing powders together. My Chipotle Rub also comes to mind. Essentially, it's: paprika, sugar, salt, chipotle powder, garlic, cumin, oregano, onion, coriander, chilli, and pepper.

Feel free to experiment with whatever flavouring agents you have at hand.

• Meat

If you don't want processed chicken, feel free to use pieces of a whole bird. The version my mum makes is just drumsticks, but you can keep costs lower by going for a whole bird.

You can use practically anything in place of chicken, here. Just adjust your cooking times accordingly. I wouldn't recommend stronger-tasting meats like beef for this, however. If using tofu/paneer, etc., just fry it up a bit right at the start with some seasoning and set aside until you've only got a few more minutes of cooking to go.

Process

Here's a photo series you can look at while going through the steps

• Stab your chicken all over with a fork and marinate well using the yoghurt as a medium with your spices and pastes (bits of your garlic, ginger, and chillies can be added as well), drizzle a little oil and/or lime juice into it if you feel like. Set this aside for a few hours (1 at the minimum, stick it in the fridge overnight for more flavour) before moving on.
• Put a little oil into your pan and fry your potatoes until they're nearly done. Add some seasoning to the potatoes while frying them (salt+pepper, plus flavouring spice).
• Remove the potatoes and place them on a paper napkin to get rid of any excess oil.
• Add more oil to the pan, and on a medium heat, add your (optional) bay leaf, then onions. Add salt.
• When the onions start going translucent, add chillies (you can add these at the end if you want them to retain colour and scent) and your crushed ginger and garlic (or your ginger and garlic paste).
• Add your crushed tomato/puree/sauce and stir well. Drop the rest of what you chopped in (minus coriander).
• Dump your chicken in, add some flavouring spice, and fry it for about two to three minutes, turning every minute before adding your water/stock.
• Add your extra garlic cloves.
• Stir well, increase the flame and cover the pan.
• Uncover and reduce the flame when your water's drying out. You might have to add more if the chicken isn't cooking thoroughly (be careful at this stage), check for how well the meat is coming off the bone, or if you absolutely have to, check the colour inside with a knife. Meat thermometers would be great, too. But I don't have one.
• Keep repeating this until the chicken is almost done (cover for five minutes and check).
• Add another little amount of water/stock and drop the potatoes in. If using a sauce, feel free to add a few splashes, now.
• Add a good amount of your flavouring spice and baste your chicken with the sauce until everything's well and reduced. Some people add butter to the pan at this point.
• Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top, Let it rest for a few minutes.
• Top with lemon/lime juice and ripped coriander.

The final product! -- pictured two drumsticks with peppered rice.

So... how do we serve this?

Simple is good. Rice is the first thing that comes to mind. Add some butter and garnish with pepper/coriander.
I would be lying if I said I don't just pick it up by the skinny bit and tear into it like an animal, but we're trying to stay refined, here, yes?

If you use a lot of potatoes and make a lot of the curry base, you could increase the number of people this meal could feed by a good amount (you could also reduce the number of chicken pieces to one per person).

Starters

My mum usually starts off tandoori or chilli chicken mains with simple spinach dishes. Bitter gourd mashed with potatoes works here (although that's not everyone's cup of tea). A simple peppered lentil soup would be good to start with. And finally, I can't not mention my mum's peppered potato and beans as a starter.

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Feel free to experiment with spices and flavours! I'm sure you could spin this a billion ways. Have fun!