Chicken Vindaloo Recipe

Make the Best Chicken Vindaloo at home with this simple recipe. It is a popular Portuguese influenced Indian dish made by marinating & simmering meat in a spicy paste. The term Vindaloo refers to “Meat Marinated in Wine & Garlic” and pork is the most common meat used. Much like Rogan Josh and Chicken Jalfrezi, this immensely popular dish is quite commonly found on the Indian restaurant menus & is known to be one of the spiciest & hottest Indian dishes.

About Vindaloo

The history of Vindaloo has been traced back to the times when Portuguese sailors carried wooden barrels containing meat soaked in a mixture of wine & garlic. This was an age old technique to preserve, brine & flavor up the meat. Over a period of time naturally wine turns to vinegar & the meat developed a flavor.

Influenced by the Portuguese, Goans derived a new dish named “VINDALOO”. It was flavored & spiced up to suit their local taste buds. Since Goa is one of the top tourist destinations in India, over the years it became world popular. There are so many versions based on the basic adaptation of soaking meat in vinegar & garlic.

The recipe I have shared here will give you a delicious, moderately spicy & flavorful Chicken Vindaloo. You can use the same recipe to make with shrimp. I also have a similar recipe with lamb on this blog.

An authentic traditional version of this dish is a thick dry curry made with pork. It is hot with bursting flavors of garlic & spices. The authentic recipe uses no onion & no tomatoes. It is just the pork marinated and simmered in the spicy paste. Since a lot of Indians do not eat pork, Indian restaurants also offer Chicken Vindaloo and other alternates.

We get to see so many variations of this dish in the restaurants with the use of onion and tomatoes. These 2 ingredients are used just to tone down the heat. If you prefer to make an authentic dish, just omit both – onions & tomatoes from the recipe shared below.

More Chicken Recipes
Madras Chicken
Palak Chicken (Spinach Chicken)
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Korma
Indian Chicken Curry
Methi Chicken

How To Make Chicken Vindaloo (Stepwise photos)

Make vindaloo paste

Option 1 with ground spices: If you do not have whole spices or don’t own a spice grinder, mix together 1 tablespoon red chili powder, 1 tablespoon ground coriander, ¾ teaspoon ground cumin, ½ to ¾ crushed black black pepper, ¼ teaspoon ground mustard, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 2 pinches ground cloves,¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (optional), 10 fine grated garlic cloves, 1½ inch grated ginger, 3 tablespoons malt/ apple cider vinegar/ red wine vinegar and 3 to 4 tbsps water to a thick vindaloo paste. Jump to step 6.

1. Option 2 with whole spices: you may use 20 deseeded dried red chilies or 1 tablespoon red chili powder or red chili flakes. Add the chilies to a bowl. Pour 3 tbsps vinegar and 3 to 4 tbsps hot water. Read recipe notes to find out more about what kind of vinegar to use. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, to a spice grinder add the following ingredients to make the spice blend

• 1½ tablespoons coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 10 black pepper corn
• ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
• 2 inch cinnamon piece
• 4 cloves
• 2 green cardamoms (optional)

3. Make a very fine powder.

4. Add chopped & peeled ginger garlic (25 grams each, 10 garlic cloves, 1½ inch ginger ) and soaked red chilies to the blender. Also add up the vinegar in which the red chilies were soaked. I added in batches and used up the entire vinegar & water mixture.

5. Blend to a very smooth paste. If required you may splash more water to help it grind well.

6. Add the vindaloo paste to 2 lbs. (800 grams to 1 kg) cut chicken pieces. Sprinkle ¾ to 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon turmeric. Marinate, cover and set aside. If you like the chicken to absorb all the flavors refrigerate overnight but avoid doing that if using bone-in chicken as the meat can fall off the bone too early while cooking. If using bone-in chicken, avoid marinating longer than 2 to 3 hours.

Make the Curry

7. Pout 3 tablespoons oil to a pan/pot and heat it. When the oil turns hot, add the onions (about 2 medium fine chopped or ground).

8. Fry the onions on a medium heat, stirring constantly until they turn golden to light brown. Then stir in 1 tbsp vinegar & 1 teaspoon sugar.

9. Add marinated chicken and saute for 3 to 5 mins on a medium flame. Garlic and ginger are raw here so saute the chicken well.

10. Add tomato puree (optional, 2 medium tomatoes pureed or 1 tablespoon tomato paste like mutti) and mix.

11. Saute again for another 2 to 3 mins.

12. Cover and cook on a medium to low heat until the chicken is fully cooked.

13. If the pan is too dry, pour hot water as required. I used about half cup here it may be different for you. Usually organic chicken doesn’t let out any moisture and you will need to add water accordingly.

14. If your chicken vindaloo is runny, evaporate the excess moisture by cooking further. It thickens a bit and also turns to a dark color upon cooling.

Serve chicken vindaloo hot or rest for a day in the refrigerator for the flavors to develop. Store for up to 48 hours in the refrigerator. It goes well with fluffy Basmati Rice or with Butter Naan, Tandoori Roti or paratha. In restaurants, it is eaten with steamed rice, Naan or any other Indian breads. At home we eat it mostly with jeera rice, Turmeric rice and some times with roti or paratha.

Pro Tips

Vindaloo paste is a marinade prepared by blending whole spices, red chilies, garlic, ginger & vinegar. This is the key to making the best vindaloo. You can make this ahead of time and refrigerate for 2 months. Ensure you make a fine and smooth paste of this.

Well marinated chicken not only absorbs the flavors of vindaloo paste but is also succulent when cooked. So longer the meat rests in the marinade the better it is. If you do not have enough time to rest, then cook it and allow to rest for at least an hour or 2. But avoid resting overnight if using bone-in chicken, as the chicken can fall off the bone too early while cooking.

Onions are optional in the recipe. If using, then choose the default brown or yellow onions here as they go well in this dish. You can either fine chop or process them and use.

Tomato is an optional ingredient which you can skip & is not used in the authentic recipe. Without tomatoes the dish turns out extremely hot. I have blanched the tomatoes and pureed them as we don’t prefer the chunky sauce. You may use chopped instead.

Since chicken vindaloo is not a creamy dish like the butter chicken or a korma, I prefer to use onions & tomatoes either processed or pureed. If you use them chopped, you will have a chunky sauce.

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