Chicken Vindaloo Recipe

Make the Best Chicken vindaloo at home with this simple recipe. Vindaloo is a popular Portuguese influenced Indian dish made by marinating & simmering meat in a spicy Vindaloo paste. The term Vindaloo refers to “Meat Marinated in Wine & Garlic”. Much like Rogan Josh and Chicken Jalfrezi, this immensely popular dish is quite commonly found on the Indian restaurant menus & is known to be the spiciest & hottest of the 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 vindaloo 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 shrimp vindaloo. I also have a similar Lamb Vindaloo recipe here.

An authentic traditional vindaloo is a thick dry curry which is hot tasting with bursting flavors of garlic & spices. The authentic recipe uses no onion & no tomatoes. It is just the meat marinated and simmered in the vindaloo paste.

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 vindaloo, just skip both – onions & tomatoes from the recipe shared below.

What to Serve Vindaloo with?

Vindaloo is best eaten with fluffy Basmati Rice, Butter Naan, Parathas, Roti, Chapati, Ghee Rice, Cumin rice or Turmeric Rice.

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

How To Make Chicken Vindaloo (Stepwise photos)

Make vindaloo paste

1. For this recipe, you may use dried red chilies or red chilli powder or red chilli flakes. Deseed 20 dried red chilies (or use 1 tablespoon red chilli powder or flakes). Add them 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 powder

• 1½ tablespoons coriander seeds (or 1 tablespoon ground coriander)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (or ¾ teaspoon ground cumin)
• 10 black pepper corn (½ to ¾ crushed black black pepper)
• ½ teaspoon mustard seeds (¼ teaspoon ground mustard)
• 2 inch cinnamon piece (¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon)
• 4 cloves (2 pinches ground cloves)
• 2 green cardamoms (optional, ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom)

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 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 then refrigerate overnight.

Make Vindaloo 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 2 tablespoon tomato paste like mutti) and mix.

11. Saute again for another 2 to 3 mins.

12. If your chicken lets out lot of moisture then skip adding water. I had to pour half cup hot water. Usually organic chicken doesn’t let out any moisture and you will need to add water accordingly.

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

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 with fluffy Basmati Rice or with Butter Naan or paratha. In restaurants, vindaloo 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 atleast an hour or 2.

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 vindaloo.

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