Chicken Vindaloo Recipe
By Swasthi on September 14, 2023, Comments, Jump to 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.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Chicken Vindaloo Recipe
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
To blend
- 1½ tablespoons coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 10 pepper corn
- 2 inches cinnamon
- 4 cloves
- 2 green cardamoms (optional)
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 20 dried red chilies (less spicy kind) or 1 tablespoon chilli powder (notes 1)
- 3 tablespoons vinegar (malt/goan/red wine vinegar) (notes 2)
- 10 (25 grams) garlic cloves
- 1½ inch (25 grams) ginger
Other ingredients
- 2 lbs. (800 grams to 1 kg) bone-in chicken (or 1.5 lbs. boneless chicken)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ¾ to 1 teaspoon salt (I used ¾ tsp pink salt)
- 3 tablespoons oil (I used coconut oil)
- 2 onions (optional) (fine chopped or processed)
- 2 tomatoes (optional) (pureed)
- 1 tablespoon vinegar (malt/goan/red wine vinegar) (notes 2)
- 1 teaspoon sugar (notes 3)
- ¼ to ½ cup hot water (refer notes)
Instructions
Preparation
- Deseed red chilies and soak them in 3 tbsps vinegar and 3 tbsps hot water. Set aside.
- Add coriander seeds, cumin, pepper corn, mustard, cinnamon, cloves and cardamoms to a blender jar.
- Make a fine powder. Then add ginger garlic and soaked red chilies.
- Add the vinegar water mixture and make a smooth paste.
- Next add this to the cleaned chicken along with turmeric and salt.
- Marinate and rest aside for at least an hour to overnight in refrigerator to absorb the flavors.
How to make Chicken Vindaloo
- Heat oil in a deep pot and saute the onions (optional) until golden to light brown.
- Add 1 tbsp vinegar & 1 tsp sugar to the onions.
- Then add the marinated chicken and saute for 3 to 5 mins on a medium heat.
- Pour the tomato puree (optional) and continue to saute for another 3 to 4 mins.
- If your chicken lets out lots of moisture, do not add water. Mine did not so I poured half cup hot water. If you prefer a dry curry then skip adding water. The chicken will cook in its own moisture.
- Cover and simmer until the chicken cooked through & fork tender.
- To check if the meat is done, prick it with a fork. The meat should fall off the bone easily.
- Simmer until the gravy reaches a thick & semi dry stage. Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Serve chicken vindaloo with plain rice or naan.
Notes
- Red chilies: Please adjust the spice level to suit your taste. This was not too spicy for us as I used the less spicy variety chilies.
- Vinegar: The taste & flavor of vindaloo depends on the vinegar used. So choose what goes well for you. In goan cuisine, goan vinegar is used.
- Sugar is used to cut down the pungency from garlic and vinegar. So do not skip it. It should not sweeten the dish. You can add a bit more if you prefer.
- Water: Adjust the amount of water as needed to cook your chicken. Usually organic chicken or NON-GMO chicken need more water to cook. If using the regular kind of chicken, then it will let out lots of moisture & may need lesser water.
- To increase the heat: Just mix together some red chilli powder with little water and pour it to the pot.
- The color of your vindaloo will depend on the red chilies used. But that will not affect the taste.
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
Video
Watch Chicken Vindaloo Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
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About Swasthi
I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
The best chicken vindaloo recipe I ever made. I stuff some Poblano peppers with the vindaloo paste & throw them in the pan during the last 4 mins of cooking. I once ate an achari dish in a restaurant and it had stuffed peppers with achari masala. I tried to replicate that here and in fact turned out amazing. Next time I would try out with Jalapenos. Thank you for sharing and this is going to my favorite list of Indian restaurant recipes.
The Indian restaurant close to my place often serves vindaloo with spuds. Never knew you can make this without them. I always thought vindaloo had potatoes. I also read elsewhere aloo means potatoes. However I made this without them and used a little broth. It still tasted as good as the restaurant version.
Thank You for the reply. It turned out really well.
I used American chili powder not understanding this recipe calls for Kashmiri chili powder. I have made the vindaloo paste and yet to marinate the chicken. Wondering if this is going to affect the flavor. Should I make a fresh batch of the vindaloo paste?
Hi Felicity,
That shouldn’t be a problem. You may need to top up with a little spicy chili powder, if you want it spicy. Hope you enjoy the dish
As others said, this chicken vindaloo is excellent. I double the onions and omit tomatoes for the wine vinegar to shine through. The spice levels are perfect!
That’s nice to know Oliver. Thank you for sharing
I have made this recipe many times and it is excellent.
Thank you Martin
Just made. So delicious!
Thank you Bryan
I made this tonight and it was delicious! Served it over black rice and steamed broccoli on the side. Instead of whole chilis, I used Kashmiri Chili Powder, as that’s what I have on hand. I used whole spices as listed, and ground them up with my blender, which worked out pretty well.
On another note, I really like the layout of the recipe instructions. In the past, I’ve avoided cooking Indian food because it seemed so intimidating, but the way you broke it down made it easy to follow and execute. Thank you for that, and for the wonderful recipe. I’ll definitely be making this in the future.
You are welcome Xian. Glad you like the vindaloo. Thank you for writing!
Turned out great but I wouldn’t leave bone-in chicken overnight. It can fall off the bone easily.
This recipe was phenomenal! Super tasty, my family loves Indian food but not the heat and gluten free. I substituted the red chilies with California chilies and added one heaping 1/4 teaspoon of red chili powder for a little heat. Submitted the naan with pan toasted corn tortillas. Also made made Pakora fritters. The meal turned out incredibly delicious!!
Thank you George for sharing about the California chilies. That may help others.
This is the best chicken vindaloo we ever made. So easy to make and so delicious. Whole spices to ground paste made a huge difference! Served it with your tandoori roti, onion salad and turmeric rice. I looked on your website for a phaal curry and could not locate? Do you have one?
Thanks Rebecca. So glad you like it! Yes I agree whole spices make a big difference. Most of the store bought spices are low in flavor due to oxidization. I have a recipe for phaal but not shared on the blog yet. Hope to do it soon.
Your recipes are awesome and what I like best is one can jump to the recipes instantly and start cooking following the steps. The layout is easy instructions simple! Thanks it helps in a rushed and busy day.
Glad you like them Smita. Thank you so much!
What kind of vegetable would go with this dish?
Hi Lorri,
Here are some
Kachumber
onion salad
Bombay potatoes
cabbage stir fry
cauliflower stir fry
cauliflower manchurian
Zucchini with peas
aloo gobi
Vegetable Jalfrezi
Pepper mushroom
Never dared to try vindaloo due to the high heat. But this was amazing! I used Kashmiri chili powder and red wine vinegar. Excellent! Even my 80 year old Mom loved it. Thank you
That’s awesome Karen. Thank you so much.
As a Polish person who never made curry before thank you for this recipe! I marinaded overnight and I thought “oh goodness there’s not enough sauce/liquid” and I only had tomato paste so I thought “oh goodness this is going to be dry” but the sweat of the chicken and onions really brings the moisture out! I only needed to had half a cup of hot (not boiling) water and it was perfect! I can’t wait to try other curries!
Thank you Carlton. Glad it turned out perfect!
I used ghost pepper flakes for a spice blast and the whole spices to ground are fantastic in this vindaloo recipe. I recently bought a cheap 20$ spice grinder to make Indian dishes because nothing beats the fresh ground spices. This vindaloo is my favourite.
Glad you like it Ben. Yes nothing beats the flavor of fresh ground spices. Thank you!
Thank You for the amazing recipe. I used apple cider vinegar and marinated overnight. It tasted amazing! Would you mind adding the ground spices quantities in the recipe. It is mentioned in the step by step instructions but not in the recipe. TIA
Yes sure Amrita, I can do it soon.
Excellent recipe, thank you for sharing. I’m not a very good cook and this turned out great. I love the detail and options in the steps. Thank you so much.
Glad the recipe worked for you Dom.
Can I use apple cider vinegar?
Yes you can use
Just put my chicken in fridge for overnight in the marinade.
I’ll report back again once it’s cooked. I’m excited ?
Colette, did you forget about your chicken? Just want to make sure.
Made it today and blew my mind, thank you so much. I’m looking forward for the next recipe of yours I’ll be trying ?