Chicken Dopiaza (Indian Restaurant Curry)

I heartily enjoy a good chicken dopiaza curry - in fact, a lamb dopiaza was amongst my first 'successful' curries I ever cooked! I usually like to cook this when I'm low on ingredients and feel too lazy to pop out for some vegetables or tomatoes. It's definitely a handy recipe to have in mind for those days. Bonus - the most important thing, actually - is that it tastes brilliant!

This Chicken Dopiaza has an alluring flavour - mildly sweet with a distinctness of caramelised onions, fresh and aromatic coriander, heavenly cinnamon and tender, juicy chicken.

What does Dopiaza mean? What's a Dopiaza curry?

You may actually be able to gauge this if you can speak Urdu/Hindi/Bengali. 'Do' and 'Pyaz' literally mean 'two' and 'onion'.

Now, what this *actually* means is debated - it can be interpreted as many things.

Does it mean you use two onions in the curry? (This isn't logical since the amount of onions in dependent on how much you're cooking).

You use two different kinds of onions?

You add onions twice?

What is one to do?

Most dopiazas use onions twice in the recipe; once in the initial browning stage of the curry when the onions are fried, and then again towards the end, so that the onions don't break down into the masala of the curry.

This is what I'm doing too.

What kind of onions can you use in a Dopiaza curry?

Top tier answer: use both. Why not? After all, 'dopiaza' does mean 'two onions'.

But for real, I do recommend using white onions for the initial browning stage, and red onions for the addition at the end. White onions break down quick, making them a great candidate to add into the masala base. Red onions have that delicious sweetness, depth and colour, and they also don't break down quite as quick as white onions, which makes them great for the more 'prominent' role in the curry.

Please note, if you don't have both kinds of onions to hand, you can absolutely use whatever you have and it'll work great too. When I was shooting the instructional pictures, I just had white onions to hand. I can confirm you will still get a fabulous curry at the end of your efforts.

What's the difference between a dopiaza and bhuna curry?

On the British Indian takeout scene, these two names pop up a lot (I can't speak for the takeout scene in other countries).

Essentially, a dopiaza curry is a curry with lots of onions and few/no tomatoes.

Conversely, a bhuna curry uses a pretty much balanced ratio of onions and tomatoes.

This is what makes the dopiaza curry special - it's a shift from the 'regular' balance. The opposite of a chicken dopiaza curry would be a chicken karahi, which uses no onions and all tomatoes as it's base.

Is Chicken Dopiaza spicy?

It is if you want it to be!

My version of the curry isn't super hot - I would describe it as mild at best, as I let the flavours of the onion shine through.

If you want to adjust the spice level, all you have to do is increase or decrease the red chilli powder based on your preference.

Is Chicken Dopiaza healthy?

To be honest, it's definitely healthier than a far few curries out there! Chicken is generally low in calories, and this recipe doesn't contain anything to excessively increase the calorie count, such as cream. This is definitely the healthier option when compared to a biryani or butter chicken.

If you would like to make this curry healthier, feel free to reduce the amount of oil stated. You can add some soft, quick cooking vegetables that aren't bulky to the curry, such as peas, spring greens, spinach etc if you'd like to make this curry more nutritious.

What do you serve with Chicken Dopiaza?

Serve this alongside a zesty salad and a chutney or raita. In my opinion, this curry goes best with chapatti, or even better - fresh naan! Rice is also a perfectly acceptable companion.

You could also serve this alongside a traditional daal chawal meal to add a meaty element to the menu.

Check out my Lamb Dopiaza recipe if you feel like this one was right up your alley!

📋 Recipe

Chicken Dopiaza - Indian Restaurant Curry

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 5

4.51 from 53 votes

Print Rate

Ingredients

0.5x1x2x3x

• ⅓ cup oil
• 2 onions chopped finely (for the masala)
• 6 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 2 black cardamom pods
• 1 finger-sized piece whole cinnamon
• 1.5 teaspoon red chilli powder or to taste
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1.5 teaspoon coriander powder
• 2 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1 chicken, skin-off and cut into curry-pieces (1 medium sized chicken = approx 800g/1.7lb)
• 2 onions diced into thick cubes (to add towards the end)
• fresh coriander, to garnish

Instructions

• Heat the oil in a pot. Once hot, add the finely sliced onions, garlic, ginger, black cardamom, cumin seeds and cinnamon stick. Fry this over a medium-high heat till the onions turn a light shade of golden.
• Turn the heat to high and add the chicken pieces and tomato puree and the rest of the spices. Once the chicken is no longer pink and coated in the masala, add ½ cup (125ml) water. Turn the heat to low, cover and simmer.
• After 15-20 minutes of simmering on low, the chicken should be nearly done. At this point, uncover and add the diced onion pieces. Cover again and cook for 7 -10 minutes.
• Take the lid off and have a look at how the sauce in the curry is looking. If you'd like to thicken the sauce, cook it for a further few minutes over a medium to high heat, until the thickness is too your liking.

Garnish with coriander

Notes

The tomato puree is optional and mainly for colour. If you don't have it on hand, then either use 1-2tsp of paprika (and adjust the red chilli accordingly) or omit altogether.

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