Agra Ginger Chicken
A light, cleansing chicken curry from Agra with fresh ginger, warm spices and bright tomato notes. This vibrant dish is designed to be accessible and fresh, with spinach and lime lifting the finished curry.
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A light, cleansing chicken curry from Agra with fresh ginger, warm spices and bright tomato notes. This vibrant dish is designed to be accessible and fresh, with spinach and lime lifting the finished curry.
Chicken thighs are marinated briefly with turmeric, ginger-garlic paste, yogurt and a pinch of red chilli. A dry-roast of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coconut, fennel, coriander and dried red chillies is ground with a splash of water into a coarse paste. The base is built with shallots, curry leaves and tomato; the chicken is browned in stages; and the masala paste is folded in for the long, gentle simmer. Tamarind and a curry-leaf temper finish.
A Caribbean-American fusion that works because both food cultures speak the language of "everything on one tray". The base is American nachos: tortilla chips, melted cheese, black beans. On top sits jerk-marinated chicken thigh, which carries the dish's flavour, allspice, Scotch bonnet, nutmeg, cinnamon, thyme, soy and brown sugar blended into a wet jerk paste, marinated into the meat overnight, then oven-baked and sliced. The fresh element on top is a Trinidadian-style fruit chow: diced mango, pineapple, red bell pepper and red onion dressed with lime juice and cilantro. The chow is what makes this work; without it the nachos are just spicy meat-and-cheese, with it the dish has acid, crunch and sweetness to cut through the richness. Smell is melted cheese hitting jerk seasoning, with a citrus-tropical lift from the chow on top. Not difficult but it's three components running on different timelines, so plan ahead. A modern party-and-Super-Bowl-tray dish rather than something a Kingston grandmother makes, popularised by Caribbean-American food bloggers in the 2010s.
Chicken thighs cube small; marinate for 1 hour in yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, Kashmiri chilli, garam masala and cornflour. Deep-fried in two stages, first to cook through, second to crisp. While the chicken rests, a hot tempering of curry leaves, garlic, dried chillies, soy and vinegar sputters in a wok. The fried chicken tosses through the tempering for 30 seconds and goes straight to the plate.
A vivid green masala is ground from coriander leaves, mint, green chilli, garlic, ginger, cumin, peppercorns and clove with palm vinegar. Chicken pieces are slashed and marinated for at least 4 hours (ideally overnight). The pieces are pan-fried in the marinade-paste over high heat until the herb crust dries out and chars at the edges, with a small splash of water added halfway through to keep the chicken juicy. Served with a wedge of lime and a salad of onion and tomato.
A bright and spicy Sri Lankan-inspired curry with a curry-house spin, featuring aromatic spices, coconut, and fresh curry leaves. It works beautifully as a banquet dish and can be extra hot with extra bird’s eye chillies and chilli powder. The subtle sweet-tang tuning makes it a favorite with rice and mild dhal.
Chicken inasal is the pride of Bacolod City on Negros Occidental, where streetside grill houses serve nothing else: trays of chicken parts skewered on bamboo, smoking over long coal pits, with the cook brushing on bright orange annatto oil every few turns. The marinade is what marks it as Filipino: calamansi (a small, sour citrus halfway between lime and tangerine), cane vinegar, ginger, lemongrass, garlic and a generous slug of black pepper. The annatto oil (atsuete) is just neutral oil warmed gently with annatto seeds until it stains a vivid orange-red; this is the dish's signature look and a mild peppery flavour. Basting starts halfway through cooking so the colour goes onto skin that's already partly cooked, and continues right up to the moment the chicken leaves the grill. Difficulty for a home cook is low; the only special ingredients are calamansi (lime juice plus a touch of orange juice substitutes well) and annatto seeds (sometimes sold as achiote, found in any Filipino or Latin American shop). The flavour profile is sharp, herbal, slightly smoky, with a peppery edge from black pepper rather than chilli, and ribbon-thin lemongrass perfume running through everything. Service is non-negotiable: a heap of garlic rice (sinangag), a saucer of toyomansi (soy-calamansi-vinegar dipping sauce with sliced chillies), and the cook's pot of warm annatto oil for the table.
Poached chicken is shredded and tossed with finely shredded cabbage, carrot and onion that has been softened in a light vinegar bath. A bright nước chấm style dressing brings everything together and toasted peanuts and fried shallots finish the top. The trick is balance: the salad should be crunchy, not waterlogged, and the dressing should taste sharp on its own before it hits the salad.
A clear, golden chicken broth fortified with a freshly pounded turmeric, lemongrass and shallot paste, finished with coconut milk and a squeeze of lime. The dish is built in three layers: a slow-simmered chicken stock, a fried spice paste that becomes the soup's backbone, and quick-soaked rice vermicelli to carry it all. Comforting and aromatic in equal measure.
A wet jerk paste: scotch bonnet chillies, garlic, ginger, spring onions, thyme, allspice (whole or ground), brown sugar, soy sauce, lime, oil, salt and pepper, pureed in a blender. The chicken (bone-in skin-on thighs and drumsticks, or spatchcocked whole bird) marinates for 12 hours minimum. Slow-grilled over indirect heat with a pile of pimento wood chips or allspice berries on the coals for the signature smoke; alternatively, an oven-bake at 180°C with a final blast under the grill, supplemented with allspice in the marinade.
Saudi Arabia's national dish, the one platter you'll meet at almost every gathering from family lunch through wedding banquet. You brown chicken pieces or lamb shoulder hard in a heavy pot, then build a base of onion, garlic and ginger softened in the same fat, with tomato and a spoonful of baharat (or a dedicated kabsa spice mix) blooming until the kitchen fills with cardamom and cinnamon. The protein simmers in tomato and stock until it's tender and pulling away from the bone, then long-grain rice goes in to cook absorption-style in the same liquid, drinking up every layer of flavour the broth carries. You finish with almonds toasted in butter, raisins plumped briefly, and a fresh salsa of tomato, onion, chilli and parsley spooned on the side to cut the richness. Eaten communally from the centre platter, with hands or a long spoon.
A two-part dish: a deeply concentrated prawn-and-chicken stock built from roasted prawn shells, layered with a freshly pounded laksa paste of dried chilli, galangal, lemongrass and candlenuts. The two are joined with coconut cream to create a glossy, fragrant broth that bathes rice vermicelli, tofu puffs and prawns. Finished at the table with sambal, lime, fresh coriander and bean sprouts.
The Saudi gathering platter built for the night when one cut of meat isn't enough. Three proteins share the same pot: lamb shoulder and beef chunks go in first with a kabsa-spiced tomato base for ninety minutes of slow simmer until they're meltingly tender, then chicken pieces drop in for the last thirty-five minutes (their cook time is shorter, so they go in later). The strained meat broth, deeply spiced from everything that has braised in it, becomes the cooking liquid for basmati scented with saffron and dried lime. At the end you arrange all three meats on top of the rice in the same platter and bring the whole thing to the centre of the table. The kind of dish you make for a wedding lunch, an Eid gathering, or the night the extended family arrives unannounced.
Myanmar's coconut-chicken noodle soup, the dish closest in spirit to a Thai khao soi but with its own Burmese identity. You poach chicken thighs in stock with shallot, garlic, ginger and turmeric for twenty-five minutes, lift them out and shred the meat. The stock cooks down with coconut milk, fish sauce and paprika, thickened with a slurry of chickpea flour and water into a silky soup. Yellow egg noodles cook separately. Everything piles into the bowl at the end: noodles first, soup ladled over, shredded chicken in the middle, then heaping garnishes (sliced shallot, crispy fried shallot, halved boiled egg, lime wedges, cilantro, chilli flakes). The garnishes are half the dish; eat with chopsticks in one hand and a spoon in the other.
Bone-in goat (or chicken or catfish, fish takes much less time) simmers in lightly salted water with onion, garlic, ginger, scotch bonnet and the pepper-soup spice mix for 75 minutes until tender. Crayfish (ground dried shrimp) and stock cube go in for depth. Scent leaf (Nigerian basil) or basil leaves and chopped onion finish at the table.
Whole spices dry-toast until smoky, then grind to a Sri Lankan curry powder (coriander, cumin, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fenugreek). Onion melts in coconut oil with curry leaves, pandan and lemongrass. Chicken pieces sear briefly; the spice mix blooms; thin coconut milk simmers everything until tender; thick coconut milk finishes the sauce. Lime at the table.