My first ever curry cookbook was Madhur Jaffrey's Illustrated Indian Cookery. I bought it over thirty years ago and I still have it somewhere — dog-eared, splattered, held together more by habit than binding. It was the book that taught me what a curry actually was, as opposed to what a jar of sauce had led me to believe.

Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken with Garlic and Ginger was one of the first things I cooked from it. Simple, direct, nothing hidden — just chicken, aromatics, spice and heat. I've been cooking it ever since, and it's barely changed. Except for one thing.

These days I make it with my own fermented garlic and ginger paste — a 2% brine ferment that brings something the fresh version doesn't: a gentle acidity, a little depth, a flavour that sits underneath the spice rather than shouting over it. It changes the dish. Not dramatically, but noticeably. Madhur would probably approve.

I served mine with vegetable fried rice. You could do worse.

Thirty Years with Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken with Garlic and Ginger — The Recipe

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 1 medium chicken breast, cut into bite-size chunks
• 1 heaped tsp fermented garlic and ginger paste
• ½ small onion, thinly sliced
• ¼ tsp cumin seeds
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• Pinch of chilli powder
• Sea salt, to taste
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 80–120ml water
• Squeeze of lemon
• Fresh coriander, if you have it

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the chicken chunks and brown lightly on all sides. Remove and set aside.
2. Add the cumin seeds to the same pan. When they sizzle, add the sliced onion and cook until golden.
3. Add the fermented garlic and ginger paste. Let it fry gently for 30–40 seconds — just enough to bloom the flavour, not enough to dull the acidity.
4. Stir in the turmeric and chilli powder.
5. Return the chicken to the pan. Add salt and 80–120ml water to make a light sauce.
6. Cook gently for 8–10 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked and the sauce has reduced to a thin, glossy coating.
7. Taste and adjust salt and chilli. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and fresh coriander if you have it.

A note on the paste

Fresh garlic and ginger will work — a small clove and a thumbnail of ginger, blended or grated together. But the fermented version does something different. The acidity is quieter, the flavour is rounder, and it sits in the sauce rather than on top of it. If you haven't made a batch yet, the recipe is here.

A note on the sauce

This is a thin sauce, not a gravy. The water reduces to a glossy coating rather than a pool. Don't be tempted to add more liquid — the restraint is the point.

Footnote:

This recipe was inspired by Madhur Jaffrey's Illustrated Indian Cookery — the dog-eared cookbook that started it all. The fermented garlic and ginger paste that makes this version is made from scratch here. It's also part of the Curry Recipes collection at The Flexible Chef.

Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef