Step 1

Keep all your ingredients ready, slice your onion, dice the tomato, cut your chicken into bite-sized cubes. Keep everything aside.

Step 2

Heat up a pan with the oil and stir fry your onions soft. Add your diced tomato and fry for a minute or two soft.

Step 3

Add Ginger Garlic paste and stir-fry for a few seconds (careful it splatters!) before adding in the Tamarind Paste. Stir cook as well for a minute.

Step 4

Next, you can add in one by one the spices and stir cook them so that they release the aroma. Throw in the Black Pepper, Cumin Powder, Coriander Powder, Turmeric Powder and Chili Powder. Also, add the brown sugar at this point and mix well.

Step 5

At this point, you can add your chicken pieces and stir-fry the chicken while mixing everything well. The chicken should be coated with the spices and get cooked for less than a minute on all sides on medium to high heat.

Step 6

Sprinkle in some salt if you want, I usually skip the salt as it's not necessary. Taste again at the end if you need any salt.

Step 7

Next, add your tomato paste and water and mix the content well. You may want to add dried fenugreek leaves to flavor your curry.

Step 8

Let the chicken pathia simmer on low to medium heat for about 5 minutes or less or until the chicken is cooked but not overcooked (shouldn't get rubber!).

Step 9

You have the option to mix in some lime juice and garnish with fresh cilantro/coriander leaves just before serving.

Step 10

Enjoy hot over plain rice or with a flatbread. (see serving suggestions in the post).