Chicken Vindaloo

I know the photo is terrible, just trust me that
tastes great, and if you like lots of sauce for your rice ...

Vindaloo is Portugal's Butter Chicken? Who knew? 

Apparently Priya does. I think the best thing about making Chicken Vindaloo is this new piece of information. Now that I know, it the influence is quite obvious - meat marinated in spices and vinegar instead of oil or yogurt. It's based on the Portuguese dish Carne de Vinha d' Alhos, meat with wine and garlic (thanks, Wikipedia).

In my opinion, this is one of the more difficult recipes, however, by "difficult," I don't mean "technically difficult," like a Moroccan bistilla, where you're working with delicate pastry. More along the lines of one needs to plan ahead to prepare the spices and marinate the meat.

The Vindaloo I made tasted delicious, but the photo turned out terrible. I should've taken a photo of the chicken on a plate with rice, but by the time our guests arrived, we just dove right in, so all I had was a picture of the chicken deep in the sauce (and the sauce was yummy!).

Chicken Vindaloo

• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
• 1 tbsp corriander seeds
• 1 tsp peppercorns
• 3-6 dried red chilies
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 kilo chicken
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1. Heat a small pan on medium heat and individually toast the cumin, fenugreek, corriander, peppercorns and chilies.
2. Grind spices using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder.
3. Combine spices with garlic, ginger, salt and vinegar and mix.
4. Cover chicken in spice mixture and let marinate for 1 to 8 hours.
5. Heat oil on medium and fry onions until translucent.
6. Add tomatoes and continue to fry until tomatoes are also soft.
7. Puree tomato-onion mixture and transfer back to pan.
8. Add chicken and let simmer on medium until chicken is cooked and the puree thickens.
9. Stir in cilantro and serve.

Inspired by Priya's Chicken Vindaloo and My Fabulous Recipes for changing things up a bit.

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