Hyderabadi Chicken Curry

Salan-style curries, which originate in the south-central Indian city Hyderabad, combine peanuts, coconut and sesame seeds to create a thick, luxurious sauce. There are countless iterations, including murgh ka salan, which uses chicken. We learned an excellent version of it from chef Zuber Momin at his restaurant Hyderabadi Spice in London. The dish is deeply complex, thanks to a base of browned onion, garlic, ginger and oil-bloomed spices. The nuts, seeds and spices make for a lengthy ingredient list, but the knifework is minimal, the cooking is easy, and the finished dish is exceptionally delicious. Kashmiri chili powder is vibrantly colored with moderate heat; we found a mixture of sweet paprika and cayenne to be a good substitute. Curry leaves have a unique inimitable savoriness. While the dish is fantastic made with them, it does not suffer without, so don’t fret about leaving them out. Salan curries are usually eaten alongside biryani, a spiced meat and rice dish, but steamed basmati rice, naan or roti are all wonderful accompaniments.