Dishoom’s Chicken Ruby

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Tender chunks of juicy chicken marinated with garlic, ginger, yoghurt and spices, grilled to perfection and served in a deeply flavoured tomato sauce. The layers of complex flavour come from deggi mirch chilli powder, cumin and garam masala, whilst cream and butter add a silky richness to the sauce. It is deliciously spicy with a comfortable warmth that develops and grows as you eat it. 

Where is this recipe from?

Come January, I always crave spicy food. As much as I love all the traditional, seasonal food we share at Christmas, by the new year, I need spice and heat. To this end, I dug out my Dishoom cookery book, ‘From Bombay with Love’. Dishoom is a UK based small restaurant group celebrating food from Bombay/Mumbai. This delicious curry has become a well recognised Dishoom classic; it is their take on the infamous Indian curry, Butter Chicken. Ruby is Cockney rhyming slang for curry and refers to Ruby Murray, who was a 1950s Irish pop singer. I assumed it was a reference to the vibrant red colour of the sauce and the pearls of ruby pomegranate seeds, but not so!

How to make Dishoom’s Chicken Ruby

I made a few minor changes to the Dishoom recipe. If you want to make the original, these are the few small adjustments I made –

• I reduced the oil in the makhani sauce from 175ml to 100ml
• I reduced the salt in the makhani sauce from 2 teaspoons to 1 teaspoon
• I halved the amount of sugar and honey. Taste and add more sugar/honey if you prefer.
• I replaced 1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves crushed to a powder with 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds, crushed to a powder
• The original recipe includes ½ teaspoon fresh dill fronds in the makhani sauce. I don’t add the dill.

Collect all the ingredients together:

Chicken and marinade –

• boneless, skinless chicken thigh or breast meat
• fresh ginger, finely chopped
• cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• fine salt
• deggi mirch chilli powder
• ground cumin
• garam masala
• lime juice
• vegetable oil
• natural yoghurt
• unsalted butter, melted – to cook

Makhani sauce –

• cloves of garlic, peeled
• vegetable or sunflower oil
• bay leaves
• cinnamon sticks
• green cardamom pods
• black cardamom pods
• fresh ginger, roughly chopped, no need to peel
• fresh tomatoes
• passata
• fine salt
• deggi mirch chilli powder
• unsalted butter
• fenugreek seeds, crushed to a powder
• garam masala
• ground cumin
• granulated sugar
• runny honey
• double/heavy cream

Serve –

• fresh ginger matchsticks
• chopped coriander
• pomegranate seeds
• drizzle of cream
• lime wedges
• steamed basmati rice
• naan bread

How to make this amazing curry:

1. Marinate the chicken: chop the chicken in to 3 – 4cm cubes.
2. Finely chop the ginger and garlic and mix thoroughly with the spices, lime juice, 2 teaspoons oil and yoghurt. Alternatively blitz everything in a food processor.
3. Add the chicken and mix well, ensuring each piece is covered in the marinade.
4. Cover and refrigerate for 6 – 24 hours to marinate. Take out of the fridge 30 minutes to 1 hour before cooking to allow it to come to room temperature.
5. Makhani sauce: slice 15g garlic cloves. Heat the oil in a cast iron pan or saucepan, over a moderate heat and, when hot, cook the garlic for 7 – 8 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from the oil and discard.
6. Add the bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, green and black cardamom pods to the oil and let sizzle for 1 minute.
7. Blitz the remaining 20g garlic and the ginger in a food processor with 1 tablespoon of the oil from the pan, to make a paste. Reduce the heat to low and add the ginger and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
8. Meanwhile, blitz the fresh tomatoes in a food processor and add to the pan with the passata, salt and deggi mirch chilli powder. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time, until reduced by half. Cover with a splatter guard to avoid a mess in the kitchen.
9. Add the butter and simmer for 5 minutes.
10. Grind the fenugreek seeds to a powder and add to the pan with the garam masala, cumin, 10g sugar and ½ tablespoon honey. Cook, on low, for a further 15 minutes.
11. Cook chicken: heat the grill to its highest setting. For easy clean-up, line a large baking tray with kitchen foil and drizzle over 2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Spread the chicken over the baking tray and brush with melted butter.
12. Grill for 8 – 10 minutes until just cooked and browning on the edges.
13. Bring it all together: remove the whole spices and add the chicken to the makhani sauce with the cream. Simmer gently for10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt, sugar and/or honey, as required. If the sauce has reduced too much, add some boiled water until you achieve the consistency you are looking for.
14. Serve hot with your choice of serving options.
15. NB – The sauce can be made in advance, up to the point of adding the cream,. This is best added before serving.

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.