Al's Kitchen Slow Cooker Chicken Rogan Josh

Source video by Al's Kitchen on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules.

Al's pitch is the fastest family Rogan Josh on the hob, 30 minutes start to finish using chicken breast instead of lamb. The slow cooker version preserves the entire hob spice build (which is where the colour and depth come from), then takes the chicken slow and gentle so the breast doesn't dry. Whole spices in oil, onions softened, ginger-garlic, then 900 g of vine-ripened tomatoes cooked down and mashed. Mixed powder, Kashmiri chilli, cumin, tandoori masala, ground coriander, black pepper, methi and tomato paste all bloom in the rogan-red gravy. Tip into the slow cooker, add chicken breast and 100 ml hot water, 2 hours low. Cherry tomatoes, coriander, salt, yoghurt and a teaspoon of sugar finish. Tastes even better next day.

Ingredients

• 150 mlneutral oil
• 100 mlhot water, from a recently boiled kettle

• 4 podsgreen cardamom pods, cracked open
• 1 small piececinnamon stick

• 1 onionmedium onion, finely diced
• 3 tbspginger-garlic paste

• 900 gvine-ripened tomatoes, roughly chopped

• 2 tbspmixed (basar) curry powder
• 3 tspKashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tbspground cumin
• 1 tsptandoori masala powder
• 2 tspground coriander
• 0.5 tspfreshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsptomato puree (paste), loosened with a splash of water to pourable

• 1 kgchicken breast, cubed into 3-4 cm pieces

• 2 tspkasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves), rubbed between palms to a fine powder (add late)
• 150 gcherry tomatoes (add late)
• 1 tspfine salt (add late)
• fresh coriander, roughly chopped (add late)
• 2 tbspnatural Greek yoghurt (add late)
• 1 tspfine sugar (add late)

Method

1. Heat the oil in a wide non-stick pan over a medium heat. Add the cracked cardamom pods and the cinnamon piece. When tiny bubbles form around the spices, the oil is hot enough.

   ~2 min

2. Add the finely diced onion. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until just starting to brown at the edges.

   ~5 min

3. Stir in the ginger-garlic paste. Cook for 30 seconds.

   ~1 min

4. Add all the chopped tomatoes. Cover and cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, until the tomatoes are completely soft.

   ~10 min

5. Mash the tomatoes hard with a potato masher to break them into a rough sauce, about 30-40 seconds.

   ~1 min

6. Add the mixed curry powder, Kashmiri chilli powder, ground cumin, tandoori masala, ground coriander and black pepper. Stir through.

   ~1 min

7. Add the loosened tomato puree. Stir hard, the gravy turns from red-orange to a deep rogan-red.

   ~1 min

8. Tip the entire spiced tomato base into the slow cooker. Stir in the cubed chicken breast and the 100 ml hot water.

   ~3 min

9. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours, or high for 1.5 hours, until the chicken is just cooked through and the gravy is rich.

   ~120 min

10. For the last 30 minutes, stir in the cherry tomatoes. For the last 10 minutes, stir in the kasuri methi.

    ~30 min

11. Stir in the fresh coriander, the yoghurt and the teaspoon of sugar with the heat off. Taste and adjust salt. Scoop off any excess oil from the top.

    ~2 min

12. Serve with basmati rice or warm naan.

    ~1 min

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