Chicken Korma

Name: Chicken Korma
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: Chicken breast; Fat-free Greek yoghurt; Ghee; Cashew nuts; Onion; Garlic; Fresh ginger; Cardamom; Cloves; Ground cumin; Ground coriander; Ground turmeric

395 kcal a serving, against 643 for the traditional version. That is 248 kcal off, or 39%, with 54.2g of protein. Serves 4. 45 minutes.

What the traditional version is

Chunks of chicken swimming in a pale yellow sauce made almost entirely of double cream, clarified butter, thick coconut cream and a massive handful of ground cashew nuts.

What changed, and what each change costs

50g of ghee and 150g of double cream for 15g of ghee and 250g of fat-free Greek yoghurt

Ghee and cream are incredibly heavy. They numb the delicate spices and load the dish with fat. Fat-free Greek yoghurt gives you the thick, tangy dairy base you expect from a korma for a fraction of the cost.

What it costs you. You lose that ultra-rich, mouth-coating fat slick. The sauce is decidedly less heavy and lacks the buttery shine of a late-night takeaway.

100g of cashews down to just 30g

Nuts are fantastic for flavour but terrible if you want a large portion of food. By browning onions slowly and blending them with a small handful of cashews, you get the illusion of a rich nut paste without the massive hit to your daily intake.

What it costs you. What you've got is an onion-based curry with a nutty background note. A velvety nut soup anymore is a different dish and you know where to find it. The texture is slightly grainier than the original.

600g of chicken up to 800g

Dropping all that fat and dairy leaves a physical hole in your dinner. Packing the pan with extra chicken breast brings the volume back up and ensures you actually feel full after eating a plate of it.

What it costs you. Chicken breast can dry out very quickly if you boil it to death. You have to keep the heat low and respect the meat.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Chicken breast
Fat-free Greek yoghurt
Ghee
Cashew nuts
Onion
Garlic
Fresh ginger
Cardamom
Cloves
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Ground turmeric

How it starts

Soak the cashews in a bowl of boiling water for 15 minutes to soften them up.
Heat the ghee in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
Drain the cashews and tip them into a blender along with the browned onions, garlic, ginger and 50g of water.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Indian.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	643	395
Protein	41.2g	54.2g
Fat	46g	13.2g
Saturated fat	22.9g	4.1g
Carbohydrate	18.6g	13.7g
Protein per 100 kcal	6.4g	13.7g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Indian prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. milk, nuts.

The method is in the book

This is a creamy, spiced chicken dinner that won't leave you feeling totally ruined. I stripped out the heavy dairy and the sugar, but kept the toasted spices and the thick sauce. You've got to be a bit more patient with the onions to build the flavour, but the trade is absolutely worth it. A massive portion of meat in a rich sauce that works brilliantly on a Tuesday night.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Indian, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback