Indian · Authentic-ish Indian
Chicken Madras
363 kcal a serving, against 598 for the traditional version. That is 235 kcal off, or 39%, with 42.5g of protein. Serves 4. 60 minutes.
What the traditional version is
Chicken thigh pieces, complete with their fatty skins, fried hard in a massive pool of ghee. It's cooked down with fiery chillies, a huge amount of fresh coconut for underlying sweetness, and a sharp hit of tamarind to balance the heavy fats.
What changed, and what each change costs
60g of ghee and 50g of fresh coconut for just 15g of ghee
Restaurant chefs use massive amounts of ghee to carry the spices and fry the meat. Then they throw in grated coconut to take the edge off the brutal heat. Removing all that heavy fat strips out a terrifying amount of energy. You just use a tiny bit of ghee to get the onions going instead.
What it costs you. You lose that thick layer of red oil that floats on top of the sauce. The texture is slightly less rich, and the heat hits your palate a bit faster without all that fat to dull it.
600g of skin-on chicken thigh for 800g of skinless chicken thigh
Chicken skin's delicious when it's roasted and crispy, but boiled in a curry sauce it just turns flabby and leaks unhelpful fat into your dinner. Taking the skin off solves the grease problem. Pushing the total meat quantity up to 800g replaces the volume lost by cutting the ghee.
What it costs you. Skin-on meat's cheaper, so this'll cost you slightly more at the supermarket. You also lose that underlying roast chicken fat flavour in the sauce.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 598 | 363 |
| Protein | 28.4g | 42.5g |
| Fat | 45.7g | 13.6g |
| Saturated fat | 19.7g | 4.6g |
| Carbohydrate | 20.4g | 18.1g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 4.8g | 11.7g |
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.
Allergens. milk, mustard.
The method is in the book
This is a sharp, fiercely hot curry that delivers exactly what you want on a Saturday night. What you've got is an intensely flavoured dish that puts the focus firmly on the sour tamarind and the tender chicken. A bowl of spiced oil with some meat floating in it is a different dish and you know where to find it. You get a huge portion of meat and a proper chilli kick.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Indian, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback