Gordon Ramsay has never published a chicken madras, so this one is built from his actual curry method instead. Chicken thighs browned hard, his exact Madras paste dose, and his lemon finish. Hot, deep red, about 45 minutes.
Everything here is traceable. The onion base and its timing come from his Great Escape India curries. The paste dose and cardamom pairing are from his Fast Food vegetable curry. The lemon is his butter chicken video’s finish. The only things I added are the heat and the simmer a madras needs.
The step that decides everything is the paste bloom, and the timing is his. Across his India book, the spice stage gets about a minute in the hot fat before liquid arrives. Burnt paste tastes bitter, raw paste tastes of the jar, and sixty seconds sits exactly between.
Gordon Ramsay Chicken Madras (The Honest Version)
Course: DinnersCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes35
minutes480
kcal45
minutesHe never wrote a chicken madras, so this card assembles one from his own books: jar paste the Fast Food way, thighs the butter chicken way, and a lemon squeeze to end it.
Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
800g (1.75 lb) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2.5cm (1 in) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 long red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped (seeds in for a hotter madras)
3 tbsp Madras curry paste
3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 tsp hot chilli powder, or to taste
400g (14 oz) can chopped tomatoes, plus half a can of water
Juice of ½ lemon
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped
Directions
- Brown the chicken: Heat half the oil in a large, wide pan over a high heat. Season the chicken and brown it hard in two batches so the pan stays hot, crowded chicken steams instead of browning. Set aside, those dark edges are flavour.
- Build the base: Add the remaining oil and the onions with a pinch of salt. Fry for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, then add the garlic, ginger and chillies for a final minute.
- Bloom the paste: Stir in the Madras paste, cardamom pods and chilli powder. Cook for one minute, coating the onions, until the spices smell toasted rather than raw.
- Tomatoes in: Tip in the chopped tomatoes and half a can of water. Stir well and bring to the boil.
- Simmer the chicken: Return the chicken and its juices to the pan. Partially cover and simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until the thighs are tender and the sauce clings to the back of a spoon.
- Lemon off the heat: Take the pan off the heat, squeeze in the lemon juice and taste, for salt first, then heat. Scatter with coriander and serve with rice or naan.
Notes
- Two deseeded chillies plus a level teaspoon of chilli powder lands at proper curry-house madras heat. Seeds in, and a heaped teaspoon, pushes it toward vindaloo.
FAQs
Does Gordon Ramsay actually have a chicken madras recipe?
No, and I checked properly before writing this: all 22 of his books, his official site and his video archive. There is no chicken madras anywhere, under any name, including the dishes of Madras itself, the Chennai region, in his India book.
What he does have is a Madras paste habit. He uses 3 tablespoons of it in the vegetable curry from Fast Food, and a spoonful as a fish marinade. Those two real uses, plus his standard curry method, are what this page is built from.
What Madras paste should I use?
A jar, which is exactly how he does it, since Fast Food’s whole premise is shop paste on a weeknight. Patak’s Madras paste is the easiest to find, in every UK supermarket’s world foods aisle.
He treats jarred pastes as flexible too. His Fast Food fish marinade calls for “tandoori or hot Madras curry paste,” either one. If your jar says hot Madras, skip the extra chilli powder in the card and taste before adding any.
How hot is a chicken madras?
One rung below vindaloo on the curry-house ladder, and two above a korma. Madras masala means a hot, tomato-heavy, slightly sour curry, which is what the chilli powder and lemon here are doing.
The card’s heat is adjustable at two points: the chilli seeds and the powder. At the mild end of his cooking sits his chicken korma recipe, finished with cream and rosewater, the opposite pole of the same ladder.
Where does the lemon finish come from?
From him, and it’s the most Ramsay thing on this page. His butter chicken video finishes with lemon zest for fragrance, and the korma in his India book stirs lemon juice through the marinade base. Ending a curry on citrus runs right across his recipes.
A madras needs that sourness more than any of them, it’s part of the dish’s definition. Off the heat, half a lemon, and taste. His butter chicken recipe shows the move on camera.
Can I use chicken breast instead of thighs?
Thighs are the honest default, and they’re his: the butter chicken in his India book uses 800g of boneless thighs, the same quantity here. They stay juicy through the full simmer and take on more of the sauce.
Breast works with two changes: cut it slightly bigger and cut the simmer to 10 to 12 minutes. Any longer and it turns stringy, which no amount of sauce hides.
How long does chicken madras keep?
Three days in the fridge, and it’s one of the best overnight improvers of any curry, the heat mellows and the sour edge settles in. Reheat it piping hot with a splash of water to loosen.
It also freezes properly, 2 months, because there’s no cream or yoghurt to split. Squeeze fresh lemon after reheating, not before freezing. My roundup of his curry recipes keeps the rest of his curries in one place.
