Chicken Haleeb

A remarkably simple Pakistani chicken curry built almost entirely around green chillies, milk and cream. There is no onion, ginger, garlic or elaborate spice mixture here. The flavour comes from technique: blistering the chillies in hot oil, browning the chicken properly, then gently cooking everything in milk until the chicken juices, fat and dairy come together into a surprisingly complex sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 kg bone-in chicken, preferably skinless

• 6 green chillies

• 3–4 tbsp neutral oil

• 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste

• 500 ml full-fat milk

• 1 cup cream

Method

Prepare the chillies
Cut the green chillies into roughly 1 cm pieces. Don't finely chop or grind them. The larger pieces allow them to blister in the oil while giving the finished curry little pockets of chilli flavour.
Use a wide, relatively shallow pan large enough to hold the chicken without crowding. This is important because the first stage relies on frying and browning rather than steaming.

Bloom the green chillies
Heat 3–4 tbsp oil over high heat.
Add the green chillies and fry until their skins begin to blister and you can clearly smell their aroma blooming in the hot oil.
Don't rush this step. The chilli-infused oil becomes one of the primary flavour foundations of the entire dish.

Fry the chicken
Add the chicken and continue cooking over high heat.
Fry until the chicken loses its raw colour, then add 1 tsp salt.
Continue frying uncovered over high heat, turning the pieces occasionally, until the chicken is roughly 50–60% cooked and has developed some light browning on the outside.
Because there are no onions, ginger, garlic or powdered spices to build a conventional masala, this browning matters.

Cook gently with milk
Reduce the heat to low and add 500 ml milk.
Bring it very gradually to a gentle simmer. From this point onward, avoid a vigorous boil.
Cook uncovered over low heat, stirring occasionally and keeping an eye on the milk. Whenever it looks as though it is beginning to boil aggressively, stir and reduce the heat if necessary.
Maintain a very gentle simmer until the chicken is completely cooked through and tender, approximately 20–30 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces.
As the milk reduces, it will pick up the chicken juices, chilli-infused oil and browned flavours from the bottom of the pan.

Finish with cream
Add 1 cup cream and mix gently.
Continue cooking uncovered over low heat until the sauce reduces and thickens enough to coat the chicken. Don't try to rush the reduction by turning up the heat. You want the dairy to reduce gently without splitting.
Taste and adjust the salt.
The finished sauce should be creamy but not excessively thick, with the flavour of the chicken still clearly at the centre and the green chillies providing both aroma and heat.
Serve immediately with roti, naan or plain rice.