Jump to Recipe A great end-of-summer dish if you have lots of fresh tomatoes available, since the sauce uses lots of them in the rich sauce. It doesn’t have to be very spicy, but the spices in it are so good and only taste better if you happen to make it ahead or have leftovers!

We tried making a triple batch of this for a recent dinner and definitely found that it would not fit into our largest wok – and multiplying it will make it take a little longer to cook, so batches were the only way to get enough for our dinner. Fortunately (?) we didn’t end up needing so much for the number of people we had over, so that means more leftovers for everyone!

Tomato Chicken Balti
This rich, delicious sauce features plenty of tomatoes, especially great if you still have plenty in your garden
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup corn or canola oil
- 6 curry leaves (not bay leaves)
- 1/4 tsp. nigella / onion seeds
- 1/4 tsp. mustard seeds
- 8 medium tomatoes, sliced
- 1 tsp. ground coriander
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. chilli powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. crushed garlic
- 1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken, cubed
- garnishes: toasted sesame seeds & fresh cilantro
Directions
- In a wok, karahi, or frying pan, cook the curry leaves and whole onion seeds and mustard seeds in il over low heat until they are toasted and the onion seeds start to sputter, about 1-2 minutes. Stir and watch the heat so they don’t burn.
- Lower the heat and mix in the tomatoes, then add the mix of ground spices and garlic (coriander, cumin, chilli powder, salt) and stir well.
- Mix in the chicken and stir-fry for about 5-10 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling and the chicken is cooked. How long this takes may depend on your quantity – if you don’t have enough sauce coming from your fresh tomatoes you can add a bit of water to make sure it all boils the chicken properly.
- Serve sprinkled with fresh cilantro and toasted sesame seeds (tasty, but as you can see I didn’t photograph that step).
Nice recipe