Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry

Another snowy day calls for another simple warm comfort food. This chicken curry is great because it uses ingredients that we keep in the house, and it can be made in the pressure cooker, so a total of about 45 mins from start to finish including prep time. An added bonus is that the leftovers can be easily packed up for lunches tomorrow.

This was a meal intended for everyone, so I followed the recipe without adding any extras to keep it at a mildly spiced level. Hubby added some hot curry powder to his serving to give it more kick, and for the kids I just served them the chicken pieces with a little sauce since they're not fans of cooked tomatoes or onion. And they definitely don't like their ingredients all mixed together. I ate my portion on sticky rice. 
 
 

Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry
Adapted from Yummy Tummy

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste (or 1 tbsp each of grated ginger & garlic)
• 1/2 tsp salt (or more or less, to taste)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp garam masala 
• 1 sprig curry leaves (or 2 dried bay leaves) 
• 4 finely chopped tomatoes, or ~1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes 
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cut in 1-2 inch chunks (I prefer thighs for curry)

1. Heat oil in your pressure cooker pot. 
2. Add fennel seeds and heat until they crackle, it should take less than a minute if your oil is hot enough. 
3. Add onions and saute for 5 mins, stirring. 
4. Add ginger garlic paste and mix well.
5. Add salt and all the spice powders and mix well. (I like to measure these out ahead of time so that I can just dump them all in at once.)
6. Stir in tomatoes and curry/bay leaves and cook until the tomatoes have softened. 
7. Stir in the chicken pieces. 
8. Close the pressure cooker, heat to pressure, and then cook for 15 minutes. Use the natural pressure release method and let sit off the heat/unplugged. This should take about 10 minutes.
9. Serve with rice, potatoes or roti.