I need tender chicken!

[Proletariat]

What sort of chicken are you using for your vindaloo? Boneless skinless breasts? I make vindaloo fairly frequently, but I think it's best with beef (I know that's not traditional, but meh). It just seems to hold the paste better, imo. One key is to make sure your chicken pieces are sliced thinly. It's especially important with beef. Large beef cubes in curry feel like you're chewing through the whole bloody cow.

[naut]

Use fattier chickens, whole chickens or chicken meat with the skin still on Beirut, that'll do the trick. I'm sure most Indian curry resturants/outlets use whole chickens and then dice them up to be used in the curry, this means the meat is quite fatty and will retain more moisture as it cooks. Whereas skinless chicken breasts have most of the fat removed, meaning they dry out quicker when cooked.

[Sigurd]

Your chicken always get dry? ...

Ok I am a chicken man since I can't eat red meat anymore.
I always buy the chicken breast filets at the store. As Ramses mentioned the method of briefly frying the filets on a frying pan on a high temperature (make sure you get a real crust) and then proceed to slip them into the oven on a low to middle temperature, makes the juciest chicken breast ever.

I also buy the ready whole grilled chicken (warm and ready to be eaten) - and I must say there are grocery stores that know what they are doing. You can peel the chicken and make salads, burrito de pollo, and soups.

Woking the filets also produce tender chicken. you cut the filets up and fry them in the wok briefly and take them out again. Then you wok the vegetables and at the end you throw the chicken back in. The chicken doesn't dry out.

A question about the vindaloo though,
I used to visit Scotland often and frequented at tandoori restaurants. The Vindaloo (which basically was the strenght of the spices) was so hot that I could not take more than a few bites. The Madras was the hottest I could stomack and where it was still tasteful.
You could get chicken, pork, lamb and beef in the strenghts: Korma, Curry, Madras, Vindaloo [and Paan(sp) which was beyond reason].

I guess this is a simplified view of the indian cousine.

[Fragony]

Vindalo isn't the best introduction to Indian cuisine if you aren't used to spicy food, doesn't come any spicier then a good vindalo. If it says medium it's still pretty spicy, and if it says hot they mean it. Vindalo is very hot.

On chicken, best way to keep it juicy is using a whole chicken (don't remove the skin) put in in a heat-sack or whatever it's called there, 1 hour on 200 degrees celcius, it will drop right from the bones. Biologically cultivated chicken is generally dryer and firmer, and costs more, normal chicken should do just fine. Won't be like the real thing, these Tandoori stoves just can't be simulated.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Did someone say 'curry'...?

Am i wanted?

EDIT: I keep forgetting i changed my name back to Mikeus Caesar. I'm not Currywurry anymore :(

[pevergreen]

Change back!

[Beirut]

Use fattier chickens, whole chickens or chicken meat with the skin still on Beirut, that'll do the trick. I'm sure most Indian curry resturants/outlets use whole chickens and then dice them up to be used in the curry, this means the meat is quite fatty and will retain more moisture as it cooks. Whereas skinless chicken breasts have most of the fat removed, meaning they dry out quicker when cooked.

Really, you think they roast the whole chicken and add the meat to the curry after? Very interesting!

What sort of chicken are you using for your vindaloo? Boneless skinless breasts? I make vindaloo fairly frequently, but I think it's best with beef (I know that's not traditional, but meh). It just seems to hold the paste better, imo. One key is to make sure your chicken pieces are sliced thinly. It's especially important with beef. Large beef cubes in curry feel like you're chewing through the whole bloody cow.

Yep, boneless chicken breasts. I can, I should say, make good chicken, it's that I can't make curry with soft, juicy chicken.

I prefer a lamb curry but it's nice to have all kinds. (I use beef for Rendang curry and it's great.) There's an Irish pub in Montreal that makes insane chicken curry and the meat is soft and tender like a dream. That's what I'm looking for.

[Fragony]

You could try just baking the breasts first on a high fire, lower fire and add some water. Juicy galore. That's how my grandma makes it.

[naut]

Really, you think they roast the whole chicken and add the meat to the curry after?

Not roasted, what I mean is they get a whole chicken and cut into into chunks, sometimes with bones, sometimes not. So its not processed or with the fat removed, then its put in the tandoori oven and then into the curry.

[KukriKhan]

Use thigh meat, instead of breast meat, I suggest.

When all I have available is breast meat, I 'nuke it' in the microwave for about a minute first, then cut it/chop it into bite-sized pieces, and then finish it off in the pan with whatever I'm making with it. A mere 5 minutes in the pan mixture will get those breast pieces to the required 180F degrees. Still, that's just a work-around, really.

Go with thigh meat in the first place, and voila! no-muss, no-fuss tender chicken.

edit: I've never made Vindaloo, so had to look it up. This online recipe calls for chicken-thigh meat. I feel vindicated! :)

[edyzmedieval]

Lemon juice and lots of spices. My recipe for yummyness.

[Fragony]

Not roasted, what I mean is they get a whole chicken and cut into into chunks, sometimes with bones, sometimes not. So its not processed or with the fat removed, then its put in the tandoori oven and then into the curry.

Yep.

evidence: always holes in the meat of the whateveritscalleds they stick in it before putting it in the tandoori oven.

Hmmm, starting to get hungry. Chicken tikka, indian spinach(that is sooooooo good try it next time) and a nan, food of the gods.