Flaming Hot Ghost Pepper Tomato Chicken Curry

Photo of completed Flaming Hot Ghost Pepper Tomato Chicken Curry

If you like your curry super HOT & SPICY or can handle extremely spicy food, the curry is right up your alley. It's definitely going to heat up your taste buds when you eat this tasty "Flaming Hot Ghost Pepper Tomato Chicken Curry." You need to be prepared for extreme heat since ghost peppers are used. Ideally, this curry goes well with rice as a whole meal. In addition to this curry, I recommend matching it with my "Quick & Simple All-In-One Pot Tomato Rice" recipe from last week’s post here.

Ingredients A

  • 5-8 Dried Red Chillies (soak in hot water until softened, remove seeds)

Ingredients B

  • 6-8 Pieces of chicken drumstick or mix of 6 drumsticks & 1 small boneless chicken breast
  • ½ Tablespoon Salt
  • 1 Tablespoon Turmeric powder

Ingredients C

  • 1/4 Cut of Red Onion (peeled,cut into chunk)
  • 1 Fresh Ghost Pepper (remove seeds,cut into chunk)
  • 3 Cloves of Fresh Garlic (peeled)
  • 4 Slices of Fresh Ginger
  • 5 Tablespoons Water

Ingredients D

  • 4-5 Tablespoons cooking oil
  • ¼ Cut Red/White Onion (peeled, cut ¼ of an onion & sliced)
  • 1 Cinnamon stick
  • 2-3 Star anise,
  • 5-6 Cardamom Pods
  • 6-8 Cloves
  • 1 Stalk Lemongrass
  • ¼ Cup Diced Tomatoes (or ½ cut medium size tomato)

Ingredients E

  • 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
  • 1 Tablespoon Ketchup
  • ¼ Cup Water (for gravy,-/+ adjustable)
  • 3-4 Tablespoons Light Brown Sugar
  • ¼ Cup Almond Milk
  • Salt, to taste

Instructions

  1. Prepare ingredients A. Soak dried chillies in hot water until softened. Set aside.
  2. Prepare ingredients B. Prepare chicken pieces for air frying. Add salt and turmeric powder into chicken pieces. Spread evenly all over the chicken pieces.
  3. Air fried for 15-18 mins or so at 160* degree. No need to cook through. (We just need to dry the outer layer of the chicken pieces. We will continue to fully cook them when we transfer it to the stove when making the curry). Once this is done, remove and set aside.
  4. Prepare ingredients A & C for blending.. Peel fresh garlic, onions, slice fresh ginger, remove seeds from softened dried chillies that we soaked earlier & ghost pepper. Cut all these into chunks. Transfer these into a blender together with water and blend into a smooth paste. Set aside.
  5. Prepare ingredients D. Prepare all the listed ingredients (except for onion & fresh tomato),set aside. Slice up red/white onion and dice up fresh tomatoes (about ¼ cup) and set all these aside.
  6. Heat up cooking oil in a wok/pot/skillet at medium heat.
  7. Add in ingredients D (cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves, lemon grass, star anise, sliced onions & diced tomatoes) and fry until fragrant for 5 mins or so.
  8. Add or pour in blended ingredients (A & C) and fry for 10 mins or until oil appears on the edges at medium heat.
  9. Prepare to add Ingredients E. Add tomato paste, ketchup, water and stir to combine. Cook this for 2 minutes.
  10. Add sugar, stir and pour in almond milk. Stir the mixture for a minute.
  11. Add salt and keep on stirring before adding in the half cooked chicken pieces. Gently stir to mix the chicken pieces and make sure they are all coated with curry paste mixture.
  12. Turn down the heat to medium low & let it simmer for 8 minutes or so. At this stage, adjust water, salt or sugar according to your taste buds before you turn off the heat.
  13. Please note that this curry is meant to have a slightly sweet taste & slightly on the dry side but not completely dry. We want some water for gravy.
  14. This curry is served well with rice or tomato rice. Check out our “Quick & Simple All In One Pot Tomato Rice” recipe/video from last week's post here
*** © MB CREATIVE KITCHEN, 2022. No part of this site,, MBCREATIVEKITCHEN.COM may be reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner.

Video

Tips & Notes

  1. This is a very hot curry because of the ghost pepper and the extra hot red dried chillies being used in the recipe. If you want to try the recipe but can’t tolerate the heat, alternatively you can leave out the ghost pepper and just use the dried red chillies instead.
  2. You can use chicken drumstick or mix and match of drumsticks & boneless/bone - in chicken breast if you prefer.
  3. I air fried the chicken in an air fryer but you can deep fry them over the stove if you prefer. I didn’t add any oil when I air fried the chicken.
  4. Don’t completely cook the chicken, we just need them half cooked. Later we will continue to finish up the cooking process in the curry mixture on the stove.
  5. Alternatively granulated white sugar can be used instead of light brown sugar.
  6. Almond milk can be replaced with regular milk or lactose free milk/soy milk if almond milk is not available.
  7. This curry is meant to have a slightly sweet taste & slightly on the dry side but not completely dry. Don’t add too much water.
  8. Adjust sugar and salt accordingly.
Click On Photo To View Fullscreen
Back to Main