Chicken Korma — The Recipe That Begins Again

I lost a patient to COVID this week. The first one. He was fifty-eight. He came in with a cough and a fever and left in a body bag, and between the cough and the bag were four days of intubation and prone positioning and the desperate, futile interventions of an ER team that was learning in real time how to fight a virus they'd never seen before. His wife wasn't allowed in the room. She stood outside the glass and watched her husband die through a window, the way Lourdes and I talk through a window, the glass that separates the safe from the sick, the living from the dying, the loved from the lost.

I held his hand. Through gloves, through PPE, through the layers of protection that the virus demanded, I held his hand because no one should die without being held, not even during a pandemic, not even when the holding is dangerous. His hand was warm. It was warm until it wasn't. I don't know how long I held it after it stopped being warm. Time works differently in the dying room. Time works differently when you're holding the hand of someone who is leaving.

I went home and I didn't cook. For the first time in four years, I didn't cook. I sat on the couch — not the floor, the couch, the distinction matters — and I stared at the wall and I didn't eat and I didn't cook and the kitchen was dark because I didn't turn on the stove light and the darkness was inside and outside and everywhere.

At midnight, I got up. I went to the kitchen. I turned on the stove light. I minced garlic. I heated oil. I made adobo. The same adobo. The same vinegar. The same garlic. The same recipe that pulled me off the floor in 2016 and is pulling me off the couch in 2020. The recipe doesn't know about COVID. The recipe doesn't know about the fifty-eight-year-old man or his wife at the window or the hand that went cold. The recipe only knows what it has always known: garlic, oil, heat. Begin. The beginning is the whole thing. Start with garlic. The rest follows.

The adobo I reach for on the worst nights has always been this one — built on the same logic as every recipe that has ever saved me: garlic first, heat next, then the slow surrender of everything else into the pan. This chicken korma is what I make when I need a dish that does not ask anything of me, that only requires I show up and begin. If you are reading this from your own dark kitchen, this is the recipe I am passing through the glass to you.

Chicken Korma

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 tsp salt, divided
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp neutral oil (vegetable or avocado)
• 1 large yellow onion, finely diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt, room temperature
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup raw cashews, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp garam masala
• Fresh cilantro and sliced almonds, to serve
• Cooked basmati rice, to serve

Instructions

1. Season the chicken. Pat chicken pieces dry and season with 1/2 tsp salt and the black pepper. Set aside.
2. Build the base. Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden, about 8–10 minutes.
3. Add the aromatics. Push the onion to the edges of the pan. Add the garlic and ginger to the center and cook, stirring, for 1 minute until fragrant. Stir everything together.
4. Toast the spices. Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric, cardamom, and cayenne. Stir constantly for 60 seconds, letting the spices bloom into the oil and onion.
5. Brown the chicken. Add the seasoned chicken pieces and stir to coat in the spice mixture. Cook over medium-high heat for 4–5 minutes, turning once, until lightly browned on the outside.
6. Add liquid. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in the yogurt one spoonful at a time to prevent curdling, then pour in the chicken broth. Add the cashews and remaining 1/2 tsp salt. Stir to combine.
7. Simmer. Cover and cook on low heat for 18–20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and tender and the sauce has thickened.
8. Finish. Stir in the heavy cream and garam masala. Cook uncovered for 3–4 more minutes, adjusting salt to taste.
9. Serve. Ladle over basmati rice. Top with fresh cilantro and sliced almonds.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 370 | Protein: 31g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 9g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 490mg