Simmering: How Thick, How Long
Okay, so we've got chicken in the pot from last time — added at the right moment, not too early, not just tossed in raw at the end. Now we're just... simmering. Which sounds like the easy part. It's mostly the easy part. But there are a couple things people get wrong here, so let's go through it.
What simmering actually looks like
A simmer is small bubbles breaking the surface here and there, not a boil. If your curry is going full rolling boil, turn it down. Boiling chicken curry hard will toughen up the chicken and cook off your liquid too fast, and then you're adding water at the end to fix it, which waters down all that flavor you built.
I keep mine on medium-low, lid tilted so steam can escape but it's not evaporating like crazy. That's the whole setting. Not fussy.
How long
For bone-in chicken pieces, I'm looking at 30 to 40 minutes, sometimes a little more depending on the size of the pieces. For boneless thigh, which is what I usually use, it's more like 20 to 25 minutes. Boneless breast, less than that — 15 to 20 — because breast dries out fast if you leave it in too long. This is one reason I lean toward thigh meat for curry. It's more forgiving, and it tastes better simmered this long, in my opinion.
You'll know it's done because the chicken is cooked through obviously, but also because it's started to take on the color of the sauce. If your chicken still looks pale and the sauce looks separate from it, it needs more time for the two to actually become one thing.
How thick
Here's the thing — a lot of people think "curry" means thick like a stew, and it can be, but it doesn't have to be. I like mine somewhere in between a soup and a stew. Thick enough to coat a spoon, thin enough that it still pools a little on the plate.
If it's too thin at the end, you've got options. Take the lid off and let it simmer uncovered for the last 10 minutes — this is usually all it needs. You can also mash a few pieces of the softer vegetables against the side of the pot if you've got them in there, which thickens things naturally. I don't reach for cornstarch in curry. Just time and a little patience does it.
If it's too thick, add water or chicken broth a splash at a time. Don't dump in a cup at once. You can always add more, you can't take it back out.
Watch it, don't walk away from it
Okay so — confession. Years ago I was making a curry and I toasted my whole spices at the start like always, and then I walked off to break up a fight between two of my kids. Real fight, not a squabble, I had to physically get between them. By the time I got back to the kitchen the cumin seeds were black and the whole apartment smelled like a campfire. It was February. I had to open every window in a Utah winter to air the place out. Oh my heck.
That was the spice-blooming stage, not the simmer stage, but the lesson carries over: this whole method depends on you actually being in the kitchen, at least checking in every few minutes. A simmering curry is more patient than a hot pan of blooming spices — it won't burn in ninety seconds — but it will still boil over, stick to the bottom, or dry out if you disappear for forty-five minutes. Set a timer if you know yourself. I know myself. I set timers.
A note on safety
If you're simmering chicken with bones in it, give it the full time even if it looks done early — bone-in pieces need to actually get to temperature all the way to the bone, not just look cooked on the outside. When in doubt, cut into the thickest piece and check that the middle isn't pink and the juices run clear. I don't have a meat thermometer out at the table when I teach this, but if you're nervous, 165°F is the number you want to hit.
Tasting as you go
Don't wait until the very end to taste. Around the halfway point, take a spoonful, blow on it, taste it. See if it needs salt already — it's easier to build seasoning in over time than to dump it all in at the end and hope. We'll get into final adjustments more in a minute, but simmering time is tasting time too.
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Before next time: think about what thickness you actually like your curry — more soup-like or more stew-like — because next lesson we're going to talk about getting it exactly there on purpose instead of by accident.