Dhaba Style Egg Curry
Eggs in a deliciously rich onion tomato gravy that tastes exactly like the ones you get in dhabas. This egg curry is a staple at home, and stir-frying the eggs before adding them to the curry is my secret here. These are perfect with some rice or paratha and fresh salad on the side.
This Egg curry reminds me of the rustic curries that you get in dhabas(small restaurants found on the national highways in India). Rich, spicy onion tomato gravy with oil oozing on the sides and a smokey flavour. It pairs perfectly with naan or paratha.
Trips on Indian highways are incomplete without a stop at Dhabas. You might not get an elaborate menu in those places, but you will get hot, fresh Naan, Tandoori roti, dal fry, chana masala, Anda masala, chicken curry, etc with sides of onion, lemon, and green chili.
Egg curry is also one of those weeknight staples I make at least twice a week. A few things that pack this curry with extra flavor are
- Basic Indian pantry staples. The trick is to cook in the right order to layer different flavours.
- Before adding it to the curry, stir-fry seasoned eggs until it is light golden brown.
- For that smokey flavour, temper oil with dry red chili.
- Get that rich red colour just like restaurant gravies by using a mix of regular and Kashmiri red chilli powder.
- End with a generous sprinkle of Kasuri methi.
Ingredients You Need
- Eggs – Hard-boiled eggs, peeled.
- Oil and butter – Butter for that extra richness typically Dhaba’s use, but you can substitute with oil. Mustard oil and any neutral cooking oil will work.
- Onion – Finely chopped ( you can run the onion in a food processor as well to get a fine mince texture; I love to do it by hand).
- Tomato– Pureed Fresh or canned. Pureed tomatoes help thicken the gravy compared to diced tomatoes.
- Ginger and garlic paste– Again, a very common ingredient in Indian cooking. You can use 1+ 1/4th teaspoon each of garlic and ginger paste.
- Spices– Turmeric, red chilli powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, roasted cumin powder, ground coriander, garam masala, Kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves)
- Whole dry red chilli for tempering
- Chopped fresh green chilli– This is optional; you would see Dhaba’s use butter and green chilli.
How To Make Egg Curry?
Pep eggs-
Most of the recipes doesn’t call for frying eggs before adding to the curry. But this is something I have seen my mom doing everytime she make Egg curry. You can also make 2-3 slits on eggs. Then toss egg in a little salt, turmeric and chilli powder. Add in very hot oil and toss it until you see small brown patches all over.
Make the curry base –
In the same pan add rest of the oil and butter. Once hot temper with red chillies. I sometime add a small stick of cinnamon, one whole green cardamom and 1-2 cloves along with it.
Saute onion till it start to brown. Adding a large pinch of salt for the onion to cook faster. Sauteeing onion to the right stage is very important. Raw bite of onion in the gravy is not pleasant to experience neither . Next, add ginger garlic paste and saute on low heat until the raw smell is gone.
Adddry spices, sprinkle of water and saute for another 1 minute on low heat, before you add pureed tomatoes. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the onion tomato base has come together and oil start oozing out from the sides.
Add about 1- 1.5 cup hot water. Season with salt and let it come to a boil. Add fried eggs and spoon the sauce over and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.
Finish with garnish-
Finish it with crushed kasuri methi ( fenugreek leaves) and fresh coriander leaves.
My Tips For The Best Egg Curry
- While cooking the onion, sprinkle a big pinch of salt. This helps to cook it faster.
- If you are worried about burning spices after adding it to the pan, mix all the spices to 1/4 cup water, make a paste. Add it to the pan.
- Depending on the variety of tomato you use, it might be little sour. Then add a pinch of sugar to balance.
- For best flavours, add freshly ground spices or at least spices that are not more than 10-15 days old. I always make small batch of spice powder for 8-10 days.
- To get thick gravy without adding any thickener like cream or flour, make sure you saute the gravy base really well and the onion tomato mixture is cooked and broken down well to make a thick paste-like consistency.
- Don’t rush through the sauteing process. Cooking low heat and stiring frequently prevents it from burning.
- For the rustic dhaba style curry, it needs fair amount of fat. But you can reduce it as per your preference.
Storing Leftovers and Reheating
This is a perfect curry to meal prep. In fact the flavors of curry developed the next day. You can prep and store in an air-tight container for up to 4 days.
Reheating – While the curry base/gravy can be reheated in the microwave, it’s not safe to reheat eggs in the microwave, as they may burst. I recommend reheating the curry on stove top.
Love Curries?? Here are a few more curries
Spicy Egg Curry
Ingredients
- 6 Eggs
For roasting egg
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Chilli Powder
For gravy
- 2 tablespoons Oil
- 1 tablespoons Butter
- 2 medium Onion (Finely Chopped about 1 cup)
- 1 tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste
- ½ cup Tomato Puree
- 1 tablespoon Coriander Powder
- 1 teaspoon Cumin Powder
- ½ teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
- ½ teaspoon Kashmiri Red Chilli (Substitute by Paprika)
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 1 green Chilli chopped (optional)
- ½ teaspoon Garma Masala
- 1 tablespoon Kasuri Methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
- 1.5 cup Water
- salt to taste
Instructions
- In a pan cover eggs with cold water. Let it come to a boil. Cook eggs 10 minutes. Transfer eggs to cold water. When it is comfortable to handle, peel.
- Toss peeled boiled eggs in 1/4 each of salt, turmeric, and chili powder.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, add eggs to the pan. Toss in medium-hot until you see small brown blisters. Remove and keep aside.
- To the same pan add rest of the oil and butter. When hot add dry red chili and saute for 30 seconds until smokey.
- Add chopped onion, saute for 3-4 minutes. The onion will soften and start to brown.
- Add ginger-garlic paste. Saute for a minute, stirring in between.
- When there is no raw smell of ginger garlic, lower heat. Add cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, red chilli powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder. Saute for 30 seconds, until aromatic. Sprinkle little water to prevent it from burning.
- Add tomatoe puree. Cook until the onion mixture has come together.
- Add chopped green chilli and crushed Kasuri methi. Mix well.
- When you see oil separating from the mixture, it is time to add hot water.
- Season with salt, add garam masala and fried eggs to the pan.
- Mix everything and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
Notes
- If you don’t have ginger garlic paste, then use 1.5 teaspoons garlic paste and 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger.Â
- If the tomato puree is too sour, add a pinch of sugar to offset it.Â
- If using dried fenugreek leaves, toast it slightly and then crush in between your palm before adding.
Great sounding recipe I can’t wait to try!
I don’t have garlic / ginger paste, can I use fresh garlic and ginger instead and how?
Thanks
You can use 1 teaspoon each of garlic paste and finely grated ginger.
I miss my mums cooking so I wanted to give this a try. And I made it. It was delicious. Thanks for putting this up.
I am so glad that you liked it.
I miss living in a city. Sometimes! Foods like this are easier to find.. trying to start using more turmeric and other spices that help inflammation
Turned out well. My tomatoes were quite sour so added a pinch of sugar.
Always wanted to try and make Egg Curry. I am so happy that I used your recipe. Absolutely beautiful and easy to follow recipe.
Thank you very much for trying 🙂
Sounds great I am planning to make it tomorrow
Tried your recipe. It’s fantastic! Thank you.
Thank you so much
I have cooked this recipe couple of times,and it was so flavorful and yum.
I cooked this curry and everyone loved it. Thanks for this great recipe
Easy and excellent recipe , thank you , went well with our Kerala paratta
Thank you !
Just greatttttt!!!!
And so easy to make.This was fun.
hi there,
the recipe looks interesting and I’m trying it out today !
Could you please advise the quantity of tomatoes, it’s missing above , thanks !
Hi Mark, please use 1/2 cup finely chopped tomatoes. I have updated the recipe as well with this. Thanks for pointing this out.
Looking forward to hearing from you on the dish.