Question: I have been trying to imitate the gold standard of curries; The British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Chicken Madras and have had some success.

I have made the base-curry sauce as per the books and it works out OK but there is a lot of preparation and the taste is not quite there.

One thing about BIR Madras is that is it always *savoury*. When I follow homemade curry recipes I always find that my curry is too sour from the tomato, so I have taken to adding chicken stock (using Knorr cubes) and my curry is starting to approach my goal.

Can anyone suggest ways of making my curry even more savoury?

EDIT: This is my recipe, which won't surprise many people.

* Marinade chicken breast in yoghurt and lemon for 30 mins in the fridge.
* Rinse off marinade and partially fry the chicken and set aside.
* Fry onion in Ghee until it starts to brown.
* Add garlic and ginger paste. Wait 2 mins.
* Add dried kashmiri chillies.
* Stir in spices; coriander powder, cumin, garam masala, hot chilli powder, tumeric and fenugreek powder. Wait 1 min.
* Add 1 mug chicken stock (1 Knorr cube).
* Add tomato passata.
* Add chicken back in and cook for 15 mins or so.

EDIT 2: I have seen several places that the garam masala should go in last; I will actually do that next time.

Answer: 
The other answers have some great ideas for how to deepen the flavor of your curry! However, even if you are not interested in significantly changing your process, I think we can solve your immediate problem:

> 
> my curry is too sour
> 
> 
> 

Let's take a look at the acidic ingredients you are using. I see three:

1. Yogurt
2. Lemon juice
3. Tomato

Since you only use yogurt and lemon juice in the marinade, and remove most of it before cooking, they are probably not the culprits. You could try reducing the amount of lemon juice, but honestly I don't think it will make a difference.

Instead, I would blame the tomatoes. Tinned tomato products are often rather sour, some brands more so than others. One solution is to **add a pinch of baking soda** to neutralize the acid. Start with, say 1/8 tsp, and add more to taste. A bit of sugar for balance might help too.

Another alternative is to **use fresh ripe tomatoes**. Fresh tomatoes will be sweeter and less acidic than the canned ones. Passing them through a food mill or blitzing in a food processor could give a fresher more balanced tomato sauce than a canned product. (Alternatively, dice the tomatoes for a more rustic sauce).

Finally, you could sub some of the tomato for **tomato paste**. (Perhaps "tomato concentrate" in UK parlance?) Add it right after browning the onions to "cook out" a bit. Since tomato paste is a cooked and reduced product, it will have a less sour and more savory flavor than either fresh tomatoes or tomato passata.
I'm a bit of a heretic when it comes to curries, but I think they turn out great.

In addition to using stock instead of water, I suggest you try beef stock instead of chicken (unless cows are holy to you), or possibly mushroom stock.

I also improve the taste of my curries by adding a small amount of soy sauce; like one of the commenters says, it's probably just MSG, which soy sauce contains plenty of.

Finally, I also add some coconut milk to my curries, it softens the sharp tones in the curry, so I can add more spices for fuller flavour.