Chicken Curry

I had Indian food for the first time in middle school when my family visited London. It was a great trip – the British Museum! History! Sparkly objects! But the Indian food experiment was a disaster. We’d successfully experimented with Thai food earlier in the week (life-changing) and so we thought we’d try another new cuisine.

We were basically the only people in the restaurant and since we had no idea what we were doing, we asked our waiter what we should order. Sadly, the waiter didn’t account for our weak New England-raised taste buds. I got a dosa that was so spicy I basically drank the cucumber sauce it came with. I don’t remember if either of my sisters ate more than a bite of their meals. Only my father appeared to enjoy his meal.

Fast-forward about six years and I’m in Chicago for college. Had I heard you can get amazing Indian food in Devon? And it’s only an hour and a half away on public transit, totally worth it! Not wanting to look like a complete idiot, I agree to go and hope that someone orders something I can copy from. And that I can digest.

And when I got my meal, it was transformative. It was delicious! And spicy! Turns out I like spicy foods, who knew?

Since then, I’ve been a fiend. I live too close to my favorite Indian restaurant here in DC – it’s only a 20-minute walk! I drag visitors and friends alike there whenever I get a chance to suggest where to eat (or sometimes we alternate and go to the Thai restaurant next door. Again, thank you trip to England!).

But I’ve never cooked Indian before. And I’m fairly sure I still haven’t. I mean, yes this recipe uses curry powder, but I’m fairly sure in the world of food blogging that’s like claiming you’ve cooked Asian food when you make peanut butter noodles. In any case, this recipe is a keeper and definitely going into rotation. It’s delicious, creamy, and bursting with flavor. Though I’m thinking next time I might throw some lentils in there for kicks.

Or maybe I’ll get adventurous and try to make dal as a side dish.

Nigel Slater's Chicken Curry

From The Wednesday Chef   

I mistakenly made this with 4 chicken breasts instead of 4 chicken breast halves (i.e. 2 chicken breasts). Division, trickier than it appears! I also only used 1 large onion but added a leek and kept the rest of the ingredients as listed. It still tasted fantastic. Making this switch still gives you plenty of sauce and I’d say will probably feed me for about 7 meals. So if you’re looking to stretch the meal a bit longer or just want to take advantage of a two-for-one chicken breast sale, feel free to follow suit.

Ingredients

4 chicken pieces, breast halves or thighs
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons curry powder, from a recently opened jar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes (original recipe calls for 4 tomatos, so if you can find fresh go for it!) 
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Equipment

Large pan

Rub salt and pepper into chicken. Heat butter and peanut oil in your pan and add the chicken. Cook until the skin is golden. Turn and add the onions and garlic and cook over medium heat until soft, about 7 to 8 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add the curry powder and cinnamon. Cook for about 4 minutes until the spices are cooked. Add tomatoes and stock, then simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Add the cream and taste the sauce. Adjust the salt and pepper as necessary. Add the lemon juice and simmer and additional minute.

Serve hot with rice.

Serves 4-5