My Favorite Chicken Curry
Meet Liliana, the newest love of my life (and Eli’s). She’s the main reason I’ve done such a crummy job of updating this blog for months on end. She’s the brightest spot in our lives, making us into a family the way only a child can. We sing, dance, sleep – and even eat – to the beat of her little drum. And actually, it’s a pretty commanding drum! Oh, and did I mention that in the three months since she was born, Eli quit his job and we moved halfway across the country so that he can go to graduate school? Well, we did. Yeah, I know. We’re nuts.We’re living in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., camping with Eli’s brother and his family while we look for a more permanent place to live. This means a lot of loving people to snuggle Lili all hours of the day and night, which is such a blessing. It also means I’m learning to what it’s like to cook for six people instead of two. Every weekend, my sister-in-law Jennifer and I sit down and plan a week’s worth of dinners, then go grocery shopping together. Some nights I cook, some nights Jen cooks, and some nights we tag team. It’s been a lot of fun, and we’ve both added some new recipes to our repertoires.
Since we both work full-time and have husbands and kids to corral every night, we’re trying to stick to fairly easy, done-in-less-than-an-hour meals. During this season, I’ve been totally inspired by and grateful for Jenny Rosenstrach’s Dinner: A Love Story (both the cookbook and the blog).
I hadn’t made anything complicated in a while, but I’ve been craving my favorite chicken curry lately, so I offered to make it this past weekend, when I could enjoy some extended time in the kitchen. Not that this is a difficult recipe; it just involves a fair amount of prep – mostly chopping – and a bit of time simmering on the stove. It’s totally doable in 60 minutes from start to finish.
It’s an offshoot of a chicken curry recipe from Sally Sampson’s The $50 Dinner Party, which I originally got from my friend Shauna and posted here, but over the course of making it multiple times, I’ve modified it quite a bit. If you’re not a fan of coconut milk in your curry, try the original recipe instead of my version.
My Favorite Chicken Curry
3 lbs. chicken breast
1/3 cup flour
2 heaping tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 large sweet yellow onion (I usually get a Vidalia)
1 sweet bell pepper, any color
2 cloves garlic
16 ounces chicken stock
16 ounces coconut milk
1/2 cup golden raisins
3 Roma tomatoes
1 large mango (be sure it’s ripe!)
juice of one lime
handful fresh cilantro
handful fresh basil leaves
shredded coconut for topping
Put the flour, curry powder, salt, and cayenne pepper in a bowl.
Whisk it all together. Set aside.
Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces, like so.
Toss the chicken in the flour mixture until it’s well-coated.
Pour a couple of glugs of olive oil (I love the word “glugs,” don’t you?) into a big skillet or sauté pan, and cook over medium-high heat until the chicken is all golden-brown and juicy. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Dice up the onion and bell pepper…
…then mince the garlic really fine.
Pour another couple of glugs of olive oil into a large pot and sauté the onion, bell pepper, and garlic until they’re tender and starting to caramelize (I forgot to photograph this step – Liliana was cooing at me and I got a little distracted). Then add the chicken and stock to the pot, and stir together. Simmer for a few minutes.
Add the coconut milk. Yum. I love coconut milk, especially in curry.
Chop the mango and Roma tomatoes…
Measure the raisins…
Give the cilantro a rough chop…
Do the same with the basil…
Juice the lime…
Then dump it all into the pot, give it a stir, and let it simmer for a bit – but not too long, or the chunks of mango will break down. Ten minutes is good.
Serve over rice – I like basmati or jasmine – with a sprinkle of shredded coconut on top.
This is so worth all the prep work, I promise. Make it for someone you love. Soon.
Here’s the printable.
Cheers!
