Cook your curry from scratch! : Family friendly and easy to prepare chicken curry

Posted by Vicky on | October 25, 2011 | No Comments

Just in time for Deepavali, and indeed any time of the year! Sneezywheezy has a family friendly, easy to prepare chicken curry just for you, created by Ruqxana from Cookery Magic. This is a meal that can be in the pan from worktop within 10 minutes. A great tasting curry whipped up in minutes … who could ask for more?

Ruqxana’s Green Chutney Chicken Curry

Chutney essentials!

What You Need:

• 2 cups fresh coriander leaves (include the stalks)
• 1 cup fresh mint (leaves only)
• 1-4 long green chilies to taste
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger (peeled)
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 2 medium tomato
• 500g chicken, cut to bite size pieces
• ½ cup water
• 1-2 tsp of salt (to taste)
• Glug of Rice Bran oil or tsp ghee

How To Cook It

• The great thing about making a paste is that it doesn’t matter how neatly you chop all of the ingredients up, as long as you chop it up relatively finely. So firstly roughly chop the coriander, mint, chilies, garlic and ginger. Add it to the blender, with the ground cumin.

Ready to blend

• Blend until a lump/bit free paste.
• In a medium sized pot (with a tightly fitting lid) Add a dash of flavourless oil or a teaspoon of ghee and heat it up over a medium/high setting.
• Next add the paste and chicken. Give it a good stir to combine, then add the ½ cup of water and the tomatoes. Cook until it comes to the boil.
• Reduce the heat to a low setting, simmer and cover with the lid for about 20-30 minutes.
• If you think the curry looks a little dry add more water.
• Have a little taste and add salt as required.

This is a mellow yet tasty curry. Suitable for all of the family and mild enough for children.

I strayed from the recipe a little, I used 6 pieces of on the bone but skinless chicken thighs. Meat on the bone gives more flavor, but it does take longer to cook. I only had whole cumin seeds in stock so I dry toasted the seeds (in a frying pan) until they were aromatic and then crushed them in a pestle and mortar. It made the kitchen smell amazing, but this does take much longer than opening a jar of ready ground cumin – although the end result is a deeper flavor. I also added a sprig’s worth of curry leaves when the chicken was cooking.

Here are Ruqxana’s top tips for cooking a curry:

• Add a pinch of salt in your oil whenever you fry or sauté.
• A skinny chili is a hotter chili
• Use the wooden spoon test when frying spices
• When using a rice cooker, place the tip of your index finger lightly on top of the rice, and add water until it comes to the first knuckle past your index finger tip (ie the first joint). Then you have enough water.
• Remember chili looses 40% of its heat through cooking
• Taste your food as you go along!

Cookery Magic also hosts cooking courses on Pulau Ubin on the last Saturday of every month. She also runs regular cooking classes in Singapore. For more information and Ruqxana’s contact details please click here

For our review of Cookery Magic please click here

Enjoy

~Vicky

This recipe is egg free, nut free, dairy free and gluten free.

Comments