Wow. Where did Summer go?? Not that it was much of a Summer all things considered, but I swear I blinked and missed it. So here we are, looking Autumn in the face, and I’m ready for it to be honest. More than that I’m looking forward to it! And here’s why… Autumn is for the return of guilty pleasure TV (Dallas and Downtown Abbey, I’m looking at you!), Hubby snuggles (preferably while indulging in aforementioned guilty pleasure TV), my wardrobe being in season again, and comfort food. Hello comfort food! You’re far more fun to blog about than salad!
So I’m back, and I’m going to start off the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness with a curry, even if Hubby is arguing that it should kick off with a Shepherd’s Pie 😉 It’s a lighter curry than my usuals, but I love it for that very reason. That and I keep calling it “Harakiri Chicken” by accident, which cracks Hubby up no end…
This is adapted from another gem of a recipe found in Delicious magazine with a few liberties taken on the ingredients and prepping, but I really didn’t notice a big enough difference in the tasty to warrant the harder work. That said, there’s still an awful lot of chopping to do, but its worth it because the freshness of the ingredients really shines through.
The key to this recipe is keeping the chicken pieces quite big, NO slicing into bite sized pieces because the smaller they are the quicker they’ll dry out and as we’re leaving this all to cook for half an hour then I wouldn’t cut each thigh into more than 2 pieces, 3 pieces max. The same holds true if you’re using chicken breasts instead, they’re even more prone to drying out so keep the pieces big.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Small knob of butter
- 1 pack of chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
- 1 white onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
- 1-2 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
- 3 vine tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 3 cardomom pods, cracked open
- 2 cloves
- 1 x 400g coconut milk
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt for seasoning
- Boiled rice
- Put the oil and the butter in your pan, or wok, over a medium-high heat and fry the chicken until its browned all over but not cooked through – if you have chicken powder then sprinkle a little over the pieces while they’re browning to really bring out their savoury flavour – and then transfer to a bowl.
- In the same pan, add the onion and lower the heat. Soften the onion for 10 minutes, stirring until they are coloured.
- Next add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for another 2 minutes. Then add the tomatoes and give them a minute or two to cook down.
- Add all of the spices to the onion mix and cook for about a minute.
- Next, pour over the coconut milk and add the browned chicken pieces back in. Season well, stir well and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Finally, stir the lime juice through just before you’re ready to serve, then dish up on a steamy bed of white rice.
