Chicken Curry

Like the new counter-top?  This is what we did on New Year's Eve.  I know, I'm such a party animal.  Just wait until you see the back-splash, then you'll know I'm a party animal!!

Oh, waaay off-topic, Cindi.

So, I never grew up with curry.  I did not have some distant grandparent who cooked anything like this.  And despite common belief, I was not fed any kind of curry while I was in Ireland, either time that I was there (isn't everyone in the UK crazy about curry??).  My family members all swore they hated curry.  But I gotta be honest; cooking chicken in a can of coconut milk with some spices is awfully simple and therefore appealing to me.  I tried a few different versions of other people's chicken curry recipes, tried blending my own spices, tried dried curry powder vs. curry paste.  This recipe went over especially well with my family.  But it was a bit fussy with all those spices in it.  And what if you had bone-in chicken in your freezer?  Because I've been buying mine from a free-range chicken source, and it always comes bone-in and skin-on...

Then, I found a curry paste that seemed to go with everything, and started making my tandoori fish recipe with it (which I am especially fond of) and making a curried-mayo dip for myself every time I eat carrot fries or sweet potato fries, and this dead-simple recipe made my family pretty much forget that they didn't like curry.

So I wrote this recipe to work with chicken both ways--either bone-in or boneless.  You can add root vegetables and make it stew-like or just chicken in sauce--and serve it over any greens you happen to like.  Just don't serve it over mashed cauli.  Because we already all eat enough of that.  I hear there are other vegetables out there...  Nuff said.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs bone-in chicken pieces, OR 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken, cubed
• fat of choice
• 1/2 large spanish onion or 1 small cooking onion
• couple of veggies of choice--carrots, turnips (optional), peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• greens (kale, spinach, chard, or cabbage--whatever you like, I used bok choy)
• 1 Tbs curry paste, whatever kind you like (I like Patak's Mild Curry Paste)
• 1 can coconut milk
• squeeze of lemon juice
• cilantro (optional)

Method:

Heat skillet over med-hi heat.  If using bone-in chicken, fry chicken pieces in fat of choice, just to brown on all sides.  If using boneless, skip this step--you can poach the chicken in the sauce if it is boneless.

Remove bone-in chicken to a plate, and saute chopped onion in the fat and chicken drippings.  If using boneless chicken, start here by frying onions in fat of choice.


Lower heat and add bone-in chicken back into the pan.  If using boneless, add chicken here, along with your root veggies, curry paste, lemon juice, and coconut milk.  Cover pan and allow to simmer until chicken is cooked through and veggies are tender.  Add cilantro just before serving.

Meantime, heat a separate pan over medium heat.  Chop/shred greens, rinse them to wet them down, and simmer in pan until cooked down and soft.  If you are using cabbage, this will take a bit longer and you may need to add more water to keep it from scorching.

Serve greens onto plates, then serve chicken curry ontop of it.