Packet Meals - Chicken Korma
It's been quite a while since I did a packet meals post, with the whole month away and then a period of time reducing the stockpile of servings that I had before going away it's been over 2 months since the last one. This one is also a little different, since I'm in the process of using up stuff as well, so I had half a jar of Korma Paste in the fridge that has been needing using up and I thought, why not.
Ingredients
Unbelievable. Every ingredient in one photo!
1/2 jar Patak's Korma Paste
1 Onion, diced
500 grams Chicken, cubed
1 teaspoon Ginger, grated
1 teaspoon Salt
400 ml Coconut Cream
1 tablespoon Oil
6 Mushrooms, quartered
Method
- Heat the Oil in a large frypan over medium heat.
- Add the diced Onion and mix about to coat in the oil and spread out in the pan.
- Allow to cook for at least 5 minutes (I left it for about 10 minutes), making sure it doesn't burn or colour too much.
- Add the Korma Paste and increase the heat to medium high.
Pretty much ready to add the water. Sadly this was the only production photo that seems to have survived
Stir constantly for a few minutes before adding about 50 ml water. I like to add the water to the jar, seal and shake well to get the last bits of the paste out.
Keep stirring and let the sauce come to the boil. Keep going until the water is well incorporated.
Add the Chicken and cook, turning regularly, until it appears well coated and sealed. (about 5 minutes)
Add the Coconut Cream and stir until the sauce and cream have combined properly.
When the sauce starts to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and leave uncovered to cook for 15 minutes.
Serve with cooked rice, fresh coriander, and naan
3 extra serves in the containers. First time ever cooking rice on the stove and NOT having it boil over and create a huge clean up task!
Previous Packet Meals
Steak, Veggies and Diane Sauce
Farmhouse Chicken Casserole
Pasta Carbonara
Roast Chicken, Veggies and Gravy
Chicken and Mushroom Risotto
Spanish Chicken and Chorizo Paella
First time hearing about packet meals. This looks my girlfriends cultural food from Bengali. Looks delicious!
Thanks for saying. I find Patak's a pretty reasonable brand of pre-made sauce for Indian food, though I much prefer to make my own from scratch, sometimes it's just so much easier to use one that you can just grab off the shelf. Might have taken me 45 mins to make this. Would be closer to double that to do it properly, and maybe more.
As for packet meals, this is stretching it a bit, but basically I started with a box load of stuff from the aisle at the supermarket where you 'just add blah'. It's not completely made like in the freezer section, but some of the trickier or more time consuming work is done and you just have to put the last bits together. For quite a while I lived on the packet pasta meals, but since learning how to make a few of the sauces, I haven't had one in years. Might get to reviewing some of them later, after I've finished the supplies I have...
Always better it seems from scratch. =) You are making me hungry here. Thanks for sharing your tips @ratticus!
That's pretty much what I plan to do with most of my time here. Make people hungry and share tips.
Lol perfect I’m gaining weight this year now... haha
That just makes me hungry. I should probably eat something. I freaking love a good chicken korma.
So do I. Or any good Indian for that matter. Sadly this wasn't anything special, and could have done with a lot more pep to it. The sauce however is pretty decent, which is good, but the recipe (from the label) could do with more improvement than even what I did (added the Mushrooms). I'd suggest maybe a Capsicum and/or a couple of potatoes as well...
Looks so yummy. DO you freeze the meals or just meal prep at the start of the week.
P.s. my rice always boils over as well... even in a rice cooker. Congrats on the success.
Freeze meals. I'm still deciding if I want this again tonight (3 in a row) or if I'll put the last 2 serves into the freezer and take out one of the serves of something else that's in there. I'm leaning a bit towards the latter, as I do need to cycle the meals that are in the freezer still since they've all been there over a month and a half, possibly 2.
Oh, and I get so frustrated with rice cookers. They're always making a mess or not cooking the rice enough or rice getting stuck to the edge... Glad I've finally managed at least once to cook on the stove without making a mess!
Its great you have mastered one technique haha ill get there one day
not sure if it's 'mastered' yet, but done well at least once. We'll see how things go next time...
Nicely done and also respect for cooking the rice via stovetop method, I've always been a rice cooker fan myself so never tried, also it looks too hard !!
What are Packet Meals out of curiosity?! Is that another term for meal prep =\
Rice Cookers - great when they work, and simple, but so often I find they are just as much trouble as the stove with a bit more containment of the mess. Stove top with a lid on is great when it works like this time.
Packet Meals - Pretty much any of those 'just add x ingredient' things, where you find that you actually need to add 5 or 6 other things as well. Usually in a box or shelf stable packet, but I had a jar of korma paste and figured it would fit into this category at a stretch. Allows me to do something with a Chicken Tonight jar or something in the future.
For my packet meals posts I'm also mostly following the recipe on the packet, which is not how I ever make things normally. Too easy to add some extra things to make them even better.
Really!? I’ve never had a batch of rice turn out bad with a rice cooker haha isn’t that the point of them? Meant to be foolproof i think but if not measured properly or the wrong setting is used it can definitely be a disaster.
ah yes I get you on the packet meals! Lol Chicken Tonight always reminds me of those ads they used to have on tv “I feel like chicken tonight”
That's why rice cookers frustrate me so much. They're supposed to be simple. put rice in. put liquid in. flick switch. come back to warm cooked rice. I always come back to cooked rice, sure. But I also come back to mess, and all the rice around the outside is scorched. Great if you want a bit of crispy rice in your dish, but otherwise, a waste of rice. Not usually too much, but still frustrating. And harder to clean up because of.
And I've used multiple brands and sizes. The current one (a super cheap one from big w or similar) is one of the better ones I've used, and I do usually use it because of my mess making habit as even with the mess and likely crispy bits, it's easier than the clean up of the whole stove top...
Those bloody ads! So effective. We all still remember that jingle
I don't want to assume you're doing it wrong because I'm sure you're not, but are you leveling the rice using the provided rice cooker cup and also measuring the water properly?! I never have a mess in my rice cooker and I just use a Panasonic one from The Good Guys lol
In any case, good skill to be able to make stovetop rice :)
Yup. Doesn't seem to matter if I take care for it to be exact amounts or if it's just 'near enough'. Main thinking is that the book suggests slightly too high an amount of water, even thought 2:1 ratio is pretty much what you want in most cases.
Sometimes is could be because I'm making what the book says is capacity (2 cups in the case of our households current one) and really it isn't capable of doing that. Other times I think it's just because of a poor seal between the lid and the non-stick cooking vessel.
Haha man it seems like you’re cursed with rice cookers. Well luckily you have the skills of stovetop rice cooking down pat so no worries!
I certainly hope I've got it nailed now. Cleanup isn't the most fun thing. Though I do it because you have to, it's not great to clean up an unnecessary spill