Simple Chicken Curry

Finally I've made another recipe from one of my cookbooks. Well, another different book. I did make another thing from "Easy Vegetarian" and have cooked a couple of things from my folder of recipes. This time around I started with the recipe in "500 Best Ever Recipes" from Hermes House. ISBN 1-84309-807-5. There are a couple of modifications, including reducing how much meat they include, and I excluded the mango chutney from the sauce as I've found that makes it too sweet and is not to my liking.

^{How I served it for my dinner. Rice was previous leftovers and kept the take away container shape.}

Ingredients

^{Chicken is still wrapped up and I hadn't decided to ditch the Mango Chutney yet}

4 chicken maryland
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon flour
2 cups chicken stock
1 large tomato
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

• Cut the Maryland pieces into two by slicing through the joint.
• Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.

• Brown the chicken pieces for about 7 minutes a side.
• Remove the chicken from the pan, placing on a plate or in a bowl to catch any juices while they rest.

• Add the sliced onion and crushed garlic to the pan, stirring occasionally, cooking for 5 minutes or until fragrant and tender.

• Add the curry powder, stir and cook for a couple more minutes.

• Stir in the flour. Cook for a minute or so before slowly adding the chicken stock about 1/4 cup at a time, mixing it well in between additions.
• Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste after all the stock has been mixed in.

^{I also turned the chicken over after about 10 minutes of simmering}

• Bring the sauce to the boil before returning the chicken pieces and any accumulated juices to the pan.
• Stir carefully before covering and allowing to simmer for about 20-25 minutes.

^{Sorry for the steamy photo}

• Skin the tomato. The easiest way to do this is to boil a pot of water. Cut a cross in the base of the tomato and add it to the boiling water for about 20 seconds. Remove the tomato and hold under running cold water (or in a bowl of cold water). The skin should peel off easily now.
• Dice the tomato into small pieces.
• Add the tomato and lemon juice to the pan.

^{I think I let it simmer a bit too rapidly and the sauce reduced a bit too much}

• Stir and let it heat through for a couple of minutes.
• Serve with rice.

Thoughts

Well, I've quite enjoyed this simple curry, and could easily be simpler if you buy pieces, and skip the skinning of the tomato. As with the tuna mornay, the most complex step is incorporating the liquid into the sauce, and not letting it simmer too fast like I did, so you keep a liquid sauce. I could have added some liquid back in and thinned the sauce back out, but I don't mind it a bit sticky.
It was quite tasty, and I'd certainly try it again. May try it with a different meat though, and I suspect it'll work just as well with any diced meat browned appropriately and cut into small enough cubes to cook in the required time.