Curry Chicken

Curry Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (5 lbs.), cut in large pieces

• 1 small onion, chopped

• 5 to 6 garlic cloves, minced

• 2 tbsp curry powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp ground cumin, toasted

• 1/2 tsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp onion powder

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or black pepper, optional

• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro or parsley

• 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 cup hot water + more for curry paste

1. Wash and dry chicken thoroughly. In a small bowl, combine onion powder, garlic powder, cinnamon, 1 tablespoon cilantro, and red pepper or black pepper, if using. Season chicken with this seasoning mix.

2. Using the same small bowl, combine curry powder, cumin, and coriander. Add 2 tablespoon water and stir to form a paste.

3. Heat the oil on medium heat in a very large pan or pot with a tight fitting lid.

4. Sauté onion for 3 minutes in the hot oil, add garlic and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant. Add curry paste, lower heat to medium-low, and cook stirring for 3 minutes.

5. Add chicken to pan, raise heat to medium, stir chicken in curry paste, ensuring that pieces of the chicken gets coated. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally for about 10 to 12 minutes. Add salt and cilantro, stir to incorporate

6. Remove chicken breast pieces from pan and place in a plate or bowl.*

7. Add 1 cup hot water and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.

8. Place reserved chicken breast pieces back into pan. Stir to distribute evenly; cover and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

9. Taste to ensure curry has enough salt to your taste.

10. Serve with rice or roti.

Serves: 6 to 8

Notes&Tips:

• I used the entire chicken, including the back. Chicken pieces were cut into legs, thighs, whole wings; while the breast was cut into large pieces and also the back. You many choose to omit the back if you wish, but the meat adhering to the back is very flavorful and it also imparts flavor into the curry while cooking.

• *Since breast pieces have less bone or no bone, I removed them for the long cooking of the boned-in meat. This ensured that the breast meat will not be tough and dry. If you wish, you could omit the breast pieces altogether and add more drumsticks and thighs so as to save yourself this step. But honestly, it is not a big deal to just take the breast meat out and them putting them back in towards the end of the cooking cycle.

• I did not use any wiri-wiri or other hot pepper to this curry as I cooked it the way my family enjoys it; which is without too much heat. The curry powder imparts its own heat to the curry. And some curry powder mixture are hotter than others. Use your judgement here depending on how hot you'd like your curry.

• I served this chicken curry with homemade Guyanese style roti; the recipe is on this site. This curry is also served with Dhal Puri for a more special occasion.