It’s another chicken dish… And another chance for thighs to shine! Chicken Potato Curry is an all-occasion, quick supper you can fancy-up or streamline as needed. And you can once again take advantage of multiple Asian cooking shortcuts!
The basis of this dish is Potato – Aloo – curry. And it’s a great jumping off place on your expedition into the many vari-ants this dish suggests. It is entirely permissible to change-up the protein to use pork or beef, or other cuts of chick-en, or leftover rotisserie chicken. You could even do a version featuring comp-lementary root veggies with lentils or chickpeas…
Simple, dimple…
“A simple onion and tomato paste mix-ture is spiced with garam masala and curry powder,” says recipe contibutor Ann. “Evaporated milk gives this curry a creamy, luscious texture without the heaviness of heavy cream. Tender chick-en pieces and hearty potatoes, and sweet green peas complete the dish.”
The other components of the dish are easily obtainable at any decent grocery store. Even the curry powder and the garam masala spice blend are almost certain to be waiting for you in the super-market International or Asian aisle. You may already have onions, peas, potatoes, brown sugar, tomato paste and ginger in your pantry…
What you do
Just follow Ann’s instructions to create a perfect curry…
Marinate the chicken in the simple rub she describes and sizzle in a high-sided fry pan for 3 to 4 minutes per side. The curry will give the meat a beautiful colour!
Sauté the slivered onions until they’re transparent…
Then add the tomato paste, garilc, ginger and the remaining curry powder and garam masala.
Pour in the evaporated milk and chicken broth and stir to combine all the ingredients with one another.
Add the potatoes and let simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
Finally, add the chicken and the frozen peas to the pan, stir together to cover everything with sauce, and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until the chicken is done.
Tips and hacks…
I would go a bit further than Ann, and use thick coconut milk in place of condensed milk for authen-ticity. It makes a flavour difference, too!
As I hinted at the top of this post, you can save a little money and add a lot of flavour if you use chicken thighs instead of breasts.
Additional root veggies that are traditional to Indian cuisine include: carrots (gajar), yams (jimikand), sweet potatoes (shakarkandi), radishes (mooli), and turnips (shalgam).
My take
I feel compelled to reiterate my plea from the preceding Dumpling Soup recipe: “The underlying message? Don’t be intimidated by Asian recipes that seem too complex or overly spicy. When you cook them yourself, you’re totally in control!”
~ Maggie J.